Today is a good day to remember that legal emancipation had its roots in the “contraband” property theory. Here’s a post from a few years ago where we visited what we called “The Birthplace of a More Perfect Union” (Fort Monroe, Virginia).
The contraband property theory was itself very imperfect, and a compromise theory driven by practicality and politics. But it was a legal theory that laid the foundation for a general acceptance of emancipation, and led inexorably to the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.
A good reminder that property law and property rights are not primarily about land, or dirt, or “development,” but about freedom and human rights.