Redhibition Suits and Enslaved People in the Orleans Parish Court, 1813-1846

During the antebellum period, the same enslavers who flocked to New Orleans to participate in North America’s largest slave market also filtered in and out of the Crescent City’s courtrooms, where they contested sales, claimed warranties, and endeavored to exploit their investments in the people they enslaved. Court records from these disputes at the local level are not always easy to locate. The dataset included here, “Redhibition Suits and Enslaved People in the Orleans Parish Court, 1813–1846,” aims to address this issue; it includes an entry for each of the 295 slave-centered warranty suits tried before the Orleans Parish Court, lawsuits that centered on the past and present of a total of 347 specific enslaved individuals. The dataset includes detailed information about the dispute itself and stands to help scholars of slavery and genealogists learn more about the lives of specific enslaved individuals and the circumstances of their enslavement in the antebellum United States.