Abstract This article traces the history of legislation to arm the enslaved in the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. By the end of the war, both Congresses had passed legislation arming slaves, but the paths in the North and South were quite different. Differences in political institutions — namely differences in legislative organization...

Abstract The descriptive representation of stigmatized groups has numerous benefits both to group members and society at large. We study the extent to which LGB members of the US Congress provide increased support for LGBT rights. While LGBT substantive representation has been studied extensively, descriptive representation has been examined extensively at only the local and...