>>> Item number 820, dated 94/09/19 22:03:01 -- ALL
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 22:03:01 -0500 Reply-To: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Legal History discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Re: Counsel for Slave
>
Dear Natalie,
I would think Paul Finkelman would be the person your student would wish to talk to; I think he is at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and he wrote a wonderful book cataloguing and commenting on the slavery trials in the Library of Congress.
As you may know, our inventory is also on line, and your student could search it by e-mail; the method would be to send an e-mail message to "rare-lawbooks@netcom.com" with the word "search" in the subject field, and the phrase "search slavery" as the message.
Meyer Boswell Books, Inc.
Becomes First American Antiquarian Bookshop
to Put Its Inventory on the INTERNET
> Meyer Boswell Books, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has put a
catalogue of its books on the Internet. The bookshop, which specializes exclusively in rare and scholarly law , has been in business since 1979, and is a member of the American Association of Antiquarian Booksellers.
Its catalogue consists of the approximately 6,000 books presently in its inventory, and is easily searchable by e-mail; orders for the books may also be placed.
To receive a Help file which describes both how to search and how to order, send an e-mail message to rare-lawbooks@netcom.com. In the subject field put the word help, and likewise in the message field put the same word. Your message will thus read:
To: rare-lawbooks@netcom.com
Subject: help
Message: help
Please also feel free to call or write:
Meyer Boswell Books, Inc.
2141 Mission Street
San Francisco CA 94110
415 255-6400
FAX 415 255-6499
All the best,
Joe
>>> Item number 1026, dated 95/01/17 16:56:47 -- ALL
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 16:56:47 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: slavery database at Harvard
From: IN%"h-business@cs.muohio.edu" 11-JAN-1995 22:53:32.06
The following appeared Summer 1994
edition of _Uncommon Sense_, newsletter of Inst. of Early Amer Hist &
Culture, and was submitted to H-Business at Austin Kerr's invitation (I
thought many subscribers in other fields would be interested in knowing
about the project).
Research Note on the Atlantic Slave Trade Database Project
In 1993 the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create a consolidated database on the Atlantic slave trade. The aim of the project is to computerize voyage data on most of the slave voyages that sailed from Africa to the Americas from the sixteenth century to the 1860's. The core data will consist of over 200 fields of information, including fields for the names of vessels, captains and shipowners, regions and dates of trade in Europe, Africa and the Americas, and the number, age and gender of slaves confined on the Middle Passage. When the project is completed in three to five years, data on the Atlantic slave trade will be available through computer networking services such as Internet.
The first stage of the project established fields of information and integrated numerous computerized data-sets of Atlantic slave voyages that historians have compiled over the past twenty-five years. These sets include: Herbert S. Klein on the slave trades to Havana (1790-1820), Rio de Janeiro (1795-1811) and Virginia (1727-1769), and the Angola slave trade (1723-1771); Svend E. Green-Pedersen on the Danish slave trade (1698-1789); David Eltis on the Atlantic slave trade (1811-1867); and Johannes Postma on the Dutch slave trade (1675-1802).
The second stage of the project will computerize published and unpublished sets of slave voyage data compiled by Jean Mettas (French slave trade), Jay Coughtry (Rhode Island slave trade), James Rawley and Joseph Inikori (British slave trades), and then will integrate several new British slave trade data-sets created by Stephen D. Behrendt, David Eltis and David Richardson. Well over half of all transatlantic slave voyages--including the majority of British, French and Dutch slave voyages--soon will be recorded in machine-readible format. The major tasks in the project are the matching of fields of information created from widely different sources often for different purposes, and the elimination of duplicate voyages.
When completed, the core set of more than 20,000 transatlantic slave voyages will comprise the largest data source for the long-distance movement of peoples before the twentieth century. Refined demographic data on the volume of the trade (and thus of pre-colonial African populations) and the spatial distribution of African peoples throughout the Atlantic world will allow scholars to assess more accurately questions of African state formation, agricultural and ecological change, African cultural survivals, and the development of the Atlantic economies. Sub-sets of information on vessel tonnage, slave age/gender ratios, and crew/slave mortality will permit a more thorough analysis of shipping productivity, patterns of family structures, and disease transmission in the Atlantic world.
