ebooks Slave Laws in Virginia (Studies in the Legal History of the South) by Philip J. Schwarz in History

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In Almost Free; Eva Sheppard Wolf uses the story of Samuel Johnson; a free black man from Virginia attempting to free his family; to add detail and depth to our understanding of the lives of free blacks in the South.There were several paths to freedom for slaves; each of them difficult. After ten years of elaborate dealings and negotiations; Johnson earned manumission in August 1812. An illiterate “mulatto” who had worked at the tavern in Warrenton as a slave; Johnson as a freeman was an anomaly; since free blacks made up only 3 percent of Virginia’s population. Johnson stayed in Fauquier County and managed to buy his enslaved family; but the law of the time required that they leave Virginia if Johnson freed them. Johnson opted to stay. Because slaves’ marriages had no legal standing; Johnson was not legally married to his enslaved wife; and in the event of his death his family would be sold to new owners. Johnson’s story dramatically illustrates the many harsh realities and cruel ironies faced by blacks in a society hostile to their freedom.Wolf argues that despite the many obstacles Johnson and others faced; race relations were more flexible during the early American republic than is commonly believed. It could actually be easier for a free black man to earn the favor of elite whites than it would be for blacks in general in the post-Reconstruction South. Wolf demonstrates the ways in which race was constructed by individuals in their day-to-day interactions; arguing that racial status was not simply a legal fact but a fluid and changeable condition. Almost Free looks beyond the majority experience; focusing on those at society’s edges to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of freedom in the slaveholding South.A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication