This chapter surveys the legal history of the term the "protection of the laws," from the writings of the early natural rights thinkers, the American Founders, and Blackstone to Andrew Jackson and antebellum state-level court cases. It argues that the concept of the "protection of the laws," including the "equal protection of the laws," was narrower thanmodern-day courts maintain: it was about the remedial and protective services supplied by the government and the laws aiming to protect individuals in the exercise of their rights against private interference and private violence.