| Free to Work: Labor Law, Emancipation, and Reconstruction, 1815-1880 Contributor(s): Schmidt, James D. (Author) |
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ISBN: 082032034X ISBN-13: 9780820320342 Publisher: University of Georgia Press OUR PRICE: $49.35 Product Type: Hardcover Published: January 1999 Annotation: In this intriguing and innovative work, James D. Schmidt examines federal efforts to establish "free labor" in the South during and after the Civil War by exploring labor law in the antebellum North and South and its role in the development of a capitalist labor market. Identifying the emergence of conservative, moderate, and liberal stances on state intervention in the labor market, Schmidt develops three important case studies -- wartime Reconstruction in Louisiana, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Freedmen's Bureau -- to conclude that the reconstruction of free labor in the South failed in large part because of the underdeveloped and contradictory state of labor law. The same legal principles, Schmidt argues, triumphed in the postwar North to produce a capitalist market in labor. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Law | Labor & Employment - Law | Legal History - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 344.750 |
| LCCN: 98022487 |
| Series: Studies in the Legal History of the South |
| Physical Information: 1.18" H x 6.46" W x 9.49" (1.48 lbs) 352 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this intriguing and innovative work, James D. Schmidt examines federal efforts to establish "free labor" in the South during and after the Civil War by exploring labor law in the antebellum North and South and its role in the development of a capitalist labor market. Identifying the emergence of conservative, moderate, and liberal stances on state intervention in the labor market, Schmidt develops three important case studies--wartime Reconstruction in Louisiana, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Freedmen's Bureau--to conclude that the reconstruction of free labor in the South failed in large part because of the underdeveloped and contradictory state of labor law. The same legal principles, Schmidt argues, triumphed in the postwar North to produce a capitalist market in labor. |
Contributor Bio(s): Schmidt, James D.: - JAMES D. SCHMIDT is an assistant professor of history at Northern Illinois University. |