Dissertation Information for Emily Vanessa Blanck NAME: - Emily Vanessa Blanck
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (2003)
ADVISORS: - James L Roark
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Leslie M Harris - Michael A. Bellesiles
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Revolutionizing slavery: The legal culture of slavery in Revolutionary Massachusetts and South Carolina
Abstract: This dissertation examines the legal dialogue on slavery that ensued between South Carolina and Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary and Constitutional period using comparative history. This study not only compares the legal culture of slavery in Revolutionary Massachusetts and South Carolina but also places that comparison into its contemporary context. In other words, it shows that differences and similarities in slave law shaped Massachusetts, South Carolina, and the nation.
Although slavery began eroding as early as 1764, in 1783 the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts confronted the new United States with the complicated legal problem of a nation composed of both free and slave states. First, it legally abolished slavery in the state. Then, it freed from prison eight South Carolina slaves captured by the British during the late war. Because different legal understandings of slavery greatly shaped the relationship between these two states during the 178os, this study begins by comparing the early historical experience of slavery and slave law in both colonies, especially focusing upon the Revolutionary era, 1764-1789, using a traditional comparative method. These comparisons find that the actions of the slaves themselves propelled many important developments through their resistant activities legal and illegal during the Revolution that pressed for emancipation in Massachusetts and sparked a reactionary stance amongst the South Carolina elite. This dissertation then focuses on two significant developments in the era: the Tyrannicide affair, a little known case of captured slaves, and the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The debates over slavery in the Constitutional Convention were not isolated discussions of fifty-five white men in Philadelphia. Rather, they grew out of long-standing regional differences on the issue of slavery and were shaped by people who were not even at the convention, including free blacks, slaves, judges, and plantation owners.
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MPACT Scores for Emily Vanessa Blanck A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:33:51
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