“Under the Present Mode of Trial, Improper Verdicts Are Very Often Given”: Criminal Procedure in the Trials of Slaves in Antebellum Louisiana

When Louisiana became an American possession in 1803, a primary concern of the new territorial government and its inhabitants was what kind of law would be most appropriate to provide stability and maintain order in a heterogeneous population composed of free persons of French, Spanish, and American ancestry, those of African origin, free and slave, American Indians, and various combinations of these cultures and races.