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

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.

List of contents

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.

Summary

Appealing to legal historians and scholars, this antebellum history uses original legal suits to analyse the understanding, use, and adaptation of formal law by slave holders and slaves within the American Confluence, an area of liminal boundaries where the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers converge.

Product details

• Authors: Anne Twitty, Anne (University of Mississippi) Twitty, Anne Silverwood Twitty, Twitty Anne
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2016
• EAN: 9781107112063
• ISBN: 978-1-107-11206-3
• No. of pages: 260
• Series: Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society; Cambridge Historical Studies i; Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Law > Public law, administrative procedural law, constitutional procedural law; European History, Missouri, HISTORY / Europe / General, LAW / Constitutional, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Slavery & abolition of slavery, Slavery and abolition of slavery, Constitutional & administrative law, Constitutional and administrative law: general