Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860 (Studies in Legal History)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.45 (727 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0807848174 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 592 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-09-19 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"History: Reviews of New Books"This fine book is now the standard work concerning the legal history of slavery in the United States."Journal of Southern History"Brimming with knowledge and insight about a horrific aspect of our legal culture that continues to affect us."Washington Post Book World" . One of the most significant works on Southern slave law."Law and Politics Book Review"The fullest and most probing explication to date of the policies and practices of the 'laws' of slavery."Historian"One of the most impressive and thoughtful volumes on slavery in the last twenty years
Loving "Southern slavery and the Law" Absolutely wonderful and informative about the slave trade in the South and how 'special laws' were implemented only against the African slaves and in an inhumane manner.. Three Stars Very good information!
In addition, legal doctrine often differed from local practice. 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. As Thomas Morris clearly shows, racial slavery came to the English colonies as an institution without strict legal definitions or guidelines. This volume is the first comprehensive history of the evolving relationship between American slavery and the law from colonial times to the Civil War. Instead, more general legal rules concerning inheritance, mortgages, and transfers of property coexisted with laws pertaining only to slaves. Specifically, he demonstrates that there was no coherent body of law that dealt solely with slaves. 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.