For all the recent attention to the slaveholding of the founding fathers, we still know remarkably little about the influence of slavery on American politics. American Taxation, American Slavery tackles this problem in a new way. Rather than parsing the ideological pronouncements of charismatic slaveholders, it examines the concrete policy decisions that slaveholders and non-slaveholders made in the critical realm of taxation. The result is surprising—that the enduring power of antigovernment rhetoric in the United States stems from the nation’s history of slavery rather than its history of liberty. We are all familiar with the states’ rights arguments of proslavery politicians who wanted to keep the federal government weak and decentralized. But here Robin Einhorn shows the deep, broad, and continuous influence of slavery on this idea in American politics. From the earliest colonial times right up to the Civil War, slaveholding elites feared strong democratic government as a threat to the institution of slavery. American Taxation, American Slavery shows how their heated battles over taxation, the power to tax, and the distribution of tax burdens were rooted not in debates over personal liberty but rather in the rights of slaveholders to hold human beings as property. Along the way, Einhorn exposes the antidemocratic origins of the popular Jeffersonian rhetoric about weak government by showing that governments were actually more democratic—and stronger—where most people were free. A strikingly original look at the role of slavery in the making of the United States, American Taxation, American Slavery will prove essential to anyone interested in the history of American government and politics.

In this essay, I review UC-Berkeley history professor Robin Einhorn's book, American Taxation, American Slavery. In this provocatively-titled book, Einhorn traces the relationship between democracy, taxation, and slavery from colonial times through the antebellum period. By re-telling some of the most familiar set piece stories of American history through the lens of slavery, Einhorn reveals how the stories that we tell ourselves over and over again about taxation and politics in America are little more than the stuff of urban legend. In the review, I provide a brief summary of Einhorn's discussion of the relationship between slavery and colonial taxation, the creation of a national tax structure, and the adoption of uniformity clauses in state constitutions in the antebellum period. I then turn to a discussion of how Einhorn's book helps to debunk an urban legend of modern tax policy debates; namely, that critical perspectives and tax simply don't mix.

The Authors experience dealing with the IRS and Congress has led him to know that most Americans earn insufficient income to have a tax liability. The current taxing system, Title 26 United States Code, is all based on semantics, not fact of law. This experience culminated with the IRS placing levies and liens against him and his wife. He knew the IRS had no authority to use these penalties and set out on a journey to prove this true. This book documents that most people who work in the private sector of the economy do not owe the Federal or State income tax, are not subject to levies or liens and have a right to challenge Congress and demand their monies returned. (The statute of limitations for getting you money back is 3 years) What the IRS is doing, with Congresss blessing is fraud. The author hereby offers Congress and/or Treasury the opportunity to rebut the documented facts in this book. An open forum in the media, preferably the Chris Mathews or Ed Shultz shows on the MSNBC Network would allow the American public the opportunity to hear the truth concerning their taxes. I request your help in making this happen by contacting your representative.

Making the Modern American Fiscal State chronicles the rise of the US system of direct and progressive taxation.

A concise history of slavery in America, including the daily life of American slaves, the laws that sought to legitimize white supremacy, the anti-slavery movement, and the abolition of slavery