Black Litigants in the Antebellum American South

Kimberly M. Welch (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

328 Seiten

2018
The University of North Carolina Press (Verlag)
978-1-4696-3643-6 (ISBN)

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In the antebellum Natchez district, in the heart of slave country, black people sued white people in all-white courtrooms. They sued to enforce the terms of their contracts, recover unpaid debts, recuperate back wages, and claim damages for assault. They sued in conflicts over property and personal status. And they often won. Based on new research conducted in courthouse basements and storage sheds in rural Mississippi and Louisiana, Kimberly Welch draws on over 1,000 examples of free and enslaved black litigants who used the courts to protect their interests and reconfigure their place in a tense society.

To understand their success, Welch argues that we must understand the language that they used-the language of property, in particular-to make their claims recognizable and persuasive to others and to link their status as owner to the ideal of a free, autonomous citizen. In telling their stories, Welch reveals a previously unknown world of black legal activity, one that is consequential for understanding the long history of race, rights, and civic inclusion in America.

Kimberly Welch is assistant professor of history at Vanderbilt University.

Erscheinungsdatum	27.03.2018
Reihe/Serie	The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture
Zusatzinfo	13 halftones, 1 map
Verlagsort	Chapel Hill
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 234 mm
Gewicht	625 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Recht / Steuern ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
	Recht / Steuern ► Rechtsgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-4696-3643-3 / 1469636433
ISBN-13	978-1-4696-3643-6 / 9781469636436
Zustand	Neuware