Dred Scott and his landmark Supreme court case are ingrained in the national memory, but he was just one of multitudes who appealed for their freedom in courtrooms across the country. Appealing for Liberty is the first study of its kind to give voice to these African Americans, drawing from more than two thousand suits and from the testimony of more than four thousand plaintiffs from the Revolutionary Era to the Civil War. Through the petitions, evidence, and testimony introduced in these court proceedings, the lives of the enslaved come sharply and poignantly into focus, as do many other aspects of southern society. This book depicts in graphic terms, the pain, suffering, fears, and trepidations of the plaintiffs while discussing the legal system--lawyers, judges, juries, and testimony--that made judgments on their "causes," as the suits were often called.
Arguments for freedom were diverse: slaves brought suits claiming they had been freed in wills and deeds, were born of free mothers, were descendants of free white women or Indian women; they charged that they were illegally imported to some states or were residents of the free states and territories. Those who testified on their behalf--usually against leaders of the communities--were generally white. So too were the lawyers who took these cases, many of them men of prominence, such as Francis Scott Key. More often than not, these men were slave owners themselves--complicating our understanding of race relations in the antebellum period.
A majority of the cases examined here were not appealed, nor did they create important judicial precedent. Indeed, most of the cases ended at the county, circuit, or district court level of various southern states. Yet the narratives of both those who gained their freedom and those who failed to do so, and the issues their suits raised, shed a bold and timely light on the history of race and liberty in the "land of the free."
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an important monograph that significantly advances the scholarship of slavery and the law ... Eschewing simple conclusions at every turn, Sweninger has rendered a detailed portrait of American life that deserves a wide audience of readers. * M. Scott Heerman, Journal of Social History * Because this book reflects brilliant scholarship, careful research, and a straightforward writing style, it merits wide readership. Anyone teaching courses in US history, sociology of law or race and ethnic relations, social problems, or related topics should incorporate this landmark report ... This unique data in the hands of a tenacious scholar opens new windows of rich understanding making this book a must read. * Thomas E. Drabek, Social Science Journal * The book will be well received in graduate history classrooms and as an abiding resource for scholars in the field of slavery and law. Its citations are robust, even exhaustive, and future researchers will treasure its more than one hundred pages of endnotes. Schweninger has again done noble service to the field with this latest contribution. * Taja-Nia Y. Henderson, Journal of Southern History * In attempting to fathom the mysteries of the legal system as it relates to the appeals for liberty...Professor Schweninger's book moves the needle a considerable distance farther along the road to successfully confronting our own innate racism and xenophobia. * Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland Historical Magazine * Loren Schweninger's Appealing for Liberty: Freedom Suits in the South, a painstakingly researched examination of freedom suits across the American South from the Revolutionary era into the Civil War ... Investigating a single county's or state's freedom suits over time is a tall order, and a typical synthesis of a legal phenomenon across the American South over a period of eight decades might easily lose sight of the very individuals whose lives are being examined. In Appealing for Liberty, however, we never lose sight of the men, women, and children "who wore the shoe," and as a result, as Mr. Reed suggested to his Fisk University interviewer long ago, "by and by from one to the other," Schweninger has gotten quite a book. * Ted Maris-Wolf, The American Historical Review * a remarkable book. The sheer depth of research, both in terms of time and geography, provides confidence in its conclusions ... Appealing for Liberty should be read by those interested in American slavery and the workings of the antebellum southern legal system. * Jeremy T. Canipe, North Carolina Historical Review * a successful effort... [that] brings to great attention the complex intersection of slavery and the law * David H. Connolly Jr, Civil War Book review * provides a detailed examination of slaves in the US South who used the courts to sue for their freedom. The work includes examples of the different kinds of approaches ... making sure slaves are viewed as the primary actors in their destiny, not just being used by white lawyers or abolitionists ... the numerous sources provided are invaluable to all scholars of slavery ... Recommended. * K. L. Gorman, CHOICE * Appealing for Liberty unearths strands of history and experience that might seem counterintuitive at first, but that make cear this book's novel contribution to the literature. * Harvard Law Review * Appealing for Liberty is an important addition to the alrady existing books on the history of slavery in the United States. It is an amazing work of legal and historical scholarship that shines a light on the little-explored African American's legal struggle for freedom and the dark corners of our history. Appealing for Liberty is a meticulously researched work of scholarship that is possibly the best book on the subject. * Wash Book Review * Overall, this is a seminal contribution to the profession, and much further work can and should be built upon this and the immense source and dataset provided by Schweninger and the RSPP. * Nicole Topich, H-Net Reviews * ... the entire historical profession owes Schweninger an enormous debt. His remarkable efforts to find and share the freedom suits filed by thousands of black plaintiffs held in bondage across the United States have given scholars, students, and the general public alike an unparalleled resource that can help us all better understand the history of slavery and the law in this country. * Anne Twitty, Missouri Historical Review *
Loren Schweninger is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where he taught for forty years. He was Director of the Race and Slavery Petitions Project from 1991-2009, creating the Digital Library on American Slavery during his tenure, and is the author of numerous books, including the Lincoln-prize winning Runaway Slaves: Rebels in the Plantations (2010).
Autor*in
Professor EmeritusProfessor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. African American Women and the Genealogy of Slavery2. Slave Plaintiffs and the Law3. Slave Plaintiffs and the Courts4. Manumission by Wills and Deeds5. Term Slaves6. Descendants of Free Women7. The Question of Residency8. A Journey toward Freedom9. Runaways10. Husbands and Wives11. Mothers and Children12. Lawyers and Their Slave Clients13. The Vass Slaves of Virginia, 1831-1860ConclusionAppendix: A Brief Profile of Freedom Suits and ResultsAbbreviations and Note on SourcesNotesSelected Bibliography
