Homicide Justified

The Legality of Killing Slaves in the United States and the Atlantic World

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Law, Legal History, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Discrimination & Race Relations, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century
Cover of the book Homicide Justified by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner, University of Georgia Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner ISBN: 9780820351117
Publisher: University of Georgia Press Publication: July 15, 2017
Imprint: University of Georgia Press Language: English
Author: Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
ISBN: 9780820351117
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Publication: July 15, 2017
Imprint: University of Georgia Press
Language: English

This comparative study looks at the laws concerning the murder of slaves by their masters and at how these laws were implemented. Andrew T. Fede cites a wide range of cases—across time, place, and circumstance—to illuminate legal, judicial, and other complexities surrounding this regrettably common occurrence. These laws had evolved to limit in different ways the masters’ rights to severely punish and even kill their slaves while protecting valuable enslaved people, understood as “property,” from wanton destruction by hirers, overseers, and poor whites who did not own slaves.

To explore the conflicts of masters’ rights with state and colonial laws, Fede shows how slave homicide law evolved and was enforced not only in the United States but also in ancient Roman, Visigoth, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and British jurisdictions. His comparative approach reveals how legal reforms regarding slave homicide in antebellum times, like past reforms dictated by emperors and kings, were the products of changing perceptions of the interests of the public; of the individual slave owners; and of the slave owners’ families, heirs, and creditors.

Although some slave murders came to be regarded as capital offenses, the laws consistently reinforced the second-class status of slaves. This influence, Fede concludes, flowed over into the application of law to free African Americans and would even make itself felt in the legal attitudes that underlay the Jim Crow era.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This comparative study looks at the laws concerning the murder of slaves by their masters and at how these laws were implemented. Andrew T. Fede cites a wide range of cases—across time, place, and circumstance—to illuminate legal, judicial, and other complexities surrounding this regrettably common occurrence. These laws had evolved to limit in different ways the masters’ rights to severely punish and even kill their slaves while protecting valuable enslaved people, understood as “property,” from wanton destruction by hirers, overseers, and poor whites who did not own slaves.

To explore the conflicts of masters’ rights with state and colonial laws, Fede shows how slave homicide law evolved and was enforced not only in the United States but also in ancient Roman, Visigoth, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and British jurisdictions. His comparative approach reveals how legal reforms regarding slave homicide in antebellum times, like past reforms dictated by emperors and kings, were the products of changing perceptions of the interests of the public; of the individual slave owners; and of the slave owners’ families, heirs, and creditors.

Although some slave murders came to be regarded as capital offenses, the laws consistently reinforced the second-class status of slaves. This influence, Fede concludes, flowed over into the application of law to free African Americans and would even make itself felt in the legal attitudes that underlay the Jim Crow era.

More books from University of Georgia Press

Cover of the book Shadows of a Sunbelt City by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Gender and the Jubilee by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Red, White, and Black Make Blue by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Nervous Dancer by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Sounds American by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Cornbread Nation 7 by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Mound Sites of the Ancient South by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Reading for the Body by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Slavery and Freedom in Savannah by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Working for Equality by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book The Empires' Edge by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Spirit Seizures by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book New Perspectives on James Weldon Johnson's "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
Cover of the book Hog Meat and Hoecake by Andrew T. Fede, Paul Finkelman, Timothy S. Huebner
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy