Colin Dayan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691070919
- eISBN:
- 9781400838592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691070919.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines how judges determined the character of slaves. In the South, the adaptation of Lockean notions of personal identity to slaves was inextricably bound up with the understanding of ...
More
This chapter examines how judges determined the character of slaves. In the South, the adaptation of Lockean notions of personal identity to slaves was inextricably bound up with the understanding of person as a forensic term and the kind of legal incapacity and nonrecognition that signaled negative personhood. Thomas Morris in Southern Slavery and the Law: 1619–1860 argues that the most crucial legal fiction was that “the slave was an object of property rights, he or she was a ‘thing’.” However, what most occupied the thoughts of lawyers and judges in cases about personal rights in the courts of Virginia on the eve of the civil war was not to affirm the slave as property, but to articulate the personhood of slaves in such a way that it was disfigured, not erased. Slave law depended on this juridical diminution. The peculiar form impairment took and the transformations that ensued gave new meaning to degradation.Less
This chapter examines how judges determined the character of slaves. In the South, the adaptation of Lockean notions of personal identity to slaves was inextricably bound up with the understanding of person as a forensic term and the kind of legal incapacity and nonrecognition that signaled negative personhood. Thomas Morris in Southern Slavery and the Law: 1619–1860 argues that the most crucial legal fiction was that “the slave was an object of property rights, he or she was a ‘thing’.” However, what most occupied the thoughts of lawyers and judges in cases about personal rights in the courts of Virginia on the eve of the civil war was not to affirm the slave as property, but to articulate the personhood of slaves in such a way that it was disfigured, not erased. Slave law depended on this juridical diminution. The peculiar form impairment took and the transformations that ensued gave new meaning to degradation.
Diane Miller Somerville
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112436
- eISBN:
- 9780199854271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112436.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines several cases of slaves who were charged of attempted rape of white women. The rape of a white female by a slave was indeed a capital crime in Virginia as well as the rest of ...
More
This chapter examines several cases of slaves who were charged of attempted rape of white women. The rape of a white female by a slave was indeed a capital crime in Virginia as well as the rest of the slave-holding South during the 19th century. Attempted rape by a slave, however, was not yet punishable by death in Virginia. Instead, slaves convicted of the attempted rape of a white female were castrated. The treatment of black males in southern rape statues reflected not white anxiety about black rape but rather the codified belief that blacks, specifically slaves, had to abide by a different, stricter set of legal standards to ensure greater control of the region's bonded labor force. The life of a slave was also balanced against not merely the race of the accuser, but by her behavior and demeanor as well.Less
This chapter examines several cases of slaves who were charged of attempted rape of white women. The rape of a white female by a slave was indeed a capital crime in Virginia as well as the rest of the slave-holding South during the 19th century. Attempted rape by a slave, however, was not yet punishable by death in Virginia. Instead, slaves convicted of the attempted rape of a white female were castrated. The treatment of black males in southern rape statues reflected not white anxiety about black rape but rather the codified belief that blacks, specifically slaves, had to abide by a different, stricter set of legal standards to ensure greater control of the region's bonded labor force. The life of a slave was also balanced against not merely the race of the accuser, but by her behavior and demeanor as well.
Brooke N. Newman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780300225556
- eISBN:
- 9780300240979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300225556.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Chapter 1 begins with the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 and follows the aftermath of the English invasion of Jamaica. It documents how Jamaica’s unique geopolitical circumstances in the ...
More
Chapter 1 begins with the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 and follows the aftermath of the English invasion of Jamaica. It documents how Jamaica’s unique geopolitical circumstances in the English Atlantic empire intersected with the doctrine of prerogative governance, giving rise to the development of both slave law and local statutory racial classifications. Provincial racial categories allowed for the social stigmatization, political subjugation, and economic exploitation of marginalized segments of Jamaica’s free population.Less
Chapter 1 begins with the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 and follows the aftermath of the English invasion of Jamaica. It documents how Jamaica’s unique geopolitical circumstances in the English Atlantic empire intersected with the doctrine of prerogative governance, giving rise to the development of both slave law and local statutory racial classifications. Provincial racial categories allowed for the social stigmatization, political subjugation, and economic exploitation of marginalized segments of Jamaica’s free population.