The database has been organized so that additional information on slave voyages can be added easily to the set and so that related information, such as African climatic patterns, slave phenotypes, slave rebellions, or slave prices, can be linked to the main data-set through a common variable such as the vessel name or the voyage identification number. Building related files will broaden the scope of analysis from the slave voyage to the impact of the transatlantic slave trade in the creation of the modern world. Indeed, it eventually may be possible to relate individual Africans or groups of Africans to the vessel on which they were disembarked in the Americas, as has been done with other migrant groups.
The project organizers welcome additional data on transatlantic slave voyages to include in the consolidated data-set.
Stephen D. Behrendt, U. Northern Iowa, steve.behrendt@cobra.uni.edu David Eltis, Queen's University, eltisd@qucdn.queensu.ca
>>> Item number 1060, dated 95/01/27 20:40:24 -- ALL
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 20:40:24 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: From Slavery to the Supreme Court exhibit and programs
From: "Wishinsky, Janet" <jwishinsky@ccmail.wiwb.uscourts.gov>
An exhibit on the role of African Americans in the federal courts
opens to the public Saturday, February 4th and runs through April
1, 1995 in the Special Collections Exhibition Hall, 9th floor of
the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 South State Street,
Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit, entitled "From Slavery to the
Supreme Court: The African American Journey Through the Federal
Courts" features photographs, documents, and other memorabilia
beginning with slavery and exploring the progress of African
Americans as litigants, lawyers and judges in the federal courts.
The exhibit also highlights the careers of several African
American federal judges in Illinois.
The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library and the
Just the Beginning Foundation. JTBF is an independent,
not-for-profit public interest group which was created in 1992 by
judges, lawyers, and other individuals within our federal judicial
system. The foundation's purpose is to educate the public and
serve as a repository for historical data on the contributions of
African Americans to the federal system. In addition, JTBF awards
scholarships to law students and fellowships to public interest
attorneys.
During the course of the exhibit, JTBF, the Chicago Public Library
and many Chicago area bar associations and legal organizations
will mount a series of public educational programs such as films,
gallery talks, and lectures. Two full days of programs (listed
below) will be offered in the Harold Washington Library Center,
400 S. State Street, Auditorium, Lower Level, on February 4th and
11th. For further information on these forums, call (312)
747-4740. For information on the educational programs being
hosted by the local branch libraries, contact the branches
directly. All programs are free and open to the public.
Forum I, February 4, 1995:
The Federal Judiciary: The Female Perspective, 9:30 am to 10:30
am, a lecture by the Honorable Ann Claire Williams, United States
District Court, Northern District of Illinois. Judge Williams
will also receive an award from the sponsoring organizations, the
Black Women Lawyers' Association and the Women's Bar Association.
May It Please the Court, 10:30 am to 11:15 am, a re-enactment of a
famous United States Supreme Court arguement by members of the
Cook County Bar Association and the Justinian Society.
Building a House United: How the African American Civil Rights
Movement has Affected Latinos and the Latino Civil Rights Agenda,
11:15 am to 12:45 pm, a panel discussion sponsored by the Latin
American Bar Association and the Mexican American Lawyers'
Association.
Examination of Witnesses by the Experts, 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm, a
demonstration of trial techniques sponsored by the Federal Bar
Association.
150 Years of the African American Lawyer, 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm, a
video presentation illuminating the history of African American
lawyers, screening made possible by the American Bar Association.
Forum II: February 11, 1995
We Are The Court, 9:30 am to 10:15 am, a student dramatization
of the lives and careers of six prominent African American judges
sponsored by the Cook County Bar Association.
Young Advocates, 10:15 am to 11:30 am, a moot court demonstration
by high school students sponsored by the National Black
Prosecutor's Association.
Living African American History Award, 1:00 pm to 1:45 pm, the
presentation of an award to Judge George L. Leighton by the Harold
Washington Library.
Be It Resolved: That the African American Lawyer Must Shift the
Struggle from the Civil Rights to a Drive for Political and
Economic Empowerment to Arrive at Justice in Our Time, 1:45 pm to
3:00 pm, a debate sponsored by the National Bar Association.
What Would the World Be Like if There Were No African American
Judges?, 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, a reading of winning student essays
and award presentation sponsored and judged by the Chicago Bar
Association's Young Lawyers' Section.
