Slavery, Race, and Outlawry

The concept of the “outlaw” provided antebellum abolitionists with a powerful rhetorical weapon in their challenge to the Southern slave system. They vigorously condemned the practice of placing slaves and free blacks outside the law through official and informal outlawry. Calling attention to racial discrimination in criminal laws and the under-protection of African Americans against violence, critics contended that systematically excluding a large category of people from the protection of law flouted foundational American values, most notably rule of law, equal protection, and due process. Yet there were variations in the ways abolitionists used the outlaw concept. Particularly sharp distinctions in tactics and standpoints are evident between blacks and whites, as well as between lawyers and clergymen. Differences are also apparent between those willing to work within the political system and those eschewing politics. Some abolitionists used outlaw rhetoric in an abstract manner to demonize slaveholder regimes and provide ideological support for rule of law, while others used it to encourage an active role by African Americans in ending slavery and achieving racial equality through resistance on Southern plantations and in Northern streets. Tactically, some insisted on the importance of obedience to law while others declared the illegitimacy of oppressive laws and the need to defy them with violence if necessary in order to achieve justice. Analysis of abolitionists’ use of the concept of the outlaw, which reveals a previously unexamined element of legal rhetoric, not only exemplifies divergent approaches within the abolitionist campaign but also illuminates early American critical perspectives on racial issues that persisted long after the Civil War.1

Art · Element (criminal law) · Ideology · Literature · Obedience · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society

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