His scholarly interests focus on the African American experience from the mid-seventeenth century to just before the Civil War. His work considers African Americans’ engagement with the law in the north, and incorporates other disciplinary perspectives such as law & society and geography. He is particularly interested in how black interaction with the law in a variety of ways, from small disputes in lower courts to escaping via the underground railroad, shaped constitutional law, legal ideologies, black identity and U.S. society.