Reason of Slavery: Understanding the Judicial Role in the Peculiar Institution (Part One)

This brief survey has superficially touched upon the most prominent works of the historiography of slavery and has ignored the large mass of work on subjects such as slavery in the various states, slave rebellions, slave reminiscences, and the anti-slavery crusade. With the exception of the Civil War, perhaps more has been written about slavery than any other aspect of southern history. Despite the great amount of scholarship devoted to the study of slavery, however, there has been, as Keir Nash points out, little scholarly work done on the legal history of slavery. One hopes this gap will be bridged in years to come through the efforts of Professor Nash and others who already are working in this area, and through the efforts of additional scholars who will turn to this subject.