The politics of war severely divided the Virginia Southside during the American Revolution. Laborers, ship pilots and other landless men and women bitterly resented the efforts of the patriot gentry to stop trade with Great Britain and to establish a military force. Planters feared that the presence of the British Navy would encourage slaves to flee or attack their masters. What role did law play in the patriot response to these conditions? This essay uses the case of Josiah Philips, who led a banditti residing in the Great Dismal Swamp, to show how law intersected with class and race in patriot thinking. The gentry's view of the landless as dependent and lacking in self-control and its view of black slaves as posing a constant threat of violence supported the application of special legal regimes suited to these dangers. In particular, Philips was “attainted” by the General Assembly, a summary legislative legal proceeding traditionally employed against offenders who threatened government itself. While the attainder was uncontroversial when it passed, the significance of the Assembly's intervention changed over time. By the late 1780s, some among the state's legal elite regarded the Assembly as having unnecessarily interfered in the ordinary course of justice, which they were then seeking to reform. This opened the way to recharacterize the Assembly's extraordinary legal jurisdiction as an arbitrary exercise of lawmaking power.

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战争中的立法机关：土匪、逃亡者和弗吉尼亚三权分立主义的出现

在美国独立战争期间，战争政治严重分裂了弗吉尼亚南部。劳工、船舶驾驶员和其他无地男男女女对爱国绅士停止与英国贸易并建立军队的努力深恶痛绝。种植园主担心英国海军的存在会鼓励奴隶逃离或攻击他们的主人。法律在爱国者对这些情况的反应中发挥了什么作用？本文以乔赛亚·菲利普斯 (Josiah Philips) 的案例为例，他领导了一个居住在大阴暗沼泽的土匪，展示了爱国者思想中法律与阶级和种族的交叉。绅士对无地者依赖和缺乏自我控制的观点，以及对黑人奴隶不断构成暴力威胁的观点，支持适用适合这些危险的特殊法律制度。特别是，飞利浦被大会“达成”，这是一项传统上用来对付威胁政府本身的罪犯的简易立法法律程序。虽然掠夺者在通过时没有争议，但议会干预的重要性随着时间的推移而变化。到 1780 年代后期，该州的一些法律精英认为议会不必要地干预了他们当时正在寻求改革的普通司法程序。这为将议会的特殊法律管辖权重新定性为任意行使立法权开辟了道路。随着时间的推移，大会干预的重要性发生了变化。到 1780 年代后期，该州的一些法律精英认为议会不必要地干预了他们当时正在寻求改革的普通司法程序。这为将议会的特殊法律管辖权重新定性为任意行使立法权开辟了道路。随着时间的推移，大会干预的重要性发生了变化。到 1780 年代后期，该州的一些法律精英认为议会不必要地干预了他们当时正在寻求改革的普通司法程序。这为将议会的特殊法律管辖权重新定性为任意行使立法权开辟了道路。