Imperfect Justice in the Imperfect Archive: Uncovering Extrajudicial Black Resistance in Richmond’s Civil War Court Records

This (short! free! very teachable!) piece examines two seemingly disparate sets of court records, involving both enslaved and free Black Richmonders.  My discussion of these records demonstrates how historians interpret archival materials to find the perspectives of African Americans, and other individuals/groups whose experiences the archival materials were originally intended to ignore or suppress. Hopefully some of you will find it useful  and worth sharing — I'm honored and humbled to be able to connect audiences to this research.

 

Here's to centering Black history every month of the year,

Lois

 

Lois Leveen, PhD

she/her/hers