The Bondsman's Burden: An Economic Analysis of the Jurisprudence of Slaves and Common Carriers

Jenny Bourne

The Journal of Economic History, 1993, vol. 53, issue 3, 495-526

Abstract: Antebellum judges played crucial roles in resolving conflicts between slaveowners and common-carrier owners. Because courts could easily quantify the value of a slave's life, they were quicker to compensate slaveowners for slaves injured or killed by a common carrier than to award damages to an injured free person or his estate. Yet judges also had to craft rules governing the behavior of the slave property itself. By the 1860s, Southern courts had established law that encouraged parties with legal standing to act efficiently. Strikingly, tort doctrines developed in slave cases foreshadowed the evolution of law for free accident victims.

Date: 1993
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