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The Laws of Slavery in Texas : Historical Documents and Essays / ed. by Randolph B. Campbell.

Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Texas Legal Studies SeriesPublisher: Austin : University of Texas Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2010Description: 1 online resource (207 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780292793101
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 342.76408/7 22
LOC classification:
  • KFT1601.6.S55 L39 2010eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Project Director’s Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Editorial Style -- Introduction. Human Chattels: Th e Laws of Slavery in Texas -- 1. Laws on Slavery in Mexican Texas, 1821–1836 -- Legal Documents -- Articles -- 2. Laws on Slavery in the Republic and Statehood Periods, 1836–1860 -- Legal Documents -- Articles -- Cases -- 3. Laws on Free Negroes in the Republic and Statehood Periods, 1836–1860 -- Legal Documents -- Article -- Case -- 4. Laws on Slavery and Freedom in Confederate and Reconstruction Texas, 1861–1874 -- Legal Document -- Article -- Cases -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index
Summary: The laws that governed the institution of slavery in early Texas were enacted over a fifty-year period in which Texas moved through incarnations as a Spanish colony, a Mexican state, an independent republic, a part of the United States, and a Confederate state. This unusual legal heritage sets Texas apart from the other slave-holding states and provides a unique opportunity to examine how slave laws were enacted and upheld as political and legal structures changed. The Laws of Slavery in Texas makes that examination possible by combining seminal historical essays with excerpts from key legal documents from the slave period and tying them together with interpretive commentary by the foremost scholar on the subject, Randolph B. Campbell. Campbell's commentary focuses on an aspect of slave law that was particularly evident in the evolving legal system of early Texas: the dilemma that arose when human beings were treated as property. As Campbell points out, defining slaves as moveable property, or chattel, presented a serious difficulty to those who wrote and interpreted the law because, unlike any other form of property, slaves were sentient beings. They were held responsible for their crimes, and in numerous other ways statute and case law dealing with slavery recognized the humanness of the enslaved. Attempts to protect the property rights of slave owners led to increasingly restrictive laws—including laws concerning free blacks—that were difficult to uphold. The documents in this collection reveal both the roots of the dilemma and its inevitable outcome.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780292793101

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Project Director’s Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Editorial Style -- Introduction. Human Chattels: Th e Laws of Slavery in Texas -- 1. Laws on Slavery in Mexican Texas, 1821–1836 -- Legal Documents -- Articles -- 2. Laws on Slavery in the Republic and Statehood Periods, 1836–1860 -- Legal Documents -- Articles -- Cases -- 3. Laws on Free Negroes in the Republic and Statehood Periods, 1836–1860 -- Legal Documents -- Article -- Case -- 4. Laws on Slavery and Freedom in Confederate and Reconstruction Texas, 1861–1874 -- Legal Document -- Article -- Cases -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The laws that governed the institution of slavery in early Texas were enacted over a fifty-year period in which Texas moved through incarnations as a Spanish colony, a Mexican state, an independent republic, a part of the United States, and a Confederate state. This unusual legal heritage sets Texas apart from the other slave-holding states and provides a unique opportunity to examine how slave laws were enacted and upheld as political and legal structures changed. The Laws of Slavery in Texas makes that examination possible by combining seminal historical essays with excerpts from key legal documents from the slave period and tying them together with interpretive commentary by the foremost scholar on the subject, Randolph B. Campbell. Campbell's commentary focuses on an aspect of slave law that was particularly evident in the evolving legal system of early Texas: the dilemma that arose when human beings were treated as property. As Campbell points out, defining slaves as moveable property, or chattel, presented a serious difficulty to those who wrote and interpreted the law because, unlike any other form of property, slaves were sentient beings. They were held responsible for their crimes, and in numerous other ways statute and case law dealing with slavery recognized the humanness of the enslaved. Attempts to protect the property rights of slave owners led to increasingly restrictive laws—including laws concerning free blacks—that were difficult to uphold. The documents in this collection reveal both the roots of the dilemma and its inevitable outcome.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2022)