Overview

Slavery cases decided in the Georgia Supreme Court, 1855 to 1860. These are abridgements of opinions issued by the Georgia Supreme Court. The opinions are taken from the official Georgia Supreme Court Reports, Volumes 19 through 30. Portions of the opinions dealing with generic contract law, estate law, property law, rules of evidence and procedure and the like, not bearing on the institution of slavery, have been deleted to shorten the length of this volume. Included are cases directly addressing the institution of slavery, as well as cases in which slaves are the subject of litigation, as in warranties of sale, distribution of estates, trust property, damages for death or injury to slave, etc. These cases illustrate the overwhelming role the institution of slavery played in the economy and wealth of the American slave states. Each court case involves an actual case in controversy containing a set of facts which serves to illustrates the lives of both the enslaved as well as free persons of color under slavery. These cases demonstrate that the institution of slavery was not an accidental historical phenomenon or informal social compact, but was the result of comprehensive system of laws regulating every aspect of the lives of the enslaved and free persons of color on the federal, state and municipal level, vigorously prosecuted by the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The discussion in these supreme court opinions also contain extensive dicta (the judges' policy rationales) from the judges seeking to justify slavery on constitutional, historical, moral, religious, and social bases. These opinions illustrate the extent to which slavery was ingrained in the social and economic life of the slave states, and provide insight into the slave states' motivation for secession and the ensuing racial repression in the former slave states after their rebellion. Rather than an apology for the 'lost cause, ' these Supreme Court opinions document the unabashed pride and conviction with which the state committed its crimes against humanity. The opinions include opinions from Judge Henry L. Benning, who later became an officer in the Confederate army, and namesake of the former Fort Benning, Georgia.

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