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Book Cover
E-book
Author Morris, Thomas D., 1938- author.

Title Southern slavery and the law, 1619-1860 / Thomas D. Morris
Published Chapel Hill ; London : The University of North Carolina Press, [1996]
©1996

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Description 1 online resource (x, 575 pages)
Series Studies in legal history
Studies in legal history.
Contents 1. The Function of Race in Southern Slave Law -- 2. The Sources of Southern Slave Law -- 3. Slaves as Property -- Chattels Personal or Realty, and Did It Matter? -- 4. Slavery and the Law of Successions -- 5. Contract Law in the Sale and Mortgaging of Slaves -- 6. The Slave Hireling Contract and the Law -- 7. Southern Law and the Homicides of Slaves -- 8. Law and the Abuse of Slaves -- 9. Jurisdiction and Process in the Trials of Slaves -- 10. Slaves and the Rules of Evidence in Criminal Trials -- 11. Masters and the Criminal Offenses of Their Slaves -- 12. Obedience and the Outsider -- 13. Slaves' Violence against Third Parties -- 14. Slaves, Sexual Violence, and the Law -- 15. Property Crimes and the Law -- 16. Police Regulations -- 17. Wrongs of Slaves and the Civil Liability of Masters -- 18. Emancipation: Conceptions, Restraints, and Practice -- 19. Quasi and In futuro Emancipations
Summary 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. Therefore, laws governing slaves and slavery had to be incorporated into the body of English common law that formed the basis of legal culture throughout the colonial South
Specifically, Morris 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. Using a wide range of published and unpublished legal records from fifty countries and parishes, Morris offers a detailed and systematic analysis of
Cases as a means of establishing both what the doctrines concerning slavery were and how they were implemented
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 525-561) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Online resource (HeinOnline, viewed September 13, 2016)
Subject Slavery -- Law and legislation -- Southern States -- History
Slavery -- Southern States -- History
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- Judicial Branch.
LAW -- Legal Services.
LAW -- Civil Procedure.
LAW -- Constitutional.
LAW -- Public.
Slavery
Slavery -- Law and legislation
Sklaverei
Slaven (arbeid)
Rechtspositie.
Common law.
Geschichte 1619-1860.
Slavery -- Southern States.
Slavery -- Law and legislation -- Southern States.
Southern States
USA -- Südstaaten
Zuidelijke staten.
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 0807864307
9780807864302
9780807822388
0807822388