The Dragon St. George Could Not Slay: Tucker's Plan to End Slavery

Abstract:     
In this article, Professor Finkelman discusses St. George Tucker's relationship with slavery. On one hand, he was an advocate of abolition and considered slavery inconsistent with the principles of the American Revolution. On the other hand, Tucker was a slave owner himself and provided the legal basis for declaring all persons of African ancestry as slaves in the Hudgins v. Wrights decision. While in his early years Tucker advocated the emancipation of slaves in the state of Virginia, in his later life he used slaves to better his own economic situation.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 31

Keywords: St. George Tucker, slavery, Hudgins v. Wrights

Accepted Paper Series