03704nam 22006852 450 991079040560332120151005020622.01-107-24176-61-139-88973-71-107-25127-31-139-56499-41-107-24795-01-107-25044-71-107-24878-71-107-24961-9(CKB)2550000001115125(EBL)1357363(OCoLC)843079235(SSID)ssj0000877387(PQKBManifestationID)11465851(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000877387(PQKBWorkID)10907425(PQKB)11315181(UkCbUP)CR9781139564991(MiAaPQ)EBC1357363(Au-PeEL)EBL1357363(CaPaEBR)ebr10753004(CaONFJC)MIL515427(EXLCZ)99255000000111512520120713d2013|||| uy| 0engur|||||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierFamily, law, and inheritance in America a social and legal history of nineteenth-century Kentucky /Yvonne Pitts, Purdue University[electronic resource]Cambridge :Cambridge University Press,2013.1 online resource (xiii, 203 pages) digital, PDF file(s)Cambridge historical studies in American law and societyTitle from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).1-107-03550-3 1-299-84176-7 Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-200) and index.1. 'Parental justice': inheritance and obligation in families -- 2. 'My black family': manumissions and freedom in inheritance disputes -- 3. Arbiters of sanity: medical experts and jurists -- 4. Physical impairments and degenerate minds: the body as evidence -- 5. A special power: women's testamentary capacity.Yvonne Pitts explores inheritance practices by focusing on nineteenth-century testamentary capacity trials in Kentucky in which disinherited family members challenged relatives' wills. These disappointed heirs claimed that their departed relative lacked the capacity required to write a valid will. These inheritance disputes criss-crossed a variety of legal and cultural terrains, including ordinary people's understandings of what constituted insanity and justice, medical experts' attempts to infuse law with science, and the independence claims of women. Pitts uncovers the contradictions in the body of law that explicitly protected free will while simultaneously reinforcing the primacy of blood in mediating claims to inherited property. By anchoring the study in local communities and the texts of elite jurists, Pitts demonstrates that 'capacity' was a term laden with legal meaning and competing communal values about family, race relations and rationality. These concepts evolved as Kentucky transitioned from a conflicted border state with slaves to a developing free-labor, industrializing economy.Cambridge historical studies in American law and society.Family, Law, & Inheritance in AmericaInheritance and successionKentucky19th centuryWillsKentucky19th centuryInheritance and successionWills346.76905/209034HIS036040bisacshPitts Yvonne1475324UkCbUPUkCbUPBOOK9910790405603321Family, law, and inheritance in America3689495UNINA