Originally, bankruptcy in the United States, as nearly all matters directly concerning individual citizens, was a subject of state law. However, there were several short-lived federal bankruptcy laws before the Act of 1898: the Bankruptcy Act of 1800, [3] which was repealed in 1803; the Act of 1841, [4] which was repealed in 1843; and the Act of 1867, [5] which was amended in 1874 …