MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04809fam a2200445 a 4500
001 1549737
005 20220608185106.0
008 940316t19941994laua b s001 0 eng
010 $a 94011801
020 $a0807118451 (cloth : alk. paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)30075362
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm30075362
035 $9AKD2467CU
035 $a(NNC)1549737
035 $a1549737
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dNNC
043 $an-us-la
050 00 $aKFL401.6.S55$bS33 1994
082 00 $a342.763/087$a347.630287$220
100 1 $aSchafer, Judith Kelleher,$d1942-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n88630815
245 10 $aSlavery, the civil law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana /$cJudith Kelleher Schafer.
260 $aBaton Rouge :$bLouisiana State University Press,$c[1994], ©1994.
263 $a9410
300 $axix, 389 pages :$billustrations ;$c23 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $a1. "Slaves Are Regarded as Persons and Property": Sources of Slave Law in American Louisiana -- 2. "Details Are of a Most Revolting Character": Cruelty to Slaves and Legal Intervention -- 3. "No Proceedings . . . Shall Be Annulled or Impeded by Any Error of Form": The Treatment of Slaves Accused of Crimes -- 4. "The Slave Who Absconds Steals Himself": Slave Stealers and Fugitive Slaves -- 5. "Guaranteed Against the Vices and Maladies Prescribed by Law": Warranties in Slave Sales -- 6. "Marked in a Manner Unusual Amongst Civilised People": The Foreign and Domestic Slave Trade in Louisiana -- 7. "Open and Notorious Concubinage": The Emancipation of Slave Mistresses by Will -- 8. "Letting Loose in Our Midst . . . Persons of Color": Further Difficulties in Freeing Slaves by Will -- 9. "An Emancipation, Once Perfected, Is Irrevocable": Suits for Freedom -- 10. "As She Was a Free Woman There, She Must Be Held So Every Where": Comity, Conflict of Laws, and Suits for Freedom.
505 8 $a11. "To Cling to the Desperate Fortunes of the Confederacy": Appeals Concerning Slavery Heard After the Civil War.
520 $aConstituting what may be the most impressive research to date of state supreme court records, Slavery, the Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana analyzes the evolution of Louisiana's slave laws from the territorial period to the Civil War.
520 8 $aOver the course of four years, Judith Kelleher Schafer examined the original handwritten decisions (only recently made available) of the Louisiana Supreme Court, scrutinizing 1,200 appeals involving slaves as plaintiffs, defendants, or objects in lawsuits or criminal actions. The result is the first book-length study of those manuscripts and the first study of any state's slave law and its courts to use original case records from the entire antebellum era.
520 8 $a.
520 8 $aLouisiana's legal system was unique among those of southern slave states in that it embodied a legacy of French, Spanish, and thus, indirectly, Roman law. However, through repeated exposure to common-law tenets over time - a development Schafer tracesLouisiana law became more "Americanized," so that by the dawn of the Civil War it was in many respects very similar to that of other states seceding from the Union.
520 8 $aLouisiana was unusual also in that its highest court was required to hear virtually every case brought to it on appeal. Decisions of that body, therefore, represent not merely a few landmark cases but a spectrum of typical parish- and district-court cases, many of which include vivid details about the day-to-day realities of slavery and the world that formed, and was formed by, that institution.
520 8 $a. Schafer presents numerous concise case histories, stories that are fascinating and at times heartbreaking in the particulars they reveal about slaves' existence. We see how the court continually wrestled with the paradox that slaves were considered by the law to be at once persons and property. Property considerations usually won out: even cases involving the abuse or killing of slaves often came before the court as civil matters rather than criminal.
520 8 $aSlavery, the Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana offers a mine of information to the student of southern, legal, Louisiana, or African-American history. Anyone interested in slavery will find Schafer's book compelling reading, for it depicts in detail, probably better than most fictional or narrative accounts, what living in bondage could mean.
650 0 $aSlavery$xLaw and legislation$zLouisiana$xHistory$y19th century.
610 10 $aLouisiana.$bSupreme Court$xHistory$y19th century.
852 00 $boff,glx$hKFL401.6.S55$iS33 1994
852 00 $bglx$hKFL401.6.S55$iS33 1994