Black litigants in the antebellum American South Kimberly M. Welch

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Welch, Kimberly M., author.

Series:

John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture

The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Louisiana--History--To 1863.

African Americans.

African Americans--Mississippi--History--To 1863.

African Americans--Louisiana--Social conditions--19th century.

African Americans--Mississippi--Social conditions--19th century.

Actions and defenses--Louisiana.

Actions and defenses.

Actions and defenses--Mississippi.

African Americans--Social conditions.

Louisiana.

Mississippi.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 306 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2018]

Summary:

"This work explores free and enslaved African Americans' involvement in a broad range of civil actions in the Natchez district of Mississippi and Louisiana between 1800 and 1860. Though the antebellum southern courts have long been understood as institutions supporting the class interests and the racial ideologies of the planter and merchant elite, Kimberly Welch shows how black litigants found ways to advocate for themselves even within a racist system. To understand their success, Welch argues that we must understand the language that they used--the language of property, in particular. Because private property and slavery were fundamentally linked in the minds of slave owners, the term 'property' contained a group of metaphors that underwrote a set of white, male claims about autonomy, membership, citizenship, and personhood"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: A bind of their own making

Telling stories

The rhetoric of reputation

Advocacy

Your word is your bond

The sanctity of property

Subjects of selfhood

For family and property

Afterword: From property to Plessy

Appendix: Researching black litigants.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

The Pennsylvania Abolition Society Complementary Collection.

The Balch Ethnic Studies Collection.

ISBN:

9781469636436

1469636433

OCLC:

990778129