Leveraging an Empire

Through an evaluation of Oregon’s exclusionary laws, Leveraging an Empire examines the process of settler colonialism in the evolving region of the Pacific Northwest between the years 1841 and 1859. Oregon laws—through nuanced emphases and new articulations—related to national issues of slavery, immigration, land ownership, education, suffrage, and naturalization. Leveraging an Empire demonstrates how the construction of laws governing matters of race, gender, and citizenship from Oregon’s pre-t