The Bondsman's Burden : An Economic Analysis of the Common Law of Southern Slavery Paperback / softback
by Jenny Bourne (St Olaf College, Minnesota) Wahl
Part of the Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society series
Paperback / softback
Description
Were slaves property or human beings under the law?
In crafting answers to this question, Southern judges designed efficient laws that protected property rights and helped slavery remain economically viable.
But, by preserving property rights, they sheltered the persons embodied by that property - the slaves themselves.
Slave law therefore had unintended consequences: it generated rules that judges could apply to free persons, precedents that became the foundation for laws designed to protect ordinary Americans.
The Bondsman's Burden, first published in 1998, provides a rigorous and compelling economic analysis of the common law of Southern slavery, inspecting thousands of legal disputes heard in Southern antebellum courts, disputes involving servants, employees, accident victims, animals, and other chattel property, as well as slaves.
The common law, although it supported the institution of slavery, did not favor every individual slave owner who brought a grievance to court.
Information
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Out of stock
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:292 pages, Worked examples or Exercises; 3 Tables, unspecified; 3 Plates, unspecified
- Publisher:Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date:22/08/2002
- Category:
- ISBN:9780521521383
Information
-
Out of stock
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:292 pages, Worked examples or Exercises; 3 Tables, unspecified; 3 Plates, unspecified
- Publisher:Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date:22/08/2002
- Category:
- ISBN:9780521521383
