Slave Laws in Virginia

The five essays in Slave Laws in Virginia explore two centuries of the ever-changing relationship between a major slave society and the laws that guided it. The topics covered are diverse, including the African judicial background of African American slaves, Thomas Jefferson's relationship with the laws of slavery, the capital punishment of slaves, nineteenth-century penal transportation of slaves from Virginia as related to the interstate slave trade and the changing market for slaves, and Virginia's experience with its own fugitive slave laws. Through the history of one large extended family of ex-slaves, Philip J. Schwarz's conclusion examines how the law shaped the interaction between former slaves and masters after emancipation.

Instead of relying on a static view of these two centuries, the author focuses on the diverse and changing ways that lawmakers and law enforcers responded to slaves' behavior and to whites' perceptions of and assumptions about that behavior.

Author: Philip J. Schwarz
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 05/15/2010
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.61d
ISBN: 9780820335162

About the Author
PHILIP J. SCHWARZ is a professor of history emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of numerous books including Migrants against Slavery: Virginians and the Nation and Twice Condemned: Slaves and the Criminal Laws of Virginia, 1705-1865.