Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860

Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860

Author: Thomas D. Morris

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2004-01-21

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 0807864307

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This volume is the first comprehensive history of the evolving relationship between American slavery and the law from colonial times to the Civil War. As Thomas Morris clearly shows, racial slavery came to the English colonies as an institution without strict legal definitions or guidelines. Specifically, he demonstrates that there was no coherent body of law that dealt solely with slaves. Instead, more general legal rules concerning inheritance, mortgages, and transfers of property coexisted with laws pertaining only to slaves. According to Morris, southern lawmakers and judges struggled to reconcile a social order based on slavery with existing English common law (or, in Louisiana, with continental civil law.) Because much was left to local interpretation, laws varied between and even within states. In addition, legal doctrine often differed from local practice. And, as Morris reveals, in the decades leading up to the Civil War, tensions mounted between the legal culture of racial slavery and the competing demands of capitalism and evangelical Christianity.


Book Synopsis Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860 by : Thomas D. Morris

Download or read book Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860 written by Thomas D. Morris and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2004-01-21 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first comprehensive history of the evolving relationship between American slavery and the law from colonial times to the Civil War. As Thomas Morris clearly shows, racial slavery came to the English colonies as an institution without strict legal definitions or guidelines. Specifically, he demonstrates that there was no coherent body of law that dealt solely with slaves. Instead, more general legal rules concerning inheritance, mortgages, and transfers of property coexisted with laws pertaining only to slaves. According to Morris, southern lawmakers and judges struggled to reconcile a social order based on slavery with existing English common law (or, in Louisiana, with continental civil law.) Because much was left to local interpretation, laws varied between and even within states. In addition, legal doctrine often differed from local practice. And, as Morris reveals, in the decades leading up to the Civil War, tensions mounted between the legal culture of racial slavery and the competing demands of capitalism and evangelical Christianity.

An Inquiry Into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America

An Inquiry Into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America

Author: Thomas Read Rootes Cobb

Publisher:

Published: 1858

Total Pages: 612

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis An Inquiry Into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America by : Thomas Read Rootes Cobb

Download or read book An Inquiry Into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America written by Thomas Read Rootes Cobb and published by . This book was released on 1858 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Slave Law in the Americas

Slave Law in the Americas

Author: Alan Watson

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 1989-01-01

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780820311791

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In this book, Alan Watson argues that the slave laws of North and South America--the written codes defining the relationship of masters to slaves--reflect not so much the culture and society of the various colonies but the legal traditions of England, Europe, and ancient Rome. A pathbreaking study concerned as much with the nature of comparative law as the specific subject of the law of slavery, Slave Law in the Americas posits an essential distance in the Western legal tradition between the tenets of law and the values of the society they govern. Laws, Watson shows, often are made not by governments or rulers but by jurists as in ancient Rome, law professors as in medieval and continental Europe, and judges as in common law England. Bodies of law, often created without reference to particular social and political ideals, are also often transferred whole cloth from one society to another. Tracing the effects of the reception of Roman law throughout Europe (excluding England) and the Americas, Watson reveals the enormous impact of this legal tradition on subsequent lawmakers operating under utterly dissimilar social and political conditions in the New World. Slave law in the colonies, Watson demonstrates, had much to do with the mother country's relations to Roman law. Spain, Portugal, France, and the United Dutch Provinces, all within the Roman legal tradition, imposed on their colonies slave laws that were private and nonracist in character, laws that interfered little in master-slave relations and provided for the relative ease of manumission and the grant of citizenship to freed slaves. England, however, did not ascribe to Roman law and colonists created rather than received slave law. Public and racist, slave law in the English colonies uniquely reflected local concerns, involving every citizen in the protection and perpetuation of slavery, strictly regulating education, manumission, and citizenship status. "Comparative legal history," Watson writes, "is in its infancy." Presenting the laws of slavery in ancient Rome and in the slaveholding colonies of America, Watson demonstrates how comparative law can elucidate the relationship of law, legal rules, and institutions to the society in which they operate. Investigating not the dynamics of slavery but of slave law, he reveals the working of a legal culture and its peculiar history.


