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Abstract

My thesis revolves around the extension of Anglo-American common law to the newly acquired territories of the Old Northwest and Louisiana. Both of these territories had French-speaking populations with traditions of European Civil law systems. I suggest that the extension of common law to these territories highlighted a process of law-in-spacing, a process by which the private law principles of common law became increasingly visible in the context of these traditionally Civil law populations. I also show that the common law had specific and unforeseen consequences for these French-speaking populations. I use concrete issues such as land and slavery to suggest that there are not only geographies of law, but geographies of custom. I also discuss the production of space as it relates to slavery.