1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910964719203321

Autore

Middleton Stephen

Titolo

The Black laws : race and the legal process in early Ohio / / Stephen Middleton

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Athens, Ohio, : Ohio University Press, c2005

ISBN

0-8214-4158-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (375 p.)

Collana

Ohio University Press series on law, society, and politics in the Midwest

Disciplina

342.7308/73

Soggetti

African Americans - Legal status, laws, etc - Ohio - History

Race discrimination - Law and legislation - Ohio - History

Race discrimination - Ohio - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-355) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Ambiguous beginnings, 1787-1801 -- The many meanings of freedom, 1800-1803 -- "A state for white men," 1803-1830 -- The battle over the color line, 1830-1839 -- The struggle to abolish the color line, 1840-1849 -- Enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, 1803-1850 -- The fugitive slave crisis in the 1850s -- The limits of freedom.

Sommario/riassunto

Beginning in 1803, the Ohio legislature enacted what came to be known as the Black Laws. These laws instituted barriers against blacks entering the state and placed limits on black testimony against whites. Basing his narrative on massive primary research, often utilizing previously unexplored sources, Stephen Middleton tells the story of racial oppression in Ohio and recounts chilling episodes of how blacks asserted their freedom by challenging the restrictions in the racial codes until the state legislature repealed some pernicious features in 1849 and finally abolished them in 1886. The fastest-growing state in antebellum America and the destination of whites from the North and the South, Ohio also became the destination for thousands of southern blacks, both free and runaway. Thus, nineteenth-century Ohio became a legal battleground for two powerful and far-reaching impulses in the history of race and law in America. One was the use of state power to further racial discrimination, and the other was the thirst of African Americans and their white allies for equality under the law for all Americans. Written in a clear and compelling style, this pathbreaking



study will be required reading for historians, legal scholars, students, and those interested in the struggle for civil rights in America.