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{ "item_title" : "Making Race in the Courtroom", "item_author" : [" Kenneth R. Aslakson "], "item_description" : "No American city's history better illustrates both thepossibilities for alternative racial models and the role of the law in shapingracial identity than New Orleans, Louisiana, which prior to the Civil War washome to America's most privileged community of people of African descent. Inthe eyes of the law, New Orleans's free people of color did not belong to thesame race as enslaved Africans and African-Americans. While slaves werenegroes, free people of color were gensde couleur libre, creoles of color, or simply creoles. New Orleans'screoles of color remained legally and culturally distinct from negroesthroughout most of the nineteenth century until state mandated segregationlumped together descendants of slaves with descendants of free people of color. Much of the recent scholarship on NewOrleans examines what race relations in theantebellum period looked as well as why antebellum Louisiana's gens de couleur enjoyed rights andprivileges denied to free blacks throughout most of the United States. This book, however, is less concerned with the what and why questions than with how peopleof color, acting within institutions of power, shaped those institutions in ways beyondtheir control. As its title suggests, Making Race in the Courtroom argues that race is best understood notas a category, but as a process. It seeks to demonstrate the role offree people of African-descent, interacting within the courts, in this process.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/81/472/431/0814724310_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "60.00", "online_price" : "60.00", "our_price" : "60.00", "club_price" : "60.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }
Making Race in the Courtroom|Kenneth R. Aslakson

Making Race in the Courtroom : The Legal Construction of Three Races in Early New Orleans

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Overview

No American city's history better illustrates both the
possibilities for alternative racial models and the role of the law in shaping
racial identity than New Orleans, Louisiana, which prior to the Civil War was
home to America's most privileged community of people of African descent. In
the eyes of the law, New Orleans's free people of color did not belong to the
same race as enslaved Africans and African-Americans. While slaves were
"negroes," free people of color were gens
de couleur libre, creoles of color, or simply creoles. New Orleans's
creoles of color remained legally and culturally distinct from "negroes"
throughout most of the nineteenth century until state mandated segregation
lumped together descendants of slaves with descendants of free people of color.

Much of the recent scholarship on New
Orleans examines what race relations in the
antebellum period looked as well as why antebellum Louisiana's gens de couleur enjoyed rights and
privileges denied to free blacks throughout most of the United States. This book, however, is less concerned with the what and why questions than with how people
of color, acting within institutions of power, shaped those institutions in ways beyond
their control. As its title suggests, Making Race in the Courtroom argues that race is best understood not
as a category, but as a process. It seeks to demonstrate the role of
free people of African-descent, interacting within the courts, in this process.

This item is Non-Returnable

Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780814724316
  • ISBN-10: 0814724310
  • Publisher: New York University Press
  • Publish Date: September 2014
  • Dimensions: 9.48 x 5.89 x 0.94 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.14 pounds
  • Page Count: 272

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