Double Character: Slavery and Mastery in the Antebellum Southern Courtroom / Edition 1 available in Paperback
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Double Character: Slavery and Mastery in the Antebellum Southern Courtroom / Edition 1
- ISBN-10:
- 082032860X
- ISBN-13:
- 9780820328607
- Pub. Date:
- 10/15/2006
- Publisher:
- University of Georgia Press
- ISBN-10:
- 082032860X
- ISBN-13:
- 9780820328607
- Pub. Date:
- 10/15/2006
- Publisher:
- University of Georgia Press
![Double Character: Slavery and Mastery in the Antebellum Southern Courtroom / Edition 1](http://vs-images.bn-web.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.10.3)
Double Character: Slavery and Mastery in the Antebellum Southern Courtroom / Edition 1
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Overview
How, asks Ariela J. Gross, did communities reconcile the dilemmas such trials raised concerning the character of slaves and masters? Although slaves could not testify in court, their character was unavoidably at issue—and so their moral agency intruded into the courtroom. In addition, says Gross, "wherever the argument that black character depended on management by a white man appeared, that white man's good character depended on the demonstration that bad black character had other sources."
This led, for example, to physicians testifying that pathologies, not any shortcomings of their master, drove slaves to became runaways. Gross teases out other threads of complexity woven into these trials: the ways that legal disputes were also affairs of honor between white men; how witnesses and litigants based their views of slaves' character on narratives available in the culture at large; and how law reflected and shaped racial ideology. Combining methods of cultural anthropology, quantitative social history, and critical race theory, Double Character brings to life the law as a dramatic ritual in people's daily lives, and advances critical historical debates about law, honor, and commerce in the American South.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780820328607 |
---|---|
Publisher: | University of Georgia Press |
Publication date: | 10/15/2006 |
Series: | Studies in the Legal History of the South Series |
Edition description: | New Edition |
Pages: | 276 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.66(d) |
About the Author
ARIELA J. GROSS is a professor of law and history at the University of Southern California, where she is also codirector of the Center for Law, History, and Culture.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction
Chapter One: Court and Market
Chapter Two: Honor and Dishonor
Chapter Three: Slaves' Character
Chapter Four: Masters' Character
Chapter Five: Body and Mind
Epilogue
Appendix: Note on Sources and Methods
Notes
Bibliography
Index
What People are Saying About This
On the basis of trial records and other legal documents previously unused by historians, Ariela Gross has produced a superb study that adds enormously to our knowledge of the inner world of masters and slaves in the Old South. Effectively synthesizing the methods and data of legal and social history, she sheds new light on many themes central to antebellum history, such as the cult of honor, the function of racist and paternalist ideologies, and slave agency in the face of oppression.
George M. Fredrickson, Stanford University
With great clarity, Ariela Gross's book shows how intimately the practice of law in the antebellum U.S. South was interwoven with the practice of slavery. The author conveys this tragic story in terms that provide a vivid picture of that society and also of many of the individuals involved. She has successfully melded diverse approaches toward historylegal, local, social, political, economic, and culturalwhile still maintaining a powerful central focus.
Winthrop D. Jordan, University of Mississippi
"Double Character is a profoundly important book. At a time when there has been much romanticization of master-slave relations, Ariela Gross dissects hundreds of antebellum legal cases in which the presumed attributes of blacks, whites, and those "in between" were litigated. What emerges is a pattern of assumptions whose power was sanctioned by law and whose legacy we battle still. A brilliant work of scholarship."—Patricia Williams, Columbia School of Law"With great clarity, Ariela Gross's book shows how intimately the practice of law in the antebellum U.S. South was interwoven with the practice of slavery. The author conveys this tragic story in terms that provide a vivid picture of that society and also of many of the individuals involved. She has successfully melded diverse approaches toward history—legal, local, social, political, economic, and cultural—while still maintaining a powerful central focus."—Winthrop D. Jordan, University of Mississippi"On the basis of trial records and other legal documents previously unused by historians, Ariela Gross has produced a superb study that adds enormously to our knowledge of the inner world of masters and slaves in the Old South. Effectively synthesizing the methods and data of legal and social history, she sheds new light on many themes central to antebellum history, such as the cult of honor, the function of racist and paternalist ideologies, and slave agency in the face of oppression."—George M. Fredrickson, Stanford University
With great clarity,Ariela Gross's book shows how intimately the practice of law in the antebellum U.S. South was interwoven with the practice of slavery. The author conveys this tragic story in terms that provide a vivid picture of that society and also of many of the individuals involved. She has successfully melded diverse approaches toward history--legal,local,social,political,economic,and cultural--while still maintaining a powerful central focus.
On the basis of trial records and other legal documents previously unused by historians,Ariela Gross has produced a superb study that adds enormously to our knowledge of the inner world of masters and slaves in the Old South. Effectively synthesizing the methods and data of legal and social history,she sheds new light on many themes central to antebellum history,such as the cult of honor,the function of racist and paternalist ideologies,and slave agency in the face of oppression.
Double Character is a profoundly important book. At a time when there has been much romanticization of master-slave relations, Ariela Gross dissects hundreds of antebellum legal cases in which the presumed attributes of blacks, whites, and those "in between" were litigated. What emerges is a pattern of assumptions whose power was sanctioned by law and whose legacy we battle still. A brilliant work of scholarship.
Patricia Williams, Columbia School of Law
Recipe
"Double Character is a profoundly important book. At a time when there has been much romanticization of master-slave relations, Ariela Gross dissects hundreds of antebellum legal cases in which the presumed attributes of blacks, whites, and those "in between" were litigated. What emerges is a pattern of assumptions whose power was sanctioned by law and whose legacy we battle still. A brilliant work of scholarship."Patricia Williams, Columbia School of Law
"With great clarity, Ariela Gross's book shows how intimately the practice of law in the antebellum U.S. South was interwoven with the practice of slavery. The author conveys this tragic story in terms that provide a vivid picture of that society and also of many of the individuals involved. She has successfully melded diverse approaches toward historylegal, local, social, political, economic, and culturalwhile still maintaining a powerful central focus."Winthrop D. Jordan, University of Mississippi
"On the basis of trial records and other legal documents previously unused by historians, Ariela Gross has produced a superb study that adds enormously to our knowledge of the inner world of masters and slaves in the Old South. Effectively synthesizing the methods and data of legal and social history, she sheds new light on many themes central to antebellum history, such as the cult of honor, the function of racist and paternalist ideologies, and slave agency in the face of oppression."George M. Fredrickson, Stanford University