Did Being Black Mean Automatic Slave Status?
A just-released book unlocks the story of how enslaved and free people of color used legal remedies to claim freedom and citizenship for themselves and their families.
There’s a vast body of evidence which suggests that blackness has long been synonymous with slavery. This theme is the subject of a fascinating new book entitled “Becoming Black, Becoming Free,” by authors Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross.
Using three slave societies — Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana for historical context, de la Fuente and Gross argue that the law of freedom — not slavery — was the true litmus test by which blackness should be viewed. It’s here where they offer a series of narratives documenting the status of free slaves along with their claims to racial identity based citizenship.
They argue that many of the prevailing laws during slavery created onerous strictures on the lives and institutions of free people of color leading to dividing lines between black and white. Over time this evolved into white only rights and the systematic degradation of black people.
Says Ariela Gross, the John B. & Alice R. Sharp Professor of Law & History at the University of Southern California and co-author of…
