In the parish of Catahoula, Louisiana, during the 1840s Samuel Miller lived on his plantation with Patsy, his mulatto slave and sexual partner. In 1843, as Miller fell ill with dropsy, he sold the land and his slaves to Hugh Lucas, settling for nine promissory notes of $3,000 each, to be paid yearly. In April […]

Aii of us sometimes gobble up the details of a famous couple’s divorce settlement, worry about whether certain children are suffer­ing from their parents’ profligate spending, become indignant when someone close to us fails to meet important economic obligations, or complain about proposals to cut funding for day-care centers. When any of those things happens, […]

This book took ten years to mature. During that time, I found myself increasingly involved in the emerging field of economic soci­ology. Whether we have agreed or disagreed, I have learned a great deal from dialogue with colleagues in that field as well as in econom­ics and law. I have built many of the lessons […]