The Supreme Court and Slavery 1787-1860

[jgoodguy]

Paul Finkelman has a video, his position on Marshall starts here

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[font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif][size=xx-small]The  result is the Chief Justice Marshall is an enormously wealthy man owning hundreds of slaves. He lives what is considered to be a modest life. He doesn't own a plantationmansion with giant columns. He rather he owns an in city, in Richmond, house which was quite substantial. We would say it would be an urban mansion today. But he also owns the plantation and land further out. He also during the 1780s and 90s acquires approximately 215,000 acres of land. If you can wrap your head around what 215,000 acres of land looks like. [/size][/font]

 

[jgoodguy]

Joseph Story and the Problem of Slavery: A New Englander's Nationalist Dilemma
An interesting defense of Justice Story. It is interesting in that it shows that judgment of antebellum political and legal actions is not a simple exercise.

In brief, the argument is that, according to Story, the Constitution aimed to create not merely a free North, or a collection of states partly free and partly slave, but rather a free Union. In order to effectuate this purpose, the Constitution had to accommodate and include both the recognition that slavery was immoral and also the means sufficient to keep the Union together until the federal government could eliminate slavery.​

 

[jgoodguy]

Slavery
Biographer John Richard Paul writes that Marshall owned between seven and sixteen household slaves at various points in his adult life.[136] Research by historian Paul Finkelman, however, reveals that Marshall may have owned hundreds of slaves.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall#cite_note-youtube.com-143][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall#cite_note-youtube.com-143][137][/url][/url] Marshall also engaged in the buying and selling of slaves throughout his life.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall#cite_note-youtube.com-143][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall#cite_note-youtube.com-143][137][/url][/url] Finkelman's research was published in his book, Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation's Highest Court, from the Harvard University Press.[138]Finkelman suggests that Marshall's substantial slave holdings may have influenced him to render judicial decisions in favor of slave owners.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall#cite_note-youtube.com-143][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall#cite_note-youtube.com-143][137][/url][/url]

 

[jgoodguy]

Paul Finkelman has a video, his position on Marshall starts here

The number of slaves owned by Marshall is about 150 with another 100 owned by his sons with a lot transferred to them by Marshall. This can be verified by the Marshall will and other primary documents. The bottom line is that previous biographers simply missed the elephant by not doing due diligence.

 

[5fish]

Union together until the federal government could eliminate slavery.

Story/ Marshall believe the nations freedoms were for white men and blacks needed to be freed sent back to Africa...

Justice Marshall on cases where a slave participant cases...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...arshall/ed2f9627-5613-4e58-9ae4-7c8b454fba40/

With the stinging defeat of the Federalist Party in 1800, Chief Justice John Marshall became, through the Supreme Court, the bastion and last redoubt of Federalist power in the central government. In case after case, he rendered decisions in favor of the primacy of property rights in slaves, and the primacy of the central government over that of the states.

And so the roll call of slavery cases began: Scott v. Negro London, 1806; Scott v. Negro Ben, 1810; Wood v. Davis, 1812; Mima Queen v. Hepburn, 1813; Negress Sally v. Ball, 1816.

Snip...

It appears clear that Chief Justice Marshall abhorred slavery. But slaves were property and property was sacred. Federalist doctrine held, furthermore, that the role of the judiciary was to serve notice on the legislative branch that it would tolerate no attacks on property.

Marshall ideas of property rights will lead to... our Civil War...

 

[jgoodguy]

arshall ideas of property rights will lead to... our Civil War...

Indeed it will. However, by the time the CW arrives, the North will be united and strong enough to put a rebellion down. Maybe the first time in our Nation's history the South could not simply secede and done.