pt. 1. Race and the American legal process. 1. Introduction.
pt. 2. The black experience in Colonial America. 2. Virginia: the leader. The beginning ; The early cases ; The fear of an alliance among white indentured servants, Indians and blacks ; the special treatment of Indians ; Codification of prejudice: the early legislative experience ; Christianity: meaningful for whites but irrelevant for blacks ; White male domination and interracial sexual relations ; Manumission and emancipation ; Creditor and estate rights in slaves: were slaves like horses and dogs or like real estate? ; Rights of servants ; Nonrights of slaves and blacks ; Virginia: an evaluation
3. Massachusetts: slaves and the Pilgrims. Participation in the international slave trade ; Enslavement as punishment for crime ; The special brand of Indian enslavement ; Black slavery in New England ; Changing legal concepts of blacks ; Black codes in Massachusetts ; Movement for abolition ; Efforts to enact a Constitution ; Quock Walker: Did it abolish slavery in Massachusetts? ; Massachusetts: an evaluation
4. New York: from half-freedom to slavery, The New Netherlands experience ; the Dutch settlers: humane masters? ; The half-freedom status ; The ordinances and judicial rulings of New Netherland ; The early New York experience ; Statutory recognition of slavery under English rule ; Procedural rights of slaves and blacks ; Blacks as defendants ; The relevance of religion ; Manumission in New York ; Slave revolts and legislative reactions ; Revolutionary War and the impetus toward abolition ; Blacks in New York after the war ; The emancipation statute ; New York: an evaluation
5. South Carolina: white minority/black majority. Introduction ; The decline of indentured servitude for whites and the escalation of slavery for blacks ; White bondage in Colonial South Carolina ; Indian slavery ; Black slavery: "When I have land, what shall I doe with it?" ; The early Colonial period ; The later Colonial period: predominance of a rice economy ; Legislative enforcement of racial slavery ; Early legislation, 1690-1739 ; The limitation of slaves' liberties ; The pass system ; Trading ; Property held by slaves ; Hiring out ; Manumission ; The runaway slave ; Tensions in dealing with criminal slaves ; The magistrate's court ; Criminal offenses and penalties ; Detection of criminal offenses ; Compensation and incentives to enforce criminal penalties ; Slave assaults ; Protection of the slave ; Legislative efforts to raise revenue and restrict the black population ; Slave resistance: the Stono Rebellion of 1739 ; The 1740 code and subsequent slave legislation ; The 1740 slave code: to be kept in due subjection and obedience ; The 1751 slave legislation ; Christianity and slavery ; Free blacks in Colonial South Carolina ; Number and origin of free blacks ; Legal status of free blacks ; The judicial system and slavery ; General conditions of slaves during the Colonial period ; The practice of dealing with slaves as chattel property ; The court's protection of white servants ; South Carolina: an evaluation
6. Georgia: from antislavery to slavery. The importance of Georgia ; Was Georgia founded with humanitarian motives toward blacks? ; Origins of the antislavery law: the Georgia Charter ; The goals of Georgia ; The 1735 antislavery law ; The decision to ban slavery: a process of amoral decision-making ; Provisions of the antislavery law ; Lackadaisical enforcement of the 1735 antislavery law ; Judicial antagonism to the prohibition of slavery: a study in judicial activism against blacks ; Judicial disregard of explicit provisions of the 1735 law ; Slavery during the antislavery period ; The failure of the indentured servant system ; The growing political opposition to slavery ; The burden of competition ; The introduction of slavery: the 1750 slavery law ; Restraints of the 1750 law ; The slave codes of Georgia ; The 1755 slave code ; Protection of the slave's life under the code ; Assaults on slaves ; Slaves as defendants ; Trial procedures for slaves ; Patrol systems ; The 1765 and 1770 slave codes ; Laws on the hiring of blacks ; Georgia: an evaluation
7. Pennsylvania: the Quaker and German liberal influence. Introduction ; Slavery in pre-1700 Pennsylvania ; Comparative legal status of 17th-century white servants and blacks ; Statutory restrictions on blacks: the post-1700 era ; Judicial policy toward blacks ; To make "slaves examples of terror to others of their complexion" ; Manumission of slaves ; Legislative abolition of slavery ; Legislative refinements of the 1780 act ; The 1782 act ; The 1788 act ; Pennsylvania's tolerance and opposition to slavery: an evaluation
pt. 3. The English experience with slavery. 8. The setting. The economics of English slavery ; The developing English case law of slavery ; The influence of the abolitionists
9. The case of James Sommersett, a Negro. Hargrave's arguments in behalf of Sommersett ; The legal precedents for and against slavery ; Mr. Dunning, counsel for Stuart and Knowles ; Mr. Davy, counsel for Sommersett ; Lord Mansfield: an able and independent jurist ; The decision-making process ; The significance and impact of Sommersett
10. The legacy of Sommersett. The English abolition of the international slave trade and of slavery
pt. 4. The Revolution. 11. The Declaration of Independence: a self-evident truth or a self-evident lie? ; Roots of the Revolution ; The white colonists' perception of their enslavement ; The moral antecedents for challenging, in 1776, the continuance of slavery ; The discarded July 2 draft: a futile diatribe on the international slave trade ; The deleted clause ; The impact of the Declaration of Independence: "the tendency of a principle to expand itself to the limit of its logic"
Epilogue: In the matter of color ; Appendix: A note on the indentured servant system.