David G. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823240326
- eISBN:
- 9780823240364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823240326.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines how the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law politicized the fugitive slave issue on a national scale. With the sectional conflict increasing, and the fugitive slave issue at ...
More
This chapter examines how the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law politicized the fugitive slave issue on a national scale. With the sectional conflict increasing, and the fugitive slave issue at the heart of compromises designed to resolve it, local newspapers began covering fugitive slave cases extensively, creating a new body of evidence just as the local Underground Railroad was becoming more secretive due to legal liabilities. Fugitive slave cases that previously would have only received limited local attention now might be publicized across the North and South. In Congress, Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator James Cooper gave important speeches on the Compromise. In southern Pennsylvania, this process as well as the 1840s legal struggle over fugitive slaves culminated in the Christiana riot and the resulting treason trials of William Parker and Christian Hanway, which helped unseat a sitting governor and almost caused sectional rupture.Less
This chapter examines how the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law politicized the fugitive slave issue on a national scale. With the sectional conflict increasing, and the fugitive slave issue at the heart of compromises designed to resolve it, local newspapers began covering fugitive slave cases extensively, creating a new body of evidence just as the local Underground Railroad was becoming more secretive due to legal liabilities. Fugitive slave cases that previously would have only received limited local attention now might be publicized across the North and South. In Congress, Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator James Cooper gave important speeches on the Compromise. In southern Pennsylvania, this process as well as the 1840s legal struggle over fugitive slaves culminated in the Christiana riot and the resulting treason trials of William Parker and Christian Hanway, which helped unseat a sitting governor and almost caused sectional rupture.
Christopher J. Fuhrmann
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199737840
- eISBN:
- 9780199928576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737840.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
Like other slave-owning societies, Romans were extremely anxious about slaves illegally escaping their condition. This fear is evident in their laws and literature, and derived from Roman social ...
More
Like other slave-owning societies, Romans were extremely anxious about slaves illegally escaping their condition. This fear is evident in their laws and literature, and derived from Roman social norms and expectations. Fugitive slaves undermined the new imperial order established by Augustus, and blurred the dichotomy between slaves and free people. The Roman state expended considerable energy into stopping slave flight, with an unusually high level of coordination between different levels of government and police authority (emperors, senate, governors, local magistrates, landowners, civilian police, public slaves, harbour guards, out-posted soldiers). The main legal source for this assertion, Digesta 11.4, is tested against other types of evidence (papyri, Latin novels, the Saepinum inscription).Less
Like other slave-owning societies, Romans were extremely anxious about slaves illegally escaping their condition. This fear is evident in their laws and literature, and derived from Roman social norms and expectations. Fugitive slaves undermined the new imperial order established by Augustus, and blurred the dichotomy between slaves and free people. The Roman state expended considerable energy into stopping slave flight, with an unusually high level of coordination between different levels of government and police authority (emperors, senate, governors, local magistrates, landowners, civilian police, public slaves, harbour guards, out-posted soldiers). The main legal source for this assertion, Digesta 11.4, is tested against other types of evidence (papyri, Latin novels, the Saepinum inscription).
Joan D. Hedrick
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195096392
- eISBN:
- 9780199854288
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195096392.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who disliked confrontations, who rode over unpleasantness with optimistic goodwill and turned aside anger with humor, found herself, as public opinion brewed over the ...
