Bibliograph

Black litigants in the antebellum American South, Kimberly M. Welch

Type

Label

Black litigants in the antebellum American South, Kimberly M. Welch

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-294) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Black litigants in the antebellum American South

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1119745451

Responsibility statement

Kimberly M. Welch

Series statement

The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture

Summary

"This work explores free and enslaved African Americans' involvement in a broad range of civil actions in the Natchez district of Mississippi and Louisiana between 1800 and 1860. Though the antebellum southern courts have long been understood as institutions supporting the class interests and the racial ideologies of the planter and merchant elite, Kimberly Welch shows how black litigants found ways to advocate for themselves even within a racist system. To understand their success, Welch argues that we must understand the language that they used--the language of property, in particular. Because private property and slavery were fundamentally linked in the minds of slave owners, the term 'property' contained a group of metaphors that underwrote a set of white, male claims about autonomy, membership, citizenship, and personhood" --, Provided by publisher

Classification