{"product_id":"law-in-american-meetinghouses-9781421443072","title":"Law in American Meetinghouses","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA revealing look at the changing role of churches in the decades after the American Revolution.   Most Americans today would not think of their local church as a site for arbitration and would probably be hesitant to bring their property disputes, moral failings, or personal squabbles to their kin and neighbors for judgment. But from the Revolutionary Era through the mid-nineteenth century, many Protestants imbued local churches with immense authority. Through their ritual practice of discipline, churches insisted that brethren refrain from suing each other before infidels at local courts and claimed jurisdiction over a range of disputes: not only moral issues such as swearing, drunkenness, and adultery but also matters more typically considered to be under the purview of common law and courts of equity, including disputes over trespass, land, probate, slave warranty, and theft.  In Law in American Meetinghouses, Jeffrey Thomas Perry explores the ways that ordinary AmericansBlack and w\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Note on Sources\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1. \"The Want of Discipline\": Baptist Churches and Local Law in Frontier Kentucky\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2. Churches' \"Perplexing Difficulties\": Race, Gender, and Household Relations\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3. A \"Habitation of Justice?\": The Market Revolution and the Search for Dispassionate Arbitration\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4. \"The Putrid Carnage of Contention\": Religious Insurgency and Church Authority\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5. \"A Great Curse to the Neighborhood\": Church Property Disputes and State Authority\u003cbr\u003eConclusion\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eAppendix\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49408144933207,"sku":"9781421443072","price":45.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781421443072.jpg?v=1730501751","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/law-in-american-meetinghouses-9781421443072","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}