The Fugitive's Properties
Law and the Poetics of Possession
📘 About This Book
In this study of literature and law before and since the Civil War, Stephen M. Best shows how American conceptions of slavery, property, and the idea of the fugitive were profoundly interconnected. The Fugitive's Properties uncovers a poetics of intangible, personified property emerging out of antebellum laws, circulating through key nineteenth-century works of literature, and informing cultural forms such as blackface minstrelsy and early race films. Best also argues that legal principles dealing with fugitives and indebted persons provided a sophisticated precursor to intellectual property law as it dealt with rights in appearance, expression, and other abstract aspects of personhood. In this conception of property as fleeting, indeed fugitive, American law preserved for much of the rest of the century slavery's most pressing legal imperative: the production of personhood as a market commodity. By revealing the paradoxes of this relationship between fugitive slave law and intellectual property law, Best helps us to understand how race achieved much of its force in the American cultural imagination. A work of ambitious scope and compelling cross-connections, The Fugitive's Properties sets new agendas for scholars of American literature and legal culture.
📖 Summary
Stephen M. Best's scholarly work, The Fugitive's Properties, published in 2010 across 375 pages, offers a deeply engaging investigation into the intersection of literature and law both before and after the Civil War. At its core, the book demonstrates how American conceptions of slavery, property, and the very idea of the fugitive were profoundly interconnected. Best uncovers a complex poetics of intangible and personified property that emerged directly out of antebellum legal frameworks. These legal abstractions did not remain confined to courtrooms; instead, they circulated widely through key nineteenth-century literary works and actively informed broader cultural forms, including blackface minstrelsy and early race films. By tracing these lines of influence, Best reveals how culture and jurisprudence constantly shaped one another during a volatile period in American history. A central argument of the book is that the legal principles dealing with fugitives and indebted persons actually provided a sophisticated precursor to modern intellectual property law. Specifically, these early legal mechanisms wrestled with rights in appearance, expression, and other abstract aspects of human personhood. In conceptualizing property as fleeting, and indeed fundamentally fugitive, American law helped preserve structural dynamics that would continue to resonate long after the abolition of formal chattel slavery. Best connects these historical threads to show how the commodification of the person left a lasting mark on legal and cultural imagination. Throughout this 375-page study, readers are challenged to rethink the boundaries between legal history and literary criticism, viewing canonical texts and popular culture alike through the lens of property relations. The Fugitive's Properties ultimately stands as a rigorous contribution to literary-criticism, illuminating the hidden legal frameworks that undergirded racialized personhood and artistic expression in nineteenth-century America.
🎯 Key Lessons
⚖️ Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
Provides a novel interdisciplinary approach combining literary criticism and legal history.
Uncovers deep connections between antebellum law and nineteenth-century cultural forms.
Offers fresh insights into the origins of intellectual property rights in America.
Thoroughly examines the concept of personified, intangible property.
⚠️ Cons
Dense academic language may prove challenging for casual readers.
Requires a strong foundational interest in legal history and literary theory.
❓ FAQ
Who is the author of The Fugitive's Properties? +
The book was written by Stephen M. Best.
When was the book published? +
It was published in 2010.
How many pages long is the book? +
The book spans 375 pages.
What genre does the book belong to? +
It falls under the genre of literary criticism and legal studies.
What is the main argument regarding intellectual property? +
Best argues that laws dealing with fugitives and indebted persons served as precursors to intellectual property law regarding rights in appearance and expression.
