Alex,

It might prove useful to separate antebellum laws versus Reconstruction laws versus Post Re-construction laws. This seems to be a complicated family situation worthy of in-depth study of the laws on the books at any particular time. I don't think you can build a story based solely on census data.

Craig 
On May 31, 2012, at 2:25 PM, Alexander Colvin wrote:

> Greetings:
> 
> I'm working on a paper which explores how miscegenation was able to occur
> in antebellum / Reconstruction south in a period when strict laws  forbade
> it and anti-miscegenation sentiment was keenly felt -- particularly in VA.
> How were these couples able to circumvent the law and how did these actions
> impact their lives? Were they courageous or stupid?  Did they suffer
> consequently? If so, how?  For example, in one case, I have found incidents
> in the census 1850-1870 where an enumerated white men is engaging in what
> appears to be extralegal marriages with a mulatto woman. In that case,
> female starts out  in the home of what I believe is her family (a white
> father, possibly) plus an "invalid" white male with another surname
> along young mulatto children with her surname; by the 1870s the same
> mulatto female now has the surname of the invalid white male as do many of
> the children from the 1850 tally. I am reviewing the literature on the
> subject of which there is a pronounced scarcity. Some authors whose work
> I've looked at/ am looking at: Bodenhorn, Howard; Mills, Gary; Bloch, J.M.;
> Jack, Luther P., Zackodnick, Teresa;  Bodenhorn/Ruebeck, and the thesis of
> Havey Marcus.  I am hungry for additional sources as this aspect of U.S.
> antebellum / Reconstruction race relations appears  quite fascinating but
> has received little scholarship.
> 
> Respectfully,
> 
> Alex Colvin
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