Overview

The Dred Scott suit for freedom, argues Kelly M. Kennington, was merely the most famous example of a phenomenon that was more widespread in antebellum American jurisprudence than is generally recognized. The author draws on the case files of more than three hundred enslaved individuals who, like Dred Scott and his family, sued for freedom in the local legal arena of St. Louis. Her findings open new perspectives on the legal culture of slavery and the negotiated processes involved in freedom suits. As a gateway to the American West, a major port on both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and a focal point in the rancorous national debate over slavery's expansion, St. Louis was an ideal place for enslaved individuals to challenge the legal systems and, by extension, the social systems that held them in forced servitude. Kennington offers an in-depth look at how daily interactions, webs of relationships, and arguments presented in court shaped and reshaped legal debates and public attitudes over slavery and freedom in St. Louis. Kennington also surveys more than eight hundred state supreme court freedom suits from around the United States to situate the St. Louis example in a broader context. Although white enslavers dominated the antebellum legal system in St. Louis and throughout the slaveholding states, that fact did not mean that the system ignored the concerns of the subordinated groups who made up the bulk of the American population. By looking at a particular example of one group's encounters with the law-and placing these suits into conversation with similar en counters that arose in appellate cases nationwide-Kennington sheds light on the ways in which the law responded to the demands of a variety of actors.

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9781623497354

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Reviews

David Keller's In the Shadow of the Chinatis is not merely a deeply-researched, fine-grained human history of a remote and beautiful canyon of the Big Bend country of far West Texas. Subjecting its real-life characters to novel-like treatment, this book is an original creation, unique in the literature of the desert Southwest. I sense the birth of a classic. --Dan Flores, New York Times best-selling author of Coyote America--Dan Flores A truly masterful Texas borderlands history, polished, precise, elegant, thoughtful, and intelligent. --Thomas T. Smith, author of The Old Army in the Big Bend of Texas: The Last Cavalry Frontier, 1911-1921--Thomas T. Smith

A drive down Pinto Canyon road is now as much a part of the Big Bend visitor's ritual as the drive along the River Road from Lajitas to Presidio. Pinto Canyon is a much more intimate experience, made more so by David Keller's In the Shadow of the Chinati's: A History of Pinto Canyon. The incredible geology and the great biodiversity are immediately visible, but what Keller provides is the rich, but mostly invisible human history of Pinto Canyon. The story he tells is an important one, especially that of the Hispanic culture and families, which often goes untold. --Larry Francell, author of Fort Davis--Larry Francell David Keller's In the Shadow of the Chinatis is not merely a deeply-researched, fine-grained human history of a remote and beautiful canyon of the Big Bend country of far West Texas. Subjecting its real-life characters to novel-like treatment, this book is an original creation, unique in the literature of the desert Southwest. I sense the birth of a classic. --Dan Flores, New York Times best-selling author of Coyote America--Dan Flores A truly masterful Texas borderlands history, polished, precise, elegant, thoughtful, and intelligent. --Thomas T. Smith, author of The Old Army in the Big Bend of Texas: The Last Cavalry Frontier, 1911-1921--Thomas T. Smith

Author Information

David W. Keller is senior project archaeologist at the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University. He is the author of Below the Escondido Rim: A History of the O2 Ranch in the Texas Big Bend and Alpine. He resides in Alpine, Texas.

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