More
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who disliked confrontations, who rode over unpleasantness with optimistic goodwill and turned aside anger with humor, found herself, as public opinion brewed over the Fugitive Slave Law, consumed with a rage unlike anything she had ever experienced. Her intense feelings were the more oppressive for having no outlet. Men made the laws and shaped the public opinion of the land, and women who found themselves morally repelled by their work had little recourse. Women engaged in rather extraordinary acts of civil disobedience, provoked by laws that they themselves had had no part in making. As the temperance crusade moved from the podium to the ballot box with the passage of the first legal constraint on the liquor trade, the “Maine Law” of 1851, women who had been active in temperance societies keenly felt their disfranchisement.Less
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who disliked confrontations, who rode over unpleasantness with optimistic goodwill and turned aside anger with humor, found herself, as public opinion brewed over the Fugitive Slave Law, consumed with a rage unlike anything she had ever experienced. Her intense feelings were the more oppressive for having no outlet. Men made the laws and shaped the public opinion of the land, and women who found themselves morally repelled by their work had little recourse. Women engaged in rather extraordinary acts of civil disobedience, provoked by laws that they themselves had had no part in making. As the temperance crusade moved from the podium to the ballot box with the passage of the first legal constraint on the liquor trade, the “Maine Law” of 1851, women who had been active in temperance societies keenly felt their disfranchisement.
Jared Ross Hardesty
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479816149
- eISBN:
- 9781479869985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479816149.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter examines how enslaved Bostonians appropriated white institutions and discourse to better their everyday lives. They channeled much of their energy into learning and using local ...
More
This chapter examines how enslaved Bostonians appropriated white institutions and discourse to better their everyday lives. They channeled much of their energy into learning and using local institutions, namely the law and Boston’s many Protestant churches in order to obtain valuable skills like reading and writing to acquire a basic understanding of Anglo-American jurisprudence. White Bostonians never created specialized mechanisms of control, like slave courts as a means to govern slavery, and slaves actively worked to engrain themselves in local institutions. On any given Sunday, the pews of Boston’s churches were full of black faces. They were learning the gospel and with it the skills to read and write. And slaves knew to approach local justices if their masters were cruel or abusive. Usually they would receive a fair hearing. Comprehending their larger society and understanding its basic contours enabled enslaved Bostonians to navigate their enslavement and fight for concessions from the master class.Less
This chapter examines how enslaved Bostonians appropriated white institutions and discourse to better their everyday lives. They channeled much of their energy into learning and using local institutions, namely the law and Boston’s many Protestant churches in order to obtain valuable skills like reading and writing to acquire a basic understanding of Anglo-American jurisprudence. White Bostonians never created specialized mechanisms of control, like slave courts as a means to govern slavery, and slaves actively worked to engrain themselves in local institutions. On any given Sunday, the pews of Boston’s churches were full of black faces. They were learning the gospel and with it the skills to read and write. And slaves knew to approach local justices if their masters were cruel or abusive. Usually they would receive a fair hearing. Comprehending their larger society and understanding its basic contours enabled enslaved Bostonians to navigate their enslavement and fight for concessions from the master class.
Bianca Premo
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190638726
- eISBN:
- 9780190638764
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190638726.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Latin American History
Historians have long noted that a defining feature of Spanish imperial slave law was the right slaves possessed to sue their masters. This chapter historicizes that right in the civil sphere, and ...
More
Historians have long noted that a defining feature of Spanish imperial slave law was the right slaves possessed to sue their masters. This chapter historicizes that right in the civil sphere, and dates it to the advent of new jurisprudential ideas and slaves’ increased legal activity beginning in the mid-1700s. Enslaved litigants began to appeal to royal courts over new types of cases, including the right to self-purchase, as well as to reinterpret older codified laws on conditional liberty and owner abuse. In these suits, they began to use the fact that owners implicitly recognized slaves’ civil subjectivity in the arrangements they often made with them to present slavery as a stage rather than a permanent condition. In going to court and arguing that their search for freedom was in fact a movement toward moral good, they advanced a modern notion of human agency in line with that of many Enlightenment philosophers.Less
Historians have long noted that a defining feature of Spanish imperial slave law was the right slaves possessed to sue their masters. This chapter historicizes that right in the civil sphere, and dates it to the advent of new jurisprudential ideas and slaves’ increased legal activity beginning in the mid-1700s. Enslaved litigants began to appeal to royal courts over new types of cases, including the right to self-purchase, as well as to reinterpret older codified laws on conditional liberty and owner abuse. In these suits, they began to use the fact that owners implicitly recognized slaves’ civil subjectivity in the arrangements they often made with them to present slavery as a stage rather than a permanent condition. In going to court and arguing that their search for freedom was in fact a movement toward moral good, they advanced a modern notion of human agency in line with that of many Enlightenment philosophers.
