Southern slavery and the law, 1619-1860 / Thomas D. Morris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morris, Thomas D., 1938-

Series:

Studies in legal history.

Studies in legal history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Law and legislation--Southern States--History.

Slavery.

Slavery--Southern States--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (587 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1996.

Language Note:

English

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. Specifically, he 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.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Notes

Part I. Sources: Racial and Legal

1. The Function of Race in Southern Slave Law

Indian Slavery

Presumptions and Definitions

Racial Relations at Law

Voluntary Enslavement

2. The Sources of Southern Slave Law

The Colonial South

Partus Sequitur Ventrem

The Roman Law in Appellate Cases

Villenage and Southern Slave Laws

Hebraic Slavery as a Source of Law

Part II. Slaves as Property

3. Slaves as Property-Chattels Personal or Realty, and Did It Matter?

Slaves as Realty in Eighteenth-Century Virginia

Slaves as ''Realty'' in Kentucky

Slaves as Realty in Arkansas and Louisiana

Judicial Rulings

4 Slavery and the Law of Successions

Intestate Succession

Testate Successions

Some Common Law Restraints on the Disposition of Property by the Eighteenth Century

Remainders and Executory Devises of Slaves in Practice

Trusts in Practice

The Question of ''Increase''

Dower and Widows' Thirds

Liability for Debts Due

Inheritances and the ''Humanity'' of Slaves

5. Contract Law in the Sale and Mortgaging of Slaves

Warranty Law

Damages and Specific Performance

Mortgage Contracts

6. The Slave Hireling Contract and the Law

The Law of Bailments

Early Legal Practice

The Powers and Rights of Hirers

Duties by ''Implication''

Wrongdoers

Negligence

The Problem of the Slave as a Fellow Servant

Part III. Slaves as Persons

7. Southern Law and the Homicides of Slaves

Early English Homicide Law

Colonial Statutes

Slave Homicides in the Colonial South

Post-Revolutionary Constitutional and Legal Changes

Appellate Practice

Local Practice

8. Law and the Abuse of Slaves

Statutes Restraining Masters

Common Law.

''Civil Rights'' of Slaves

Third-Party Violence against Slaves

9. Jurisdiction and Process in the Trials of Slaves

Magistrates

The Role of Juries

Grand Juries

Process upon Trial

Appeals

10. Slaves and the Rules of Evidence in Criminal Trials

Basic Rules

Practice

The Confession

Evidence in the Quarters

Voluntariness

11. Masters and the Criminal Offenses of Their Slaves

12. Obedience and the Outsider

Colonial Developments

Post-Revolutionary Developments

Some Nineteenth-Century ''Insurrection'' Cases

The Homicides of ''Masters''

Outlawry

13. Slaves' Violence against Third Parties

Provocation in Cases Involving the Deaths of Whites

''Assaults with Intent''

Assaults

Insolence

Slaves as Victims of Slaves

14. Slaves, Sexual Violence, and the Law

Rape: Definitional Problems

Attempts

Problems of Evidence and the Elements of the Crime

15. Property Crimes and the Law

Larceny

Burglary

Burglary Cases

The Use of Fire

Burnings Trials

16. Police Regulations

Restraints on Personal Liberty

Runaways

Unlawful Assembly

Reading and Writing

The Right of Property

Trading with Slaves

17. Wrongs of Slaves and the Civil Liability of Masters

Common Law Patterns of Dealing with Accidents

The Analogies to Cattle and Vicious Animals

The Master-Servant Analogy

Negligence and Fault

Liability and Class Relationships: Masters and Slaves

Cost Distribution and Nonslaveholders

Part IV. Manumission

18. Emancipation: Conceptions, Restraints, and Practice

Manumission as a ''Legacy'' or ''Trust''

Contracts for Manumission

The ''Election'' Cases

Freedom and the Claims of Creditors

Manumission in Practice: Virginia as a Case Study.

Notes

19. Quasi and In futuro Emancipations

Quasi-Emancipation

Manumissions In futuro

In futuro Manumissions and the Partus Principle

Additional Rules of Property

Statutes and Status

In futuro Manumissions and the Problem of Definition

Prospective Manumission and the Rule against Perpetuities

Conclusion

Slavery and Liberal Capitalism

Personality, Rights, and Reform

Southern Slavery and Legal Policies

Bibliography

Index

A-B

C

D-E

F-G

H

I-L

M

N-P

Q-R

S

T

U-W

Y.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [525]-561) and index.

ISBN:

9798890882936

9780807864302

0807864307

OCLC:

54358729