Joseph Story was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1779, the son of a participant in the Boston Tea Party. He graduated from Harvard in 1798, studied law, and rose quickly in Massachusetts politics and the bar before being appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President James Madison in 1811 — at thirty-two, the youngest justice ever to serve.
Over thirty-four years on the Court, Story was a powerful ally of Chief Justice John Marshall in building the authority of the federal government and the judiciary, writing landmark opinions on commerce, admiralty, and the Constitution, including his opinion in the Amistad case. As a professor at Harvard Law School, his celebrated Commentaries shaped generations of American lawyers. He died in 1845.