Slavery & the LawPaul Finkelman Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001 M12 17 - 480 pages Central to the development of the American legal system, writes Professor Finkelman in Slavery & the Law, is the institution of slavery. It informs us not only about early concepts of race and property, but about the nature of American democracy itself. Prominent historians of slavery and legal scholars analyze the intricate relationship between slavery, race, and the law from the earliest Black Codes in colonial America to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law and the Dred Scott decision prior to the Civil War. Slavery & the Law's wide-ranging essays focus on comparative slave law, auctioneering practices, rules of evidence, and property rights, as well as issues of criminality, punishment, and constitutional law. What emerges from this multi-faceted portrait is a complex legal system designed to ensure the property rights of slave-holders and to institutionalize racism. The ultimate result was to strengthen the institution of slavery in the midst of a growing trend toward democracy in the mid-nineteenth-century Atlantic community. |
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abolitionist action African Americans antebellum antislavery argued argument Aulus Balbus Bill of Rights Black Code century character Chief Justice cited Civil claimed colonial common law confessions Congress County crime criminal cruelty Declaration defendant deft Derrick Bell District Dred Scott English enslaved evidence example federal Fourteenth Amendment free blacks free speech freedom Fugitive Slave Law Ginger Pop Helper's book Henry Utz Hornblower Hornblower's human Humphreys Ibid institution issue Jersey John John Bingham judge jurists jury labor Law of Slavery Law Review liability liberty Louisiana mandate manumission Marlboro District master moral Negro North operation of law opinion overseer Papinian Paul Finkelman percent person plaintiffs plantation political protection race racial reprint Republican Roman law rule runaway sales by operation Senator Sheriff slave owners slave population slave sales slaveholders sold South Carolina Southern statute supra note Supreme Court testified testimony tion trial University Press Virginia whipped William witness York