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
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html