 Since most of the freed slaves were illiterate, many were cheated out of their land through shady loan contracts with former plantation owners.These disputes, along with questions of the proper contractual entitlement of the slaves to the land in the first place, provided the basis for the development of modern American contract and property law and has come to refer to situations where there exists some contention or ambiguity surrounding the rightful owner or respective rights of the parties.In various law journals and treatises in Louisiana, which uses a unique form of the civil law influenced by but not identical to the Napoleonic Code, authors have used the term "arpent noir" as a placeholder name for the purpose of discussing rights concerning immovables.