Image for Slavery & the Law

Slavery & the Law

Bell, Derrick(Contributions by)Bush, Jonathan A.(Contributions by)Corre, Jacob I.(Contributions by)Curtis, Michael Kent(Contributions by)Fisher III, William W.(Contributions by)Gross, Ariela(Contributions by)Horton, James Oliver(Contributions by)Horton, Lois(Contributions by)Levinson, Sanford(Contributions by)Finkelman, Paul(Edited by)
See all formats and editions

Central to the development of the American legal system, writes Professor Finkelman in Slavery & the Law, is the institution of slavery.

It informs us not only about early concepts of race and property, but about the nature of American democracy itself.

Prominent historians of slavery and legal scholars analyze the intricate relationship between slavery, race, and the law from the earliest Black Codes in colonial America to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law and the Dred Scott decision prior to the Civil War.

Slavery & the Law's wide-ranging essays focus on comparative slave law, auctioneering practices, rules of evidence, and property rights, as well as issues of criminality, punishment, and constitutional law.

What emerges from this multi-faceted portrait is a complex legal system designed to ensure the property rights of slave-holders and to institutionalize racism.

The ultimate result was to strengthen the institution of slavery in the midst of a growing trend toward democracy in the mid-nineteenth-century Atlantic community.

Read More
Available
£95.20 Save 20.00%
RRP £119.00
Add Line Customisation
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
Add to List
Product Details
Rowman & Littlefield
0945612362 / 9780945612360
Hardback
01/02/1998
United States
476 pages
162 x 235 mm, 953 grams
General (US: Trade) Learn More