Local Matters: Race, Crime, and Justice in the Nineteenth-Century South

christopher waldrep

Much of the current reassessment of race, culture, and criminal justice in the nineteenth-century South has been based on intensive community studies. Drawing on previously untapped sources, the nine original papers collected here represent some of the best new work on how racial justice can be shaped by the particulars of time and place. Although each essay is anchored in the local, several important larger themes emerge across the volume--such as the importance of personality and place, the movement of former slaves from the capriciousness of "plantation justice" to the (theoretically) more evenhanded processes of the courts, and the increased presence of government in daily aspects of American life. "Local Matters" cites a wide range of examples to support these themes. One essay considers the case of a quasi-free slave in Natchez, Mississippi--himself a slaveowner--who was "reined in" by his master through the courts, while another shows how federal aims were subverted during trials held in the aftermath of the 1876 race riots in Ellenton, South Carolina. Other topics covered include the fear of black criminality as a motivation of Klan activity; the career of Thomas Ruffin, slaveowner and North Carolina Supreme Court Justice; blacks and the ballot in Washington County, Texas; the overturned murder conviction of a North Carolina slave who had killed a white man; the formation of a powerful white bloc in Vicksburg, Mississippi; agitation by black and white North Carolina women for greater protections from abusive white male elites; and slaves, crime, and the common law in New Orleans. Together, these studies offer new insights into the nature of law and the fate of due process at different stages of a highly racialized society.

Genres american history

264 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1,2001

This edition

Format: 264 pages, Hardcover
Published: April 2, 2001 by University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820322476
ASIN: 0820322474
Language: English

About the author

christopher waldrep

Prof. Waldrep became the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History at SFSU in August, 2000. Previously professor of history at Eastern Illinois University, he is the author of Night Riders: Defending Community in the Black Patch (1993); Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South, 1817-80 (1998); Racial Violence on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents (2001); The Many Faces of Judge Lynch (2002); Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance (2005); African Americans Confront Lynching: Strategies of Resistance from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Era (2009). His most recent book is Jury Discrimination: The Supreme Court, Public Opinion, and a Grassroots Fight for Racial Equality in Mississippi (2010). The Supreme Court Historical Society announced on June 7, 2010, that its Hughes-Gossett Award for the best journal article went to Professor Christopher Waldrep for his article entitled "Joseph P. Bradley's Journey: The Meaning of Privileges and Immunities." He is also founding and senior editor of H-Law.