Thursday, July 15, 2010

Miller Review's McNair's Criminal Injustice

Recently posted on H-Law is a review by Vivien Miller, University of Nottingham of Glenn McNair’s Criminal Injustice: Slaves and Free Blacks in Georgia's Criminal Justice System (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009). It commences:
Glenn McNair's study of Georgia's capital criminal justice system in the colonial and antebellum periods is a welcome addition to a growing number of Southern state studies. . . . Using the inferior and superior court minute books, appellate reports and decisions, and other legal sources, McNair analyzes 417 capital cases between 1755 and 1865 to ascertain the meaning and operation of Georgia's criminal justice system in the colonial and antebellum decades for both African American and white victims and offenders. He seeks to understand how all components of this colony/state's criminal justice system operated together and consequently explores the informal plantation justice system alongside the evolving formal system.
More here.