REGULATIONS OF ROBBERS: LEGAL FICTIONS OF SLAVERY AND RESISTANCE

by CHRISTINA ACCOMANDO

Overview

In The Regulations of Robbers, Christina Accomando examines legal, political, and literary discourses of slavery and resistance through the works of judges, lawmakers, and former slaves. She builds on the words of Harriet Jacobs - I regarded such laws as the regulations of robbers, who had no rights that I was bound to respect - and advocates a methodology of multiple perspectives, exposing the false neutrality of legal discourse and turning attention to stories that have been suppressed. Accomando analyzes Sojourner Truth (who initiated lawsuits and petitioned Congress) and Harriet Jacobs (who shaped her autobiography into legal critique) as legal actors who challenged nineteenth-century legal constructions of African Americans. She argues that laws governing slave behavior, racial identity, miscegenation, rape, reproduction, literacy, and property defined. African Americans as nonhumans, with dangerous sexuality and nonexistent subjectivity. She traces how nineteenth-century constructions of race and gender continue to inform modern policy discussions. Accomando's analysis of slavery and resistance reveals the entrenched racism in U.S. law and also points to concrete opportun

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814250815
Publisher:	Ohio State University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2001
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Christina Accomando is assistant professor of English and ethnic studies at California State University, Humboldt.

Editorial Reviews

‘The Regulations of Robbers’ is an impressive investigation of legal history that illuminates instances of slave agency and resistance from within the very mechanisms that legitimized the system of chattel bondage. This is a deft, well-written study that highlights the sort of testimony often overlooked in conventional histories of slavery.”
—Felipe Smith, Tulane University


“I read ‘The Regulations of Robbers’ with delight. Accomando’s decision to read the published narratives of fairly well-known former slaves in concert with legal documents of their time was smart. Her ability to carefully analyze these works and offer insightful interpretations was impressive. Her employment of multiple consciousness (a concept that creates a compelling potpourri of womanist, feminist, and critical race theories) is just the right choice to stimulate our intellectual imaginations of legal fictions not only about slavery and resistance but about an abundance of other kinds of received knowledge as well.”
—Frances Smith Foster, author of Witnessing Slavery


“This is a very strong work. The chapters on Sojourner Truth and Harriet Jacobs present clear, cogent arguments on race, representation, and legal fictions. Accomando uncovers little-known facts and makes judicious use of them for her arguments. Any class studying nineteenth-century American literature or American autobiography and the construction of authorship should be interested in Accomando’s packaging of Truth.”
—Valerie Lee, The Ohio State University

From the Publisher