Neither fugitive nor free : Atlantic slavery, freedom suits, and the legal culture of travel

Title:

Author:

Wong, Edlie L., author.

ISBN:

9780814795460

Personal Author:

Wong, Edlie L., author.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 pages) : illustrations, map.

Series:

America and the long 19th century

America and the long 19th century.

Contents:

Introduction: traveling slaves and the geopolitics of freedom -- Emancipation after "the Laws of Englishmen" -- Choosing kin in antislavery literature and law -- Gender of freedom before Dred Scott -- Crime of color in the Negro Seaman Acts -- Conclusion: fictions of free travel.

Abstract:

Studies lawsuits to gain freedom for slaves on the grounds of their having traveled to free territory, starting with Somerset v. Stewart (England, 1772), Commonwealth v. Aves (Massachussetts, 1836), Dred Scott v. Sanford, and cases brought questioning the legitimacy of Negro Seamen Acts in the antebellum coastal South. These lawsuits and accounts of them are compared to fugitive slave narratives to shed light on both. The differing impact of freedom obtained from such suits for men and women (women could claim that their children were free, once they were judged free) is examined.

Local Note:

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2016. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.

Subject Term:

Slaves -- Travel -- History -- 19th century.

Blacks -- Travel -- History -- 19th century.

Slave narratives -- History and criticism.

American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.

American literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism.

Slaves -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States -- History -- 19th century.

Antislavery movements -- United States -- History -- 19th century.

Slavery -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History -- 19th century.

Law and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century.