Studies in Legal History #: Moral Contagion

Black Atlantic Sailors, Citizenship, and Diplomacy in Antebellum America

Studies in Legal History #: Moral Contagion
Michael A Schoeppner
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Paperback
Not defined - 266pg
9 Jul 2020 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781108455121
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Between 1822 and 1857, eight Southern states barred the ingress of all free black maritime workers. According to lawmakers, they carried a 'moral contagion' of abolitionism and black autonomy that could be transmitted to local slaves. Those seamen who arrived in Southern ports in violation of the laws faced incarceration, corporal punishment, an incipient form of convict leasing, and even punitive enslavement. The sailors, their captains, abolitionists, and British diplomatic agents protested this treatment. They wrote letters, published tracts, cajoled elected officials, pleaded with Southern officials, and litigated in state and federal courts. By deploying a progressive and sweeping notion of national citizenship - one that guaranteed a number of rights against state regulation - they exposed the ambiguity and potential power of national citizenship as a legal category. Ultimately, the Fourteenth Amendment recognized the robust understanding of citizenship championed by Antebellum free people of color, by people afflicted with 'moral contagion'.

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Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana
Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America
Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England
Imperial Incarceration: Detention without Trial in the Making of British Colonial Africa
Laws of Alfred, The: The Domboc and the Making of Anglo-Saxon Law
Moral Contagion: Black Atlantic Sailors, Citizenship, and Diplomacy in Antebellum America
Murder in the Shenandoah: Making Law Sovereign in Revolutionary Virginia
Unraveling Abolition: Legal Culture and Slave Emancipation in Colombia

'Schoeppner's pathbreaking book reconceptualizes the national story of citizenship to include a broader cast of characters and an earlier timeline, demonstrating the significance of the Negro Seamen Acts to American legal history. This elegantly-written work reminds us of the centrality of movement for African Americans as they struggled over the meaning of citizenship rights.' Kelly Kennington, Auburn University and author of In the Shadow of Dred Scott: St. Louis Freedom Suits and the Legal Culture of Slavery in Antebellum America
'Mariners stood at the forefront of struggles over US citizenship from the Revolution to the Civil War. In Moral Contagion ... Schoeppner reveals how state laws regulating the mobility of black sailors became a focal point for debates in the antebellum period over the substantive rights conferred by national citizenship. Speaking to questions about federal power and racial equality in the Atlantic world, his book will become essential reading for students and scholars interested in the contested history of American citizenship.' Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, University of Southern California and author of Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution
'... Schoeppner explores in vivid and fascinating detail the international and domestic controversies surrounding the Negro Seamen Acts. In so doing, he underscores the critical role played by African Americans in the antebellum era struggle for citizenship.' Kunal M. Parker, University of Miami and author of Making Foreigners: Immigration and Citizenship Law in America, 1600-2000
'Recommended.' E. R. Crowther, Choice
'... the book is a rigorous study of law, citizenship, and diplomacy and makes a welcome addition to the literature of southern history, Atlantic history, and antebellum political and legal history.' Ikuko Asaka, Journal of Southern History
'Schoeppner's pathbreaking book reconceptualizes the national story of citizenship to include a broader cast of characters and an earlier timeline, demonstrating the significance of the Negro Seamen Acts to American legal history. This elegantly-written work reminds us of the centrality of movement for African Americans as they struggled over the meaning of citizenship rights.' Kelly Kennington, Auburn University and author of In the Shadow of Dred Scott: St. Louis Freedom Suits and the Legal Culture of Slavery in Antebellum America
'Mariners stood at the forefront of struggles over US citizenship from the Revolution to the Civil War. In Moral Contagion ... Schoeppner reveals how state laws regulating the mobility of black sailors became a focal point for debates in the antebellum period over the substantive rights conferred by national citizenship. Speaking to questions about federal power and racial equality in the Atlantic world, his book will become essential reading for students and scholars interested in the contested history of American citizenship.' Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, University of Southern California and author of Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution
'... Schoeppner explores in vivid and fascinating detail the international and domestic controversies surrounding the Negro Seamen Acts. In so doing, he underscores the critical role played by African Americans in the antebellum era struggle for citizenship.' Kunal M. Parker, University of Miami and author of Making Foreigners: Immigration and Citizenship Law in America, 1600-2000
'Recommended.' E. R. Crowther, Choice
'... the book is a rigorous study of law, citizenship, and diplomacy and makes a welcome addition to the literature of southern history, Atlantic history, and antebellum political and legal history.' Ikuko Asaka, Journal of Southern History
Michael A. Schoeppner is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maine, Farmington.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781108455121
Published: 9 Jul 2020
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 266

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