Giuliana Perrone Speaks on Reconstruction-Era Courts and Legacies of Slavery

Giuliana Perrone, new Assistant Professor in the History Department, will give a talk at the IHC on the role the courts played in (re)constructing the lives of black families. Perrone will discuss the problems and possibilities Reconstruction-era courts presented to former slaves and the legal system in “Slaves into Citizens: Legitimizing Black Domestic Relationships in Reconstruction-Era State Courts” This talk is one of a series of lectures put together by the IHC’s Research Focus Group (RFG) on Slavery, Captivity, and the Meaning of Freedom. Perrone’s larger current project,”Litigating Emancipation: Slavery’s Legal Afterlife, 1865-1877,” explores the ways that slavery and the court system remained relevant after emancipation and how concepts of race shaped legal and political identities over time.