While hundreds of books have been written about slavery, in the main they tend to be either microhistories of individual slaves and slave families or broad social histories of the peculiar institution. Redemption Songs uniquely features both approaches. VanderVelde not only knits together the stories of a dozen distinct individuals with one thing in common-their status as litigants-and little else, she also provides a rich and eye-opening account of the legal foundations of the larger system.

• 1. How Frontier Slaves Came to be Entitled to Lawyers


• 2. How it Came about that a Native American Pedigree Meant Freedom: Celeste's Extended Family


• 3. John Merry a/k/a Jean Marie: Redemption Over and Over Again


• 4. The Children of Canadienne Rose


• 5. Winny, the Mother of Frontier Redemptions


• 6. The Duncan Brothers in Black and White


• 7. The Mass Kidnapping of Lydia's Children


• 8. Masters, Lovers, Husbands, Mates, Both Black and White


• 8 a. Betrayal and Deceit: Eliza Tyler's Redemption


• 8 b. Devotion and Death: Maria Whiten's Redemption


• 8 c. The Prerogative of One's Master to Change His Mind? Hester Norcom's Redemption


• 9. The Slaves of Milton Duty


• 10. David Shipman's Fidelity to the Spirit of Liberty


• 11. Mr. and Mrs. Dred Scott: Taking it to the Federal Level- If a Slave Litigates on the Frontier Does it Make Any Sound?

Lea VanderVelde is the Josephine Witt Professor of Law at the University of Iowa.