R. J. M. Blackett
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781469608778
- eISBN:
- 9781469611792
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9781469608785_Blackett
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over ...
More
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over the future of slavery and the nature of the union. This book uses the experiences of escaped slaves and those who aided them to explore the inner workings of the Underground Railroad and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, while shedding light on the political effects of slave escape in southern states, border states, and the North. It highlights the lives of those who escaped, the impact of the fugitive slave cases, and the extent to which slaves planning to escape were aided by free blacks, fellow slaves, and outsiders who went south to entice them to escape. Using these stories of particular individuals, moments, and communities, the author shows how slave flight shaped national politics as the South witnessed slavery beginning to collapse and the North experienced a threat to its freedom.Less
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over the future of slavery and the nature of the union. This book uses the experiences of escaped slaves and those who aided them to explore the inner workings of the Underground Railroad and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, while shedding light on the political effects of slave escape in southern states, border states, and the North. It highlights the lives of those who escaped, the impact of the fugitive slave cases, and the extent to which slaves planning to escape were aided by free blacks, fellow slaves, and outsiders who went south to entice them to escape. Using these stories of particular individuals, moments, and communities, the author shows how slave flight shaped national politics as the South witnessed slavery beginning to collapse and the North experienced a threat to its freedom.
Matthew J. Grow
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300136104
- eISBN:
- 9780300153262
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300136104.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter focuses on Thomas L. Kane's work in relation to the Fugitive Slave Law. It explains that Kane resigned as judicial clerk upon the passage of the law because it required him as a U.S. ...
More
This chapter focuses on Thomas L. Kane's work in relation to the Fugitive Slave Law. It explains that Kane resigned as judicial clerk upon the passage of the law because it required him as a U.S. commissioner to perform a central role in capturing and extraditing fugitive slaves. It discusses the conflict Kane's resignation caused between him and his father, John Kane, and suggests that this conflict illustrates the divide within the northern Democratic Party over slavery.Less
This chapter focuses on Thomas L. Kane's work in relation to the Fugitive Slave Law. It explains that Kane resigned as judicial clerk upon the passage of the law because it required him as a U.S. commissioner to perform a central role in capturing and extraditing fugitive slaves. It discusses the conflict Kane's resignation caused between him and his father, John Kane, and suggests that this conflict illustrates the divide within the northern Democratic Party over slavery.
Paul C. Gutjahr
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199740420
- eISBN:
- 9780199894703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740420.003.0049
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Chapter forty-nine examines Hodge’s early engagement in the events surround the beginning of the Civil War. Hodge was strongly pro-Union, and wrote early about the need to keep the Union intact. In ...
More
Chapter forty-nine examines Hodge’s early engagement in the events surround the beginning of the Civil War. Hodge was strongly pro-Union, and wrote early about the need to keep the Union intact. In this effort, he wrote one of his most famous and widely read Repertory articles: “The State of the Country.” Once it became clear that Lincoln’s election would lead to succession, Hodge attempted to keep Southern and Northern Old School Presbyterians united. This effort also failed as James Thornwell and Benjamin Morgan Palmer led Southern Old School Presbyterians to form their own denomination. Hodge had little sympathy for the South, who he saw unlawfully seceding as it turned its back on the Constitution, but he worked hard to attempt to avoid the breakup of the Union.Less
Chapter forty-nine examines Hodge’s early engagement in the events surround the beginning of the Civil War. Hodge was strongly pro-Union, and wrote early about the need to keep the Union intact. In this effort, he wrote one of his most famous and widely read Repertory articles: “The State of the Country.” Once it became clear that Lincoln’s election would lead to succession, Hodge attempted to keep Southern and Northern Old School Presbyterians united. This effort also failed as James Thornwell and Benjamin Morgan Palmer led Southern Old School Presbyterians to form their own denomination. Hodge had little sympathy for the South, who he saw unlawfully seceding as it turned its back on the Constitution, but he worked hard to attempt to avoid the breakup of the Union.