Book Synopsis Slave Law in the Americas by : Alan Watson

Download or read book Slave Law in the Americas written by Alan Watson and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Alan Watson argues that the slave laws of North and South America--the written codes defining the relationship of masters to slaves--reflect not so much the culture and society of the various colonies but the legal traditions of England, Europe, and ancient Rome. A pathbreaking study concerned as much with the nature of comparative law as the specific subject of the law of slavery, Slave Law in the Americas posits an essential distance in the Western legal tradition between the tenets of law and the values of the society they govern. Laws, Watson shows, often are made not by governments or rulers but by jurists as in ancient Rome, law professors as in medieval and continental Europe, and judges as in common law England. Bodies of law, often created without reference to particular social and political ideals, are also often transferred whole cloth from one society to another. Tracing the effects of the reception of Roman law throughout Europe (excluding England) and the Americas, Watson reveals the enormous impact of this legal tradition on subsequent lawmakers operating under utterly dissimilar social and political conditions in the New World. Slave law in the colonies, Watson demonstrates, had much to do with the mother country's relations to Roman law. Spain, Portugal, France, and the United Dutch Provinces, all within the Roman legal tradition, imposed on their colonies slave laws that were private and nonracist in character, laws that interfered little in master-slave relations and provided for the relative ease of manumission and the grant of citizenship to freed slaves. England, however, did not ascribe to Roman law and colonists created rather than received slave law. Public and racist, slave law in the English colonies uniquely reflected local concerns, involving every citizen in the protection and perpetuation of slavery, strictly regulating education, manumission, and citizenship status. "Comparative legal history," Watson writes, "is in its infancy." Presenting the laws of slavery in ancient Rome and in the slaveholding colonies of America, Watson demonstrates how comparative law can elucidate the relationship of law, legal rules, and institutions to the society in which they operate. Investigating not the dynamics of slavery but of slave law, he reveals the working of a legal culture and its peculiar history.

The American Law of Slavery, 1810-1860

The American Law of Slavery, 1810-1860

Author: Mark Tushnet

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-02-19

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0691198152

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In an examination of Southern slave law between 1810 and 1860, Mark Tushnet reveals a structured dichotomy between slave labor systems and bourgeois systems of production. Whereas the former rest on the total dominion of the master over the slave and necessitate a concern for the slave's humanity, the latter rest of the purchase by the capitalist of a worker's labor power only and are concerned primarily with economic interest. Focusing on a wide range of issues that include contract and accident law as well as criminal law and the law of manumission, he shows how Southern slave law had to respond to the competing pressures of humanity and interest. Beginning with a critical evaluation of slave law, the author develops the conceptual framework for his own perspective on the legal system, drawing on the works of Marx and Weber. He then examines four appellate court cases decided in three different states, from civil-law Louisiana to commonlaw North Carolina, at widely separated times, from 1818 to 1858. Professor Tushnet finds that the cases display a continuing but never wholly successful attempt at distinguish between law and sentiment as modes of regulating social interactions involving slaves. Also, the cases show that the primary method of accommodating law and sentiment was an attempt to use rigid categories to confine the law of slavery to what was thought its proper sphere. Mark Tushnet is Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Book Synopsis The American Law of Slavery, 1810-1860 by : Mark Tushnet

Download or read book The American Law of Slavery, 1810-1860 written by Mark Tushnet and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an examination of Southern slave law between 1810 and 1860, Mark Tushnet reveals a structured dichotomy between slave labor systems and bourgeois systems of production. Whereas the former rest on the total dominion of the master over the slave and necessitate a concern for the slave's humanity, the latter rest of the purchase by the capitalist of a worker's labor power only and are concerned primarily with economic interest. Focusing on a wide range of issues that include contract and accident law as well as criminal law and the law of manumission, he shows how Southern slave law had to respond to the competing pressures of humanity and interest. Beginning with a critical evaluation of slave law, the author develops the conceptual framework for his own perspective on the legal system, drawing on the works of Marx and Weber. He then examines four appellate court cases decided in three different states, from civil-law Louisiana to commonlaw North Carolina, at widely separated times, from 1818 to 1858. Professor Tushnet finds that the cases display a continuing but never wholly successful attempt at distinguish between law and sentiment as modes of regulating social interactions involving slaves. Also, the cases show that the primary method of accommodating law and sentiment was an attempt to use rigid categories to confine the law of slavery to what was thought its proper sphere. Mark Tushnet is Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law

The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law

Author: Jenny S. Martinez

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2012-01-04

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0195391624

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There is a broad consensus among scholars that the idea of human rights was a product of the Enlightenment but that a self-conscious and broad-based human rights movement focused on international law only began after World War II. In this book, the nineteenth century's absence is conspicuous - few have considered that era seriously, much less written books on it. But as this author shows, the foundation of the movement that we know today was a product of one of the nineteenth century's central moral causes: the movement to ban the international slave trade.


Book Synopsis The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law by : Jenny S. Martinez

Download or read book The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law written by Jenny S. Martinez and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-01-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a broad consensus among scholars that the idea of human rights was a product of the Enlightenment but that a self-conscious and broad-based human rights movement focused on international law only began after World War II. In this book, the nineteenth century's absence is conspicuous - few have considered that era seriously, much less written books on it. But as this author shows, the foundation of the movement that we know today was a product of one of the nineteenth century's central moral causes: the movement to ban the international slave trade.

Slave Law in the American South

Slave Law in the American South

Author: Mark V. Tushnet

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13:

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Tying together legal, historical, social, political and literary strands to show how the law itself was implicated in the persistence of slavery, this work sheds new light on slavery and Southern history, as it probes the conscience of a troubled jurist incapable of fully transcending his times.


Book Synopsis Slave Law in the American South by : Mark V. Tushnet

Download or read book Slave Law in the American South written by Mark V. Tushnet and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tying together legal, historical, social, political and literary strands to show how the law itself was implicated in the persistence of slavery, this work sheds new light on slavery and Southern history, as it probes the conscience of a troubled jurist incapable of fully transcending his times.

Slave Laws in Virginia

Slave Laws in Virginia

Author: Philip J. Schwarz

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2010-05-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0820335169

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The five essays in Slave Laws in Virginia explore two centuries of the ever-changing relationship between a major slave society and the laws that guided it. The topics covered are diverse, including the African judicial background of African American slaves, Thomas Jefferson's relationship with the laws of slavery, the capital punishment of slaves, nineteenth-century penal transportation of slaves from Virginia as related to the interstate slave trade and the changing market for slaves, and Virginia's experience with its own fugitive slave laws. Through the history of one large extended family of ex-slaves, Philip J. Schwarz's conclusion examines how the law shaped the interaction between former slaves and masters after emancipation. Instead of relying on a static view of these two centuries, the author focuses on the diverse and changing ways that lawmakers and law enforcers responded to slaves' behavior and to whites' perceptions of and assumptions about that behavior.


Book Synopsis Slave Laws in Virginia by : Philip J. Schwarz

Download or read book Slave Laws in Virginia written by Philip J. Schwarz and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The five essays in Slave Laws in Virginia explore two centuries of the ever-changing relationship between a major slave society and the laws that guided it. The topics covered are diverse, including the African judicial background of African American slaves, Thomas Jefferson's relationship with the laws of slavery, the capital punishment of slaves, nineteenth-century penal transportation of slaves from Virginia as related to the interstate slave trade and the changing market for slaves, and Virginia's experience with its own fugitive slave laws. Through the history of one large extended family of ex-slaves, Philip J. Schwarz's conclusion examines how the law shaped the interaction between former slaves and masters after emancipation. Instead of relying on a static view of these two centuries, the author focuses on the diverse and changing ways that lawmakers and law enforcers responded to slaves' behavior and to whites' perceptions of and assumptions about that behavior.

