Fathers of Conscience examines high-court decisions in the antebellum South that involved wills in which white male planters bequeathed property, freedom, or both to women of color and their mixed-race children. These men, whose wills were contested by their white relatives, had used trusts and estates law to give their slave partners and children official recognition and thus circumvent the law of slavery. The will contests that followed determined whether that elevated status would be approved or denied by courts of law.

Bernie D. Jones argues that these will contests indicated a struggle within the elite over race, gender, and class issues—over questions of social mores and who was truly family. Judges thus acted as umpires after a man's death, deciding whether to permit his attempts to provide for his slave partner and family. Her analysis of these differing judicial opinions on inheritance rights for slave partners makes an important contribution to the literature on the law of slavery in the United States.

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Yes, you can access Fathers of Conscience by Bernie Jones, Kermit Hall, Paul Finkelman, Timothy Huebner in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher

University of Georgia Press

Year

2011

ISBN

9780820342306

Topic

History

Subtopic

North American History

Index

History

COVER
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION. Inheritance Rights in the Antebellum South
CHAPTER ONE. Righteous Fathers, Vulnerable Old Men, and Degraded Creatures
CHAPTER TWO. Slavery, Freedom, and the Rule of Law
CHAPTER THREE. Justice and Mercy in the Kentucky Court of Appeals
CHAPTER FOUR. Circling the Wagons and Clamping Down: The Mississippi High Court of Errors and Appeals
CHAPTER FIVE. The People of Barnwell against the Supreme Court of South Carolina: The Case of Elijah Willis
CONCLUSION. The Law’s Paradox of Property and Power: The Significance of Geography
APPENDIX ONE. Case Indexes
APPENDIX TWO. Opinions on the Emancipation of Slaves during George Robertson’s Tenure as Chief Justice
APPENDIX THREE. Supplementary Information Regarding
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY
INDEX