Graham Russell Gao Hodges
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056036
- eISBN:
- 9780813053806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056036.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter explores the extent, meaning, and impact of enslaved African-American flight during the era of the American Revolution. Its temporal boundaries range roughly from 1763, the onset of ...
More
This chapter explores the extent, meaning, and impact of enslaved African-American flight during the era of the American Revolution. Its temporal boundaries range roughly from 1763, the onset of Revolutionary activities and discourses, to state-level “First Emancipation,” to the last act of Gradual Emancipation in New Jersey in 1804. Geographically, the article covers the Atlantic seaboard colonies and later states. The chapter argues that black self-emancipation via flight—including individual actions but also the mass movements of the Revolutionary Black Loyalists—was the single greatest method for enslaved people to gain freedom in this rapidly changing political landscape. Slave flight indeed had a profound impact on that landscape and affected American construction of slave laws during the Revolutionary Era.Less
This chapter explores the extent, meaning, and impact of enslaved African-American flight during the era of the American Revolution. Its temporal boundaries range roughly from 1763, the onset of Revolutionary activities and discourses, to state-level “First Emancipation,” to the last act of Gradual Emancipation in New Jersey in 1804. Geographically, the article covers the Atlantic seaboard colonies and later states. The chapter argues that black self-emancipation via flight—including individual actions but also the mass movements of the Revolutionary Black Loyalists—was the single greatest method for enslaved people to gain freedom in this rapidly changing political landscape. Slave flight indeed had a profound impact on that landscape and affected American construction of slave laws during the Revolutionary Era.
Brad Asher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813134147
- eISBN:
- 9780813135922
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813134147.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
This chapter describes Cecelia's trip to Niagara Falls with Fanny and explains her decision to escape from slavery. It examines the legal, social, familial, and personal circumstances that influenced ...
More
This chapter describes Cecelia's trip to Niagara Falls with Fanny and explains her decision to escape from slavery. It examines the legal, social, familial, and personal circumstances that influenced her thinking. It also discusses Fanny's mindset as Cecelia's owner.Less
This chapter describes Cecelia's trip to Niagara Falls with Fanny and explains her decision to escape from slavery. It examines the legal, social, familial, and personal circumstances that influenced her thinking. It also discusses Fanny's mindset as Cecelia's owner.
Paul C. Gutjahr
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199740420
- eISBN:
- 9780199894703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740420.003.0048
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Chapter forty-eight examines Hodge’s politics and his tripartite commitment to God’s sovereignty, property rights and the need for religion to be tied to political action for the good of the nation. ...
More
Chapter forty-eight examines Hodge’s politics and his tripartite commitment to God’s sovereignty, property rights and the need for religion to be tied to political action for the good of the nation. Through an examination of Hodge’s Repertory review of Moses Stuart’s Conscience and the Constitution, one finds that Hodge had a firm commitment to believing that humanity’s common moral sense would bind the nation together. This belief was unsettled by the Civil War. Hodge also shifted political party allegiances during this life from the Whig party to the Republican party, but he always considered himself a Federalist at heart.Less
Chapter forty-eight examines Hodge’s politics and his tripartite commitment to God’s sovereignty, property rights and the need for religion to be tied to political action for the good of the nation. Through an examination of Hodge’s Repertory review of Moses Stuart’s Conscience and the Constitution, one finds that Hodge had a firm commitment to believing that humanity’s common moral sense would bind the nation together. This belief was unsettled by the Civil War. Hodge also shifted political party allegiances during this life from the Whig party to the Republican party, but he always considered himself a Federalist at heart.
David Lyons
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199662555
- eISBN:
- 9780191754272
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662555.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This paper concerns systematic practices by public officials that are clearly unlawful, not hidden from view, and tolerated for many years. Such a “legal entrenchment of illegality” characterized ...
