Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott

Between 1800 and 1850, slaves seeking their freedom brought roughly 300 suits into U.S. courts. VanderVelde, a law professor at the University of Iowa, mines these remarkable stories for an enlightening history of the relationship between master and slave and the intersection of slavery and law in 19th-century America. Slaves litigating for their freedom employed five legal theories : that the slave was a Native American who could not be enslaved under U.S. law, the slave was in fact a free person, the slave had a valid completed contract with the master to grant him or her freedom, the slave resided in free territory or his or her mother was a resident of free territory, or the slave had a legally cognizable reason for the state to override his or her master's wishes. VanderVelde tells the story of courageous individual slaves, their families, and their communities that propelled the struggle for freedom. Based on testimony and court records, the detailed and dramatic stories are filled with conspiracies, kidnappings and rescues, legal conundrums, and betrayals. VanderVelde's writing is matter-of-fact, almost at odds with the drama of the stories she relates, but the stories themselves make for compulsive reading. (June)