The Dred Scott Case

The Dred Scott Case

Author: Don Edward Fehrenbacher

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 802

ISBN-13:

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1979, The Dred Scott Case is a masterful examination of the most famous example of judicial failure--the case referred to as "the most frequently overturned decision in history."On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Supreme Court's decision against Dred Scott, a slave who maintained he had been emancipated as a result of having lived with his master in the free state of Illinois and in federal territory where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise. The decision did much more than resolve the fate of an elderly black man and his family: Dred Scott v. Sanford was the first instance in which the Supreme Court invalidated a major piece of federal legislation. The decision declared that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the federal territories, thereby striking a severe blow at the the legitimacy of the emerging Republican party and intensifying the sectional conflict over slavery.This book represents a skillful review of the issues before America on the eve of the Civil War. The first third of the book deals directly with the with the case itself and the Court's decision, while the remainder puts the legal and judicial question of slavery into the broadest possible American context. Fehrenbacher discusses the legal bases of slavery, the debate over the Constitution, and the dispute over slavery and continental expansion. He also considers the immediate and long-range consequences of the decision.


Book Synopsis The Dred Scott Case by : Don Edward Fehrenbacher

Download or read book The Dred Scott Case written by Don Edward Fehrenbacher and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1979, The Dred Scott Case is a masterful examination of the most famous example of judicial failure--the case referred to as "the most frequently overturned decision in history."On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Supreme Court's decision against Dred Scott, a slave who maintained he had been emancipated as a result of having lived with his master in the free state of Illinois and in federal territory where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise. The decision did much more than resolve the fate of an elderly black man and his family: Dred Scott v. Sanford was the first instance in which the Supreme Court invalidated a major piece of federal legislation. The decision declared that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the federal territories, thereby striking a severe blow at the the legitimacy of the emerging Republican party and intensifying the sectional conflict over slavery.This book represents a skillful review of the issues before America on the eve of the Civil War. The first third of the book deals directly with the with the case itself and the Court's decision, while the remainder puts the legal and judicial question of slavery into the broadest possible American context. Fehrenbacher discusses the legal bases of slavery, the debate over the Constitution, and the dispute over slavery and continental expansion. He also considers the immediate and long-range consequences of the decision.

The Law and Slavery

The Law and Slavery

Author: Jean Allain

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 655

ISBN-13: 900427989X

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The Law and Slavery sets out the articles, book reviews and case notes by Professor Jean Allain which led to pioneering exploration of forced labour, servitudes, slavery, the slave trade, and trafficking in his 2013 Slavery in International Law: Of Human Exploitation and Trafficking (MNP). This collection brings together Professor Allain’s considerations of the evolution of legal abolition internationally, his critique of the then status quo in the area of slavery and the law, and goes on to develop the foundations of a legal understanding of various servitudes and slavery based on his archival research and legal analysis. Professor Allain’s research has transformed the landscape of how we understand contemporary slavery and those other servitudes which constitute human exploitation.


Book Synopsis The Law and Slavery by : Jean Allain

Download or read book The Law and Slavery written by Jean Allain and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Law and Slavery sets out the articles, book reviews and case notes by Professor Jean Allain which led to pioneering exploration of forced labour, servitudes, slavery, the slave trade, and trafficking in his 2013 Slavery in International Law: Of Human Exploitation and Trafficking (MNP). This collection brings together Professor Allain’s considerations of the evolution of legal abolition internationally, his critique of the then status quo in the area of slavery and the law, and goes on to develop the foundations of a legal understanding of various servitudes and slavery based on his archival research and legal analysis. Professor Allain’s research has transformed the landscape of how we understand contemporary slavery and those other servitudes which constitute human exploitation.

Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World

Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World

Author: Edward B. Rugemer

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2018-11-12

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0674982991

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Edward Rugemer’s comparative history, spanning 200 years, reveals the political dynamic between slaves’ resistance and slaveholders’ power in two prosperous slave economies: Jamaica and South Carolina. This struggle led to the abolition of slavery through a law of British Parliament in one case and through violent civil war in the other.


Book Synopsis Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World by : Edward B. Rugemer

Download or read book Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World written by Edward B. Rugemer and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edward Rugemer’s comparative history, spanning 200 years, reveals the political dynamic between slaves’ resistance and slaveholders’ power in two prosperous slave economies: Jamaica and South Carolina. This struggle led to the abolition of slavery through a law of British Parliament in one case and through violent civil war in the other.