This paper investigates Gordon Tullock’s unpublished manuscripts that proposed a public choice interpretation of American slavery. Drafted in response to Conrad and Meyer’s seminal 1959 article on the economics of slavery, Tullock’s writings influenced the early cliometric debate over...

Drawing upon insights from public choice political economy and an examination of historical records, this paper posits an explanation for the causes of secession by the original seven members of the Confederacy in 1860-61. Secession is examined as a Hirschman exit, intended primarily to shore up...

This paper examines the neglected interrelationship between the American System school of economic thought and the controversial policy of black colonization abroad, as developed by Henry Clay and his political progeny. By examining Clay's version of colonization as an extension of his political...