Jefferson's Freeholders and the Politics of Ownership in the Old DominionJefferson's Freeholders explores the historical processes by which Virginia was transformed from a British colony into a Southern slave state. It focuses on changing conceptualizations of ownership and emphasizes the persistent influence of the English common law on Virginia's postcolonial political culture. The book explains how the traditional characteristics of land tenure became subverted by the dynamic contractual relations of a commercial economy and assesses the political consequences of the law reforms that were necessitated by these developments. Nineteenth-century reforms seeking to reconcile the common law with modern commercial practices embraced new democratic expressions about the economic and political power of labor, and thereby encouraged the idea that slavery was an essential element in sustaining republican government in Virginia. By the 1850s, the ownership of human property had replaced the ownership of land as the distinguishing basis for political power with tragic consequences for the Old Dominion. |
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Accordingly agrarian allodial allodial ownership allodial property amendment American argument basis British Cambridge century Chapel Hill Charlottesville claims Code Commentaries committee common law Commonwealth considered constitutional Convention county courts debate delegates democratic doctrine dower Edmund Pendleton effort emancipation English equity essay established Faulkner feudal franchise freehold freehold qualification gavelkind George Tucker governor grand jurors grant Greenbrier Company History issue James James Philemon Holcombe Jeffersonian John John Mercer Patton jurisprudence jury justice labor land law land ownership land tenure landholding legislative legislature Leigh Nat Turner Norman Yoke North Carolina North Carolina Press original PDVSC Pendleton political possession practice Press of Virginia principles property rights proposed proslavery quitrents real property reform represented republic republican revision Revisors Revolution Richmond Robinson and Patton session slave owners slavery social Southern statute suffrage tenants Thomas Jefferson tion traditional Transylvania Company University of North University Press western lands Whig William York