Janet Wishinsky
Circuit Librarian
(312) 435-5660
jwishinsky@wiwd.uscourts.gov
>>> Item number 1064, dated 95/01/29 20:57:57 -- ALL
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 20:57:57 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Re: From Slavery to the Supreme Court exhibit and programs
From: ST57L@Jetson.UH.EDU
Would there be any available video tapes of the forums afterward? I'm in law school in Houston, TX, and can't make it to Chicago, but I'm extremely interested in the exhibits/forums. Please write back on this list or to me privately. Thanks
> print 1068,1070,1074,1081,1086,1095,1093 >>> Item number 1068, dated 95/01/31 07:41:14 -- ALL
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 07:41:14 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Re: From Slavery to the Supreme Court exhibit and programs
From: John Paul Jones <JONES@uofrlaw.urich.edu>
Benjamin from Houston wrote asking about video tapes of the above exhibit. I, too, would like the answer, and move its report on the list.
John Paul Jones
School of Law
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173
Jones@UofRLaw.URich.edu
>>> Item number 1070, dated 95/01/31 18:03:13 -- ALL
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 18:03:13 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Re: From Slavery to the Supreme Court exhibit and programs
From: "Wishinsky, Janet" <jwishinsky@ccmail.wiwb.uscourts.gov>
>
> Would there be any available video tapes of the forums
> afterward? I'm in law school in Houston, TX, and can't make it to
> Chicago, but I'm extremely interested in the exhibits/forums. Please
> write back on this list or to me privately. Thanks
> - Benjamin, ST57L@jetson.uh.edu, University of Houston Law Center
>
There are plans to do a video, but the details haven't yet been
worked out.
I was also asked if there was to be a catalog of the exhibition.
This is still under discussion with the Chicago Public Library.
As I acquire the info, I'll put it on the list.
Janet Wishinsky
Library of the U.S.Courts
Chicago, IL
jwishinsky@wiwd.uscourts.gov
>>> Item number 1074, dated 95/02/01 15:55:31 -- ALL
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 15:55:31 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Re: From Slavery to the Supreme Court exhibit and programs
From: M Landon <HSLANDON%UMSVM@UICVM.UIC.EDU>
I want you all to know that I downloaded yesterday's announcement of the exhibit (though not the programs on 2/4 and 2/11) for inclusion in our ASLH Winter/95 NEWSLETTER that is now in the process of being put together.
Michael Landon
Sec'y-Treas., ASLH
>>> Item number 1081, dated 95/02/06 17:09:56 -- ALL
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 17:09:56 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Status of Slaves
Some time ago Christopher Tomlins asked Mary Schweitzer to provide some cites on the matter of the early Chesapeake's inability to distinguish between the statuses of slavery and indentured servitude. Tomlins offered evidence from Ames, *County Court Records of Accomack-Northamption* to suggest that planters had no trouble distinguishing between slaves and indentured servants.
Schweitzer responded with cites to certain texts.
This seems an unsatisfactory conclusion to this discussion. If the text book contradicts the County Court records evidence, then something is wrong with that text!
This is certainly not my area, but I remember reading some time ago TH Breen and Stephen Innes, *"Myne Own Ground": Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676.* Breen and Innes claim that the "possibility of a genuinely miltiracial society became a reality during the years before Bacon's Rebellion." (5) The authors add that "We argue that it was not until the slave codes of 1705 that the tragic fate of Virginia's black population was finally sealed." (5)
We have several slavery experts on the H-Law list. Can anyone comment on this? Was it not until the 1705 slave codes that the fate of black Virginians became "sealed"?
Chris Waldrep
cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu
>>> Item number 1086, dated 95/02/07 15:17:40 -- ALL
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 15:17:40 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Slaves and Servants
From: "Lawrence M. Friedman" <lmf@leland.stanford.edu>
>Was it not until the 1705 slave codes that the fate of black
>Virginians became "sealed"?
>
I'm also not an expert; but the slave code of 1705 incorporated a lot of earlier material-- for example, 17th century statutes that made the status of slavery inherited (from the mother), and also provided that conversion to Christianity did not free a slave. The statutes also clearly drew a color line. I don't know what "sealed" means-- maybe that's the problem. A law/custom of slavery crystallized before 1705--that much seems clear-- and it was race-based--that too seems clear.
