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Full-Text Articles in Law

Slavery And The Arkansas Supreme Court, L. Scott Stafford Apr 1997

Slavery And The Arkansas Supreme Court, L. Scott Stafford

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Origins Of The Code Noir Revisited, Alan Watson Mar 1997

The Origins Of The Code Noir Revisited, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

In a recent article, The Origins and Authors of the Code Noir, my friend Vernon Palmer graciously and courteously took me to task for claiming that the law in the Code Noir was not made "on the spot" in the Antilles, but in Paris. He also said of me and of Hans Baade, "neither author appears to have investigated the actual circumstances of the Code's redaction." I can speak only for myself, and I confess with shame that Professor Palmer is quite correct. I did not investigate the actual circumstances of the redaction of the Code Noir. And I should …


The Devil And The One Drop Rule: Racial Categories, African Americans, And The U.S. Census, Christine B. Hickman Mar 1997

The Devil And The One Drop Rule: Racial Categories, African Americans, And The U.S. Census, Christine B. Hickman

Michigan Law Review

For generations, the boundaries of the African-American race have been formed by a rule, informally known as the "one drop rule," which, in its colloquial definition, provides that one drop of Black blood makes a person Black. In more formal, sociological circles, the rule is known as a form of "hypodescent" and its meaning remains basically the same: anyone with a known Black ancestor is considered Black. Over the generations, this rule has not only shaped countless lives, it has created the African-American race as we know it today, and it has defined not just the history of this race …


Was Slavery Unconstitutional Before The Thirteenth Amendment? Lysander Spooner’S Theory Of Interpretation, Randy E. Barnett Jan 1997

Was Slavery Unconstitutional Before The Thirteenth Amendment? Lysander Spooner’S Theory Of Interpretation, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 1843, radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called the Constitution of the United States, "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." Why? Because it sanctioned slavery, one of the greatest crimes that one person can commit against another. Slavery was thought by abolitionists to be a violation of the natural rights of man so fundamental that, as Lincoln once remarked: "If slavery were not wrong, nothing is wrong." Yet the original U.S. Constitution was widely thought to have sanctioned this crime. Even today, many still believe that, until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude, slavery …