More
This paper concerns systematic practices by public officials that are clearly unlawful, not hidden from view, and tolerated for many years. Such a “legal entrenchment of illegality” characterized America’s Jim Crow period, from the 1890s to the 1960s, especially in the former slave states, where the rape, assault, and murder of African Americans, police brutality, procedural bias, and anti‐black pogroms were tolerated or engaged in by officials. The related cynicism of officials is illustrated by a review of Supreme Court decisions that undermined the legal framework for the post‐Civil War “reconstruction” of the former slave states. This paper also shows how the legal entrenchment of illegality required officials to embrace an incoherent and unstable set of attitudes towards law, which was incompatible with Hart’s legal theory as originally presented, but was compatible with its final form.Less
This paper concerns systematic practices by public officials that are clearly unlawful, not hidden from view, and tolerated for many years. Such a “legal entrenchment of illegality” characterized America’s Jim Crow period, from the 1890s to the 1960s, especially in the former slave states, where the rape, assault, and murder of African Americans, police brutality, procedural bias, and anti‐black pogroms were tolerated or engaged in by officials. The related cynicism of officials is illustrated by a review of Supreme Court decisions that undermined the legal framework for the post‐Civil War “reconstruction” of the former slave states. This paper also shows how the legal entrenchment of illegality required officials to embrace an incoherent and unstable set of attitudes towards law, which was incompatible with Hart’s legal theory as originally presented, but was compatible with its final form.
J. Brent Morris
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781469618272
- eISBN:
- 9781469618296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina9781469618272.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter describes the open and successful defiance of the Oberlinites towards federal authority and the Fugitive Slave Law, and their manipulation of the rescue episode into a triumphant ...
More
This chapter describes the open and successful defiance of the Oberlinites towards federal authority and the Fugitive Slave Law, and their manipulation of the rescue episode into a triumphant propaganda. In Ohio and across the North, the flagging Republican Party embraced the Oberlin Rescuers, and in the process, the resulting injection of radicalism helped rescue the party from its drift toward conservatism and directed it down the path that would ultimately lead to a national policy of emancipation.Less
This chapter describes the open and successful defiance of the Oberlinites towards federal authority and the Fugitive Slave Law, and their manipulation of the rescue episode into a triumphant propaganda. In Ohio and across the North, the flagging Republican Party embraced the Oberlin Rescuers, and in the process, the resulting injection of radicalism helped rescue the party from its drift toward conservatism and directed it down the path that would ultimately lead to a national policy of emancipation.
Tiya Miles
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520285637
- eISBN:
- 9780520961029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520285637.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter delves into Doll's experience as Shoe Boots' slave and lover. It focuses on her outsider status in Cherokee social and ceremonial life, the birth of her first child, and the convergence ...
More
This chapter delves into Doll's experience as Shoe Boots' slave and lover. It focuses on her outsider status in Cherokee social and ceremonial life, the birth of her first child, and the convergence of American slave law and Cherokee clan organization in which the child follows the condition of the mother. Analysis of the law and its contradictions with respect to enslaved women provides a way of understanding the structures of power in sexual encounters between master and slave. In the early 1800s, Cherokees did not share the Anglo-American view that racial difference rendered African people subhuman. Instead, they maintained harmony in their towns by upholding an ethos that called for respecting individual autonomy. The chapter also discusses how the inability of the slave to mother her child is imbued with deepening layers of meaning in the cultural context in which Doll conceived her baby girl.Less
This chapter delves into Doll's experience as Shoe Boots' slave and lover. It focuses on her outsider status in Cherokee social and ceremonial life, the birth of her first child, and the convergence of American slave law and Cherokee clan organization in which the child follows the condition of the mother. Analysis of the law and its contradictions with respect to enslaved women provides a way of understanding the structures of power in sexual encounters between master and slave. In the early 1800s, Cherokees did not share the Anglo-American view that racial difference rendered African people subhuman. Instead, they maintained harmony in their towns by upholding an ethos that called for respecting individual autonomy. The chapter also discusses how the inability of the slave to mother her child is imbued with deepening layers of meaning in the cultural context in which Doll conceived her baby girl.
