The Emergence and Evolution of Slavery Legislation in Antebellum Louisiana

Authors

  • Madison Faizon UHC Honors Distinction Program

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2021.22

Abstract

Louisiana emerged from the periphery of the American colonies to form a powerful commercial and economic center. The state’s development of sovereignty, wealth, infrastructure, and legislation relied heavily on the unsalaried labor of Enslaved individuals. The chattel slave market particularly shaped the state’s government structure and character. Slavery legislation developed with the influence European legal traditions. Beginning with the enactment of the French ordonnance, Code Noir, and finally the Spanish oartacion. These legislative forces influenced the drafting and enactment of the Louisiana’s first Civil Code in 1808. This Code married the ideals of French, Spanish, Roman, and English legal traditions. It established Enslaved individuals position as subordinate, expendable property. This legal commodification of human beings occurred over centuries and continues to persist as a barrier for equality and justice for all. The legal legacy of slavery legislation in the United States continues to impact the field in the present moment.

References

Aslakson, Kenneth R. Making Race in the Courtroom: The Legal Construction of Three Races in New Orleans New York: New York University Press, 2014.

Cook, Poteet. “"Dem Was Black Times, Sure ‘Nough": The Slave Narratives of Lydia Jefferson and Stephen Williams.’” Louisiana history 20, no. 3 (July 1, 1979): 281–292.

Louisiana. Constitutional Convention (1844-1845). (1845). Journal of the proceedings of the Convention of the State of Louisiana: begun and held in the city of New Orleans, on the 14th day of January, 1845. New Orleans: Besancon, Ferguson & co., printers to the convention.

Marler, Scott P. The Merchants' Capital: New Orleans and the Political Economy of the Nineteenth-Century South. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Accessed November 15, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central

Palmer, Vernon V. Through the Codes Darkly: Slave Law and Civil Law in Louisiana Clark, N.J: Lawbook Exchange, 2012.

Philadelphia Female Anti-slavery Society. Extracts from the American slave code. [Philadelphia]: [Philadelphia Female Anti-slavery Society], [18??]. The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800–1926 (accessedOctober 26, 2020). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/F0101807297/MOML?u=upitt_main&sid=MOML&xid=eb78fdc9.

Schafer, Judith Kelleher. Slavery, the Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.

Cover image of issue 1. View of Cathedral of Learning against a night sky, with PUR logo. Light appears on on the 36th floor.

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Published

2021-07-21

How to Cite

Faizon, M. . (2021). The Emergence and Evolution of Slavery Legislation in Antebellum Louisiana. Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2021.22

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2021): Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review

Section

Research

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