Slavery and its lasting effects have long been an issue in America, with the scars running deep. This study examines crimes such as stealing, burglary, arson, rape and murder committed against and by slaves, with most of the author's information coming from handwritten court records and newspapers. These documents show the death penalty rarely applied when a slave killed another slave, but always applied when a slave killed a white person.
Despite Missouri's grim criminal justice system, the state's best lawyers were called upon to represent slaves in court on serious criminal charges, and federal law applied to all persons, granting slaves in Missouri protection that few other slave states had. By 1860, Missouri's population was only 10 percent slave, the smallest percentage of any slave state in America.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"comprehensive...an interesting and illuminating account of law and society in a slaveholding jurisdiction...valuable...recommended"-Catholic Library World; "illustrates superbly the major discontinuity in American slave law...excellent"-Civil War Book Review; "depth and extensiveness of research"-The Mount Newsletter; "important...a delight"-The Kansas City Star; "extensive primary and secondary research...a wealth of substantiated information...presents a part of history often purposely overlooked...gives a more complete record of the American experience"-Gateway: The Quarterly Magazine of the Missouri Historical Society; "the first comprehensive history of Missouri's slaves as perpetrators and victims of crime...detailed index...useful"-The Cuba Free Press; "comprehensive"-St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Interest Age: From 18 years
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
photos, maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 20 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-7864-4331-4 (9780786443314)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Harriet C. Frazier, attorney and retired law professor in the Criminal Justice Department at University of Central Missouri, also has a Ph.D. in English. She lives in Kansas.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. Spanish Colonial Administration
2. Early American Rule
3. Noncapital Territorial Wrongdoing
4. Slave Elijah's 1818 Trial on a Charge of Conspiracy
5. The 1820 Missouri Constitution and Its Background
6. Costs in Criminal Cases
7. Against Themselves: Black-on-Black Crime
8. White Perpetrators, Black and Mulatto Victims
9. Noncapital Statehood Crime, White and Black
10. Capital Cases: Girls and Women
11. Capital Crimes by Coerced Boys and Men
12. Capital Crimes by Wandering Boys and Men
13. Rape: The Crime, Its Punishment, and Its Pardons
14. Antebellum Lynchings of Blacks, Slave and Free
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index
