Good Law | Bad Law

How do we think about race? How do we think about the history of racism in the law?   Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Professor Ariela Gross, of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, to discuss the notion of race, racism, and the laws of freedom. Ariela is the co-author of a new book that explores today’s topic; Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana, tells the story of enslaved and free people of color who used the law to claim freedom and citizenship for themselves and their loved ones.   Looking closely at three slave societies – Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana – Ariela and her co-author, Alejandro de la Fuente, demonstrate that the law of freedom, not slavery, established the meaning of blackness in law. In today’s conversation, Aaron and Ariela discuss how the laws of freedom were used to determine if it was possible to move from slave status to freedom,