"This is a study of a long line of discussions, begun by St. George Tucker and carried out by his sons and other southern intellectuals, about the implications of natural rights principles upon the status of slavery and the relation between federal and state power. While often treated by historians monolithically as universal defenders of slavery, southern constitutional scholars often had surprisingly nuanced, carefully thought-out views, some of which recognized the inherent contradictions of the strong natural rights position expressed in the nation's founding documents, particularly the Declaration of Independence, and the existence of human bondage. The manuscript examines the effect of this long debate on states' rights, Federal rights, secession, the Civil War, and Reconstruction"--