Date of Award
1930
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Keywords
Constitutional History, American Negro, Slavery, Reconstruction Amendments, Black Codes, Dred Scott Decision, Civil Rights Legislation, Missouri Compromise, Thirteenth Fourteenth Fifteenth Amendments, Antebellum Legislation
Abstract
This thesis, submitted to Xavier University in partial fulfillment of requirements for a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930, traces the constitutional and legal history of the American Negro from 1776 to 1875, examining the legislative record underlying the eventual adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Labat argues that this body of law developed gradually from colonial-era statutes and custom rather than from any founding constitutional mandate, and that the Federal Constitution itself contained no explicit provision for slavery.
The thesis surveys legislation across the pre-constitutional, pre-Civil War, Civil War, and post-Civil War eras, beginning with colonial statutes establishing the principle of "partus sequitur ventrem," by which a child's enslaved or free status followed that of the mother, and tracing the increasing codification of slavery through Black Codes governing slaves' conduct, property, and legal standing. Labat examines the growing sectional divide over slavery's expansion, including the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and the Dred Scott decision, and connects the industrial demand for cotton to the reopening of the slave trade despite congressional prohibition. The thesis concludes with an examination of the Reconstruction-era amendments and civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Bills of 1866 and 1875, documenting specific instances of state laws that violated the Bill of Rights and noting the Supreme Court's 1883 decision striking down the 1875 Civil Rights Bill. Labat argues that despite this history of legal exclusion, American statesmen have generally sought to uphold the democratic principles of the Constitution, and that the constitutional history of the American Negro represents an anomaly within, rather than a reflection of, the nation's founding ideals.
Note: No original abstract was included; this abstract is provided by the XULA Digital Commons editors.
Recommended Citation
Labat, Clothilde, "A Thesis on the Constitutional History of the American Negro from 1776 to 1875" (1930). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 161.
https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/etd/161