Modern English and American corporate law was broadly fashioned in the nineteenth century. Oddly however, the courts of those two closely linked jurisdictions developed profoundly opposed views on a most basic matter. After some initial conflict in the cases, the English settled on the principle that directors are status fiduciaries only to their corporation. The Americans, with a comparable initial conflict in their cases, instead eventually settled on the notion that directors are status fiduciaries to shareholders. I track how that difference developed through the course of the nineteenth century. I also trace how fairness wrongly became an element of the American duty.