AMERICAN SLAVERY AND THE LAW (2) (JLH180)

Professor Annette Gordon-Reed

Examines how the law (and lawyers) operated during the period of American slavery. Topics include the slave system and property law ( how the law designed to deal with non-human items worked in the context of ownership of human beings); the slave system and criminal law (how judges and lawyers attempted to reconcile the contradiction between the notions that slaves were not human and that they were to be held responsible for their actions as full human beings). Also discusses the law's effect upon the family life of slaves and how the law determined who was black and who white, and the practical effects of that decision. Paper required.