Before Dred Scott: Slavery and Legal Culture in the American Confluence, 1787-1857

ISBN-13: 9781107530898 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 299 str.

Anne Twitty

Opis

An analysis of slave and slaveholder understanding and manipulation of formal legal systems in the region known as the American Confluence during the antebellum era.

Recenzje

'Drawing on 282 freedom suits, Twitty seeks to depict how law operated as a contested reality amid the indeterminacy that defined both race and race-based status. Following the maturing historiography moving beyond the black-letter law of statutes and codes, Twitty probes what she describes as a legal culture constructed by everyday interactions. In short, she reaches to law as a lived reality rather than as an inscribed text … enlightening …' Thomas J. Davis, The Journal of American History

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. A radical indeterminacy of status; 2. 'With the ease of a veteran litigant'; 3. '[B]y the help of God and a good lawyer'; 4. Slavery from liberty to equality; 5. '[W]orking his emancipation'; 6. Exploiting the uncertainties of federalism; 7. Remembering slavery and freedom in the American Confluence; Conclusion; Acknowledgements; Appendix.