From: pschwarz@cabell.vcu.edu (Philip J. Schwarz)
In reference to the Breen-Innes metaphor of sealing: One can quibble about when the fate of African-Americans in Virginia was "sealed." The 1705 Virginia slave code is an excellent "marker" of that sealing. Three changes occurred before that "sealing" could take place. First, slaves began to outnumber whites in the labor force, earlier in some counties than in others, but generally by the 1690s. Second, in response to the increasing number of slaves and to the need for legal definition of slave status, burgesses passed a series of acts from the 1660s on. Most of these acts were melded into the 1705 code. These laws dealt with the inheritance of slave status, baptism, "correction" of slaves, insurrection, origins, miscegenation, and the adaptation of the criminal justice system, etc. Third, whites--especially legislators--learned how to perceive the African-American presence. Their learning was based on the West Indian experience, on laws for servants, laws for Indians, and experience. As Morgan, Canny, and others have shown, the English treatment of the conquered Irish was another source of "learning."
One can discuss many other factors in the developing legal distinctions between servants and slaves in 17th-century Virginia. Doug Deal's and Tony Parent's dissertations are quite helpful concerning this discussion. I'm focusing on the developmental aspect of the "sealing" of slaves' fate in Virginia. Using Orlando Patterson, one could say that the coffin for the socially dead African-Americans in Virginia was sealed over time. The final sealing occurred in 1705. From 1705 to 1865 a grave was dug for the coffin and dirt was piled on.
Before my metaphor becomes too stupid, I'll quit.
Philip J. Schwarz
Department of History
Virginia Commonwealth University
pschwarz@cabell.vcu.edu
>>> Item number 1095, dated 95/02/08 16:42:01 -- ALL
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 16:42:01 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Re: Status of slaves
I guess the question I have has to do with the evidence that I had read existed of there being some AFricans in early Virginia who had been freed after serving a term of servitude, rather than held in perpetual slavery. Even if some planters effectively adopted the system of New Slavery from the beginning, I understood there to be some evidence that in the first decades, there were others who treated African bondage as a temporary phenomenon. In my memory, it is tied into the evidence of marriages between European and African servants. (I also recall that the slave codes by 1660 included provisos restricting the free movement of FREE African-Americans, which might imply that there were free African-Americans somewhere in Virginia at the time.) Doug -- would your work shed light on this? -- Mary Schweitzer
>>> Item number 1093, dated 95/02/08 09:34:02 -- ALL
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 09:34:02 -0600 Reply-To: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: H-Net and ASLH Legal History Discussion list <H-LAW@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chris Waldrep <cfcrw@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu> Subject: Re: Status of slaves
H-South posted the same slave/servants message that appeared on H-Law. This reply recently appeared:
From: "J. Douglas Deal" <deal@oswego.Oswego.EDU>
In answer to Chris Waldrep's and Chris Tomlins's questions about the status of slaves in early Virginia, I would suggest that both sides in the "origins debate" (Alden Vaughan's term--see his article in the July 1989 issue of the VIRGINIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY or his new book from OUP) are right and both sides are wrong.
It is true that race relations in Virginia were more fluid and unpredictable before 1700 than after AND that Virginians made clear distinctions at an early date between servants and slaves. The fact that we can see these distinctions early on, though, does NOT mean that slavery and racism were present in fully articulated form from day one. Like other institutions and ideologies, they took time to evolve, and they changed over time.
I have used Eastern Shore records extensively myself in writing about servitude, slavery, and race relations (J.D. Deal, RACE AND CLASS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 1993) and can offer two quick examples of servant-slave distinctions found throughout the 17th century records: 1) Servants, but not slaves, routinely brought complaints against their masters in the county courts and even, on occasion, won judgments against them. 2) Maidservants, but not female slaves (with only one exception I have found), were hauled before grand juries and county courts for bastard-bearing.
Breen and Innes are roughly correct in suggesting that life was becoming grimmer for slaves and free blacks after 1700 or so (no magic about 1705), but they are wrong, I think, to suggest that in earlier decades (before 1676, especially, in their account) access to property and freedom from discrimination brought success to a contingent of free blacks. They exaggerate the success in several ways. Most of that contingent never really owned "their own ground" anyway, at least not for any length of time.
Doug Deal
History/SUNY-Oswego