In these absorbing accounts of five court cases, Jason A. Gillmer offers intimate glimpses into Texas society in the time of slavery. Each story unfolds along boundaries—between men and women, slave and free, black and white, rich and poor, old and young—as rigid social orders are upset in ways that drive people into the courtroom.

One case involves a settler in a rural county along the Colorado River, his thirty-year relationship with an enslaved woman, and the claims of their children as heirs. A case in East Texas arose after an owner refused to pay an overseer who had shot one of her slaves. Another case details how a free family of color carved out a life in the sparsely populated marshland of Southeast Texas, only to lose it all as waves of new settlers "civilized" the county. An enslaved woman in Galveston who was set free in her owner's will—and who got an uncommon level of support from her attorneys—is the subject of another case. In a Central Texas community, as another case recounts, citizens forced a Choctaw native into court in an effort to gain freedom for his slave, a woman who easily "passed" as white.

The cases considered here include Gaines v. Thomas, Clark v. Honey, Brady v. Price, and Webster v. Heard. All of them pitted communal attitudes and values against the exigencies of daily life in an often harsh place. Here are real people in their own words, as gathered from trial records, various legal documents, and many other sources. People of many colors, from diverse backgrounds, weave their way in and out of the narratives. We come to know what mattered most to them—and where those personal concerns stood before the law.

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Yes, you can access Slavery and Freedom in Texas by Jason A. Gillmer, Paul Finkelman, Timothy Huebner in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Law & Legal History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher

University of Georgia Press

Year

2017

ISBN

9780820351322

Topic

Law

Subtopic

Legal History

Index

Law

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: White Slaves and Ownership Rights in Central Texas
Chapter One: Sex, Race, and Family on the Gulf Coast
Chapter Two: Slave Resistance and Class Conflict in the Redlands
Chapter Three: A Free Family of Color on the Borderland
Chapter Four: Lawyers and Slaves on Galveston Island
Conclusion: Telling Stories of Slavery and Freedom
Notes
Bibliography
Index