Creditors and Debtors in the Postwar South The Homestead Cases – Virginia, 1872 (62 Va. 266); Jacobs v. Smallwood – North Carolina, 1869 (63 N.C. 112); Hill v. Kessler – North Carolina, 1869 (63 N.C. 437)
[T]he contract is made, not only with reference to the remedy existing, but also to such reasonable changes, as the interests of society require, and the State may think proper to make … The great error is in supposing that the homestead law is a law to defeat debts. … The laying off of a homestead is the sole object, and is prospective altogether.” - Justice Edwin Reade, in Hill “Probably the attempted interference in favor of one class against the other, has held out false, not to say unjust hopes, and has prevented the private adjustments which might have been made … As it is, we find that eight years of stay laws have left a considerable indebtedness, with interest and cost accumulated, and creditors and sureties impoverished, without any corresponding benefit to the principal debtors.” – Justice __, in Jacobs Entering the industrial age: corporate regulation in the coastal upper South State v. Bank of Smyrna – Delaware, 1859 (7 Del. 99); Raleigh & Gaston Railroad Co. v. Reid – North Carolina, 1870 (64 N.C. 155)
| Farmstead, Thurmont, Maryland - courtesy Library of Congress “The effect of the homestead exemption would be practically to relieve nine-tenths of the citizens of the State from the payment of all their debts … such partial and class legislation ought not to be tolerated, unless it can be clearly sustained by the law.” – Justice __, in The Homestead Cases “A great social and political revolution had occurred in the State …. Some change in the remedies formerly in use, was unavoidable.” – Justice William Rodman (dissenting), in JacobsRailroad wreckage, Manassas, Virginia (1862) - courtesy Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 3. OLD SOUTH LEGAL HISTORY > 3.4 The Old South: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877) > 3.4.1 The Old South (1861-1877): Law and War > 3.4.2 The Old South (1861-1877): Coming to Grips with Emancipation > 3.4.3 The Old South (1861-1877): Restoration, Reconstruction and "Redeemer" Laws > 3.4.4 The Old South (1861-1877): Cleaning Up After the Confederacy >