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University of nebraska lincoln Professor William thomas, teaches a class on some of the lawsuits brought by slaves who sued for their freedom during the antibell lum period. He outlines the different legal arguments they used and emphasized how most suits affected not just one person but entire families. Okay, good morning, everybody. Lets get started. So today, our subject is freedom suits. Suits brought by enslaved families, and how they posed a challenge to the constitution, and under the constitution, how they posed a challenge to american slavery. Now, most of us are familiar with dread scott, d. John sandford and you all read chief Justice Roger tawnys opinion in dred scotts case. And you have read that opinion, and its notorious in American History, right . For the blatant racism in it, for the sanction that t ....
The constitution did not go beyond. So about these suits, generally, just broadly, and then were going to look at one in particular here. It is important to recognize everything was on the line here. Black plaintiffs directed these suits, okay . They planned these suits. William h. Williams was one of the most notorious slave owners. He owned the yellow house. It was sometimes called a slave pen. We looked at one case, the film we checked out the other day, and that one was similar in that george Millers Tavern was a slave. He is by the 17 and the single largest slaved jail on the city of washington and its called the yellow house. And james ash was taken there and held there and well see why in just a second in 1839. A few months later a man named solomon northrup was taken to the yellow house. He was the star of 12 years a slave. And solomon who was kidnapped and taken to be sold to louisiana and to the southeast, can he was tak ....