Books by Judith Kelleher Schafer

Examines case histories from the First District Court of New Orleans and tells the engrossing story of prostitution in the city prior to the Civil War. Relying on previously unexamined court records and newspaper articles, Schafer ably details the brutal and often harrowing lives of the women and young girls who engaged in prostitution.

In what may be the most impressive research to date of state supreme court records, this study analyses the evolution of Louisiana's slave laws from the territorial period to the Civil War. Schafer presents concise case histories, stories that are fascinating and at times heartbreaking in the particulars they reveal about slaves' existence.

Louisiana state law was unique in allowing slaves to contract for their freedom and to initiate a lawsuit for liberty. Judith Kelleher Schafer describes the ingenious and remarkably sophisticated ways New Orleans slaves used the legal system to gain their independence and find a voice in a society that ordinarily gave them none.