In the half-century following the Revolutionary War, the logic of inequality underwent a profound transformation within the southern legal system. Drawing on extensive archival research in North and South Carolina, Laura Edwards illuminates those changes by revealing the importance of localized legal practice. Placing slaves, free blacks, and white women at the center of the story, Edwards recasts traditional narratives of legal and political change and sheds light on key issues in U.S. history, including the persistence of inequality--particularly slavery--in the face of expanding democracy.