Couple of Legal History Items

Josh Blackman's got the goods (i.e., a photograph) on FDR's pardon of Charles Hauser, the defendant in Carolene Products.  Josh also raises a good idea for research in wills -- how the quality of computer-drafted wills compares to those prepared by lawyers.  

Also, as I sit here working on edits on the first chapter of University, Court, and Slave, which discusses the violence in the wake of Nat Turner's rebellion, it occurs to me that there should be more talk about Dan Sharfstein's important recent article ("Atrocity, Entitlement, and Personhood in Property") on the ways that violence confirms property rights.  Along those lines, here is an excerpt of a letter written just after the rebellion.  It is an illustration of just how much slaveowners resorted to violence to shore up the institution in the wake of Nat Turner's rebellion:

It is really requisite for some time yet to show in full force, that the blacks may have view of the power which can be speedily used against [them].  The impression must be on their fears through the medium of their eyes and bodily feelings.  By reason or calculation, their minds cannot be convinced of the great disparity between them and the whites in point of power, resources, etc.  They must be convinced that, they must and will be soon destroyed if their conduct makes it in the least necessary.

Later in the semester I hope to talk a lot more about the nature of the violence brought to bear in the wake of Nat Turner.  It was gruesome.  The illustration is Blackhead Signpost Road in Southampton, Virginia, scene of Turner's rebellion.  The road got its name because a suspected rebel was executed there and his head left on a pole as a warning.  

Update as of July 18,2013:  my paper on "The Nat Turner Trials" is up on ssrn.

Comments

[JoshMBlackman]

Al, thanks for the link. This is an absolutely fascinating case. I also have photos of the factory Hauser built that straddled the Missouri-Oklahoma border. See all posts here: http://joshblackman.com/blog/category/constitutional-places/carolene-products/
Slight typo--*Carolene Products.

[JoshMBlackman]

I suppose Carolina is on your mind :)

[Alfred Brophy]

Yes! Carolene Products. I've obviously gone to Carolina in my mind.

[cm]

Here, for anyone interested, is an 1828 version of Legal Zoom's online do-it-yourself legal documents.

The Pocket Lawyer or Self Conveyancer is a 107 page pamphlet that offers models for everything from wills and deeds to a “Proxy to vote for Directors of the Bank of the United States.”

http://www.rawnjournals.com/pocketlawyer/

[Alfred Brophy]

That's a pretty cool book; I'm familiar with a lot of form books, but not that one. Good website -- I didn't know about that lawyer. Charles Coatesworth Pinckey Rawn, huh? Must have some South Carolina connections!