My ancestor, son of a respected, well-established, white family, settled in 
Cumberland County in the 1780s with his slave.  They had nine children and 
lived together as a family.  He freed his "wife" and those children who were 
born enslaved.  He recognized his children in his will and left them land, 
slaves, and other assets.  Several of these children had long-standing 
relationships with white partners who recognized their mulatto off-spring. 
In at least one instance, after the death of the white partner, the 
surviving mulatto was described as the widow on the census.  So I suspect 
that this behavior WAS fairly acceptable.

How could acceptability be objectively measured?  If a partner in an 
inter-racial relationship were put on a jury, would that be a measure of 
acceptability?  If such a partner were asked to stand up at a wedding, would 
that be a measure?  Can anyone think of any other objective measurements?

Sally Phillips

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Heritage Society" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 5:55 PM
Subject: [VA-HIST] inter-racial sex acceptable?


> In the current issue of the UVA Magazine, there is an article "Anatomy of 
> a Mystery" which addresses the issue of Jefferson's alleged paternity of 
> slave children. In the article, Lucia Stanton is quoted as saying that 
> Edmund Bacon (the overseer at Monticello who asserted he knew the father 
> of Sally Hemings' daughter and that it was not Thomas Jefferson) had a 
> reputation among Jefferson's grandchildren as "a great tale teller and 
> exaggerator." Also, in the article, Peter Onuff was quoted as saying that, 
> "What we take as the big taboo-crossing the racial boundary-was the norm 
> in this period. What we think is the worst was then probably the most 
> acceptable behavior. It happened all over the place." Does anyone have any 
> references that Bacon was known as "a great tale teller and exaggerator"? 
> As to whether interracial sex was the "norm" I guess depends on how "norm" 
> is defined. However, there were laws against it, so how was it 
> "acceptable"?
>
> Richard E. Dixon
> Editor, Jefferson Notes
> Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
> 703-691-0770
> fax 703-691-0978
>