Richard Archer
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190676643
- eISBN:
- 9780190676674
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190676643.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century, Political History
There was no straight line from a racist society to one that supported full equality, and there was no guarantee that a right established one year could not be changed the next. That rang true in the ...
More
There was no straight line from a racist society to one that supported full equality, and there was no guarantee that a right established one year could not be changed the next. That rang true in the United States and particularly in New England following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. This chapter analyzes the four most important fugitive slave cases of the region: William and Ellen Craft, Frederick Minkins, Thomas Sims, and Anthony Burns. The result of those cases—two successful, two not—was a change in New England. Antislavery became socially acceptable, and there was an increased willingness among white New Englanders to accept the equal rights of African Americans. But racism hadn't died. What was different were attitudes about New England and about the slave South. In the short term black New Englanders benefited, but there were limits to progress.Less
There was no straight line from a racist society to one that supported full equality, and there was no guarantee that a right established one year could not be changed the next. That rang true in the United States and particularly in New England following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. This chapter analyzes the four most important fugitive slave cases of the region: William and Ellen Craft, Frederick Minkins, Thomas Sims, and Anthony Burns. The result of those cases—two successful, two not—was a change in New England. Antislavery became socially acceptable, and there was an increased willingness among white New Englanders to accept the equal rights of African Americans. But racism hadn't died. What was different were attitudes about New England and about the slave South. In the short term black New Englanders benefited, but there were limits to progress.
R. J. M. Blackett
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781469608778
- eISBN:
- 9781469611792
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469608778.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter considers different views about the workings and political impact of the Underground Railroad (UGRR). Before the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, organizations such as the Aiding ...
More
This chapter considers different views about the workings and political impact of the Underground Railroad (UGRR). Before the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, organizations such as the Aiding and Abetting Society had been sending whites and blacks into the South disguised as peddlers, colporteurs, and teachers to encourage slaves to escape. The “unnamed white man” was not just a figment of the imagination of those who felt themselves hemmed in and under siege; experience suggested he was real.Less
This chapter considers different views about the workings and political impact of the Underground Railroad (UGRR). Before the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, organizations such as the Aiding and Abetting Society had been sending whites and blacks into the South disguised as peddlers, colporteurs, and teachers to encourage slaves to escape. The “unnamed white man” was not just a figment of the imagination of those who felt themselves hemmed in and under siege; experience suggested he was real.
Karl Raitz and Nancy O’Malley
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136646
- eISBN:
- 9780813141343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136646.003.0030
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Prior to the Civil War, Kentucky's enslaved population was concentrated in the state's prime agricultural counties. In 1790, Kentucky had 11,830 slaves and by 1860, the state's enslaved population ...
More
Prior to the Civil War, Kentucky's enslaved population was concentrated in the state's prime agricultural counties. In 1790, Kentucky had 11,830 slaves and by 1860, the state's enslaved population had increased to 225,483 or 19.5 percent of the total population. Large Bluegrass farms produced tobacco and hemp as commercial cash crops often with slave labor. Slave dealers collected surplus slaves and sold them to buyers who transported them into the South for resale to sugar cane and cotton plantations. Thousands of slaves fled their owners’ control and tried to reach Canada by way of the northern states. The combination of routes, modes of movement, individuals who actively provided assistance and places where slaves could be hidden were collectively referred to as the Underground Railroad. The Maysville Road corridor was an especially active slave escape route.Less
Prior to the Civil War, Kentucky's enslaved population was concentrated in the state's prime agricultural counties. In 1790, Kentucky had 11,830 slaves and by 1860, the state's enslaved population had increased to 225,483 or 19.5 percent of the total population. Large Bluegrass farms produced tobacco and hemp as commercial cash crops often with slave labor. Slave dealers collected surplus slaves and sold them to buyers who transported them into the South for resale to sugar cane and cotton plantations. Thousands of slaves fled their owners’ control and tried to reach Canada by way of the northern states. The combination of routes, modes of movement, individuals who actively provided assistance and places where slaves could be hidden were collectively referred to as the Underground Railroad. The Maysville Road corridor was an especially active slave escape route.
