Bonds of citizenship : law and the labors of emancipation /
Phan, Hoang Gia,
Bonds of citizenship : law and the labors of emancipation / Hoang Gia Phan. - 1 online resource (x, 256 pages) - America and the long 19th century . - America and the long 19th century. .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-247) and index.
Introduction : "A man from another country" : citizenship and the bonds of labor -- Bound by law : apprenticeship and the culture of "free" labor -- Civic virtues : narrative form and the trial of character in early America -- Fugitive bonds : contract and the culture of constitutionalism -- Hereditary bondsman : Frederick Douglass and the spirit of the law -- "If man will strike" : Moby-Dick and the letter of the law -- Conclusion : the labors of emancipation : founded law and freedom defined.
The author argues that in the age of Emancipation the cultural attributes of free personhood became identified with the legal rights and privileges of the citizen, and that individual freedom thus became identified with the nation-state. He situates the emergence of American citizenship and the American novel within the context of Atlantic slavery and Anglo-American legal culture, placing early American texts by Hector St. John de Crévecœur, Benjamin Franklin, and Charles Brockden Brown alongside Black Atlantic texts by Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano. Beginning with a revisionary reading of the Constitution's "slavery clauses," the author recovers indentured servitude as a transitional form of labor bondage that helped define the key terms of modern U.S. citizenship: mobility, volition, and contract. This book demonstrates how citizenship and civic culture were transformed by antebellum debates over slavery, free labor, and national Union, while analyzing the writings of Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville alongside a wide-ranging archive of lesser-known antebellum legal and literary texts in the context of changing conceptions of constitutionalism, property, and contract. Situated at the nexus of literary criticism, legal studies, and labor history, this book challenges the founding fiction of a pro-slavery Constitution central to American letters and legal culture. -- Publisher's website.
9780814738931 0814738931
22573/ctt8jxjjt JSTOR
Enslaved persons--Legal status, laws, etc.--History.--United States
Citizenship--Philosophy.--United States
Citizenship--History.--United States
Slavery--History.--United States
Indentured servants--Legal status, laws, etc.--History.--United States
Social structure--History.--United States
Slavery in literature.
Citizenship in literature.
Master and servant in literature.
Esclavage--Histoire.--États-Unis
Structure sociale--Histoire.--États-Unis
Esclavage dans la littérature.
LAW--Constitutional.
LAW--Public.
SOCIAL SCIENCE--Anthropology--Cultural.
Citizenship.
Citizenship in literature.
Citizenship--Philosophy.
Indentured servants--Legal status, laws, etc.
Master and servant in literature.
Slavery.
Slavery in literature.
Slaves--Legal status, laws, etc.
Social structure.
United States.
History.
KF482
342.7308/7
Bonds of citizenship : law and the labors of emancipation / Hoang Gia Phan. - 1 online resource (x, 256 pages) - America and the long 19th century . - America and the long 19th century. .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-247) and index.
Introduction : "A man from another country" : citizenship and the bonds of labor -- Bound by law : apprenticeship and the culture of "free" labor -- Civic virtues : narrative form and the trial of character in early America -- Fugitive bonds : contract and the culture of constitutionalism -- Hereditary bondsman : Frederick Douglass and the spirit of the law -- "If man will strike" : Moby-Dick and the letter of the law -- Conclusion : the labors of emancipation : founded law and freedom defined.
The author argues that in the age of Emancipation the cultural attributes of free personhood became identified with the legal rights and privileges of the citizen, and that individual freedom thus became identified with the nation-state. He situates the emergence of American citizenship and the American novel within the context of Atlantic slavery and Anglo-American legal culture, placing early American texts by Hector St. John de Crévecœur, Benjamin Franklin, and Charles Brockden Brown alongside Black Atlantic texts by Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano. Beginning with a revisionary reading of the Constitution's "slavery clauses," the author recovers indentured servitude as a transitional form of labor bondage that helped define the key terms of modern U.S. citizenship: mobility, volition, and contract. This book demonstrates how citizenship and civic culture were transformed by antebellum debates over slavery, free labor, and national Union, while analyzing the writings of Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville alongside a wide-ranging archive of lesser-known antebellum legal and literary texts in the context of changing conceptions of constitutionalism, property, and contract. Situated at the nexus of literary criticism, legal studies, and labor history, this book challenges the founding fiction of a pro-slavery Constitution central to American letters and legal culture. -- Publisher's website.
9780814738931 0814738931
22573/ctt8jxjjt JSTOR
Enslaved persons--Legal status, laws, etc.--History.--United States
Citizenship--Philosophy.--United States
Citizenship--History.--United States
Slavery--History.--United States
Indentured servants--Legal status, laws, etc.--History.--United States
Social structure--History.--United States
Slavery in literature.
Citizenship in literature.
Master and servant in literature.
Esclavage--Histoire.--États-Unis
Structure sociale--Histoire.--États-Unis
Esclavage dans la littérature.
LAW--Constitutional.
LAW--Public.
SOCIAL SCIENCE--Anthropology--Cultural.
Citizenship.
Citizenship in literature.
Citizenship--Philosophy.
Indentured servants--Legal status, laws, etc.
Master and servant in literature.
Slavery.
Slavery in literature.
Slaves--Legal status, laws, etc.
Social structure.
United States.
History.
KF482
342.7308/7