"Roadblocks to Freedom" considers the law of freedom suits and
manumission from the point-of-view of legal procedure, evidence
rules, damage awards, and trial practice-in addition to the
abstract principles stated in the appellate decisions. The author
shows that procedural and evidentiary roadblocks made it
increasingly impossible for many slaves, or free blacks who were
wrongfully held as slaves, to litigate their freedom. Even some of
the most celebrated cases in which the courts freed slaves must be
read as tempered by the legal realities the actors faced or the
courts actually recognized in the process.
Slave owners in almost all slave societies had the right to
manumit or free all or some of their slaves. Slavery law also
permitted people to win their freedom if they were held as slaves
contrary to law. Fede provides a comprehensive view of how some
enslaved litigants won their freedom in the court-and how many
others, like Dred and Harriet Scott, did not because of the
substantive and procedural barriers that both judges and
legislators placed in the way of people held in slavery who sought
their freedom in court.
From the 17th century to the Civil War, Southern governments
built roadblock after roadblock to the freedom sought by deserving
enslaved people, even if this restricted the masters' rights to
free their slaves or defied settled law. They increasingly
prohibited all manumissions and added layers of procedure to those
seeking freedom-while eventually providing a streamlined process by
which free blacks "voluntarily" enslaved themselves and their
children.
The author of "People Without Rights: An Interpretation of the
Law of Slavery in the United States South," Fede now draws on his
three decades of legal experience to take seriously the trial
process and rules under which slave cases were decided. He
considers how slave owners, slaves, and lawyers caused legal change
from the bottom up, and in courts and legislatures. Fede further
evaluates the U.S. pattern of legal change in relation to
developments in other slave societies, and he analyzes the rich
materials of legal history in light of their social, political, and
religious contexts.
""Roadblocks to Freedom" is a must read for anyone interested in
the legal history of slavery in the American South. Exhaustively
researched, the study picks apart, categorizes, and contextualizes
hundreds of cases and statutes addressing the efforts and abilities
of slaves to obtain their freedom and of masters to manumit those
they held in bondage. Fede's comprehensive analysis is matched only
by his careful attention to detail, painting a deeply nuanced
picture of the competing social, political, economic, and legal
interests at play when a slave's potential for liberty was at
stake."
- JASON A. GILLMER, Professor of Law and John J. Hemmingson Chair
in Civil Liberties, Gonzaga University
""Roadblocks to Freedom" is the most comprehensive study of the
law of manumission ever written. Fede has examined and analyzed
hundreds of cases and statutes from the antebellum South, and
provided a coherent framework for understanding the complex legal
issues that arose when masters tried to voluntarily free their
slaves. This book provides a solid and important resource for all
scholars in the field. All of us in the field are indebted to Fede
for this tremendous research and analysis."
- PAUL FINKELMAN, President William McKinley Distinguished
Professor of Law, Albany Law School
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