Alex--For context, Race Relations in Virginia and Miscegenation in the South, 1776-1860 by James Hugo Johnston and New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in the US by Joel Williamson may prove useful, if you have not examined these two books yet--Mick
Michael L. Nicholls
Professor of History, Emeritus
Dept. of History
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-0710
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On Jun 1, 2012, at 2:31 PM, Alexander Colvin wrote:
> Hi again Craig:
>
> The "story," isn't built on census data; the census data was just what
> caught my attention. It was the seed, you might say. The laws, such as
> they were in the south, were anti-miscegenation and during certain periods
> (post Nat-Turner uprising, for example,) were more reactionary and thus
> strict than others ( pre-Nat Turner things were more relaxed) but in VA,
> in particular, it took a Supreme court case, *Loving vs. VA*. that
> ultimately challenged anti-miscegenation laws, but that had to wait until
> the late 1960s. But the legal trajectory of these laws is already well
> documented; what seems little researched is how these folks managed in the
> face of such oppression and the consequences there of. I may need to look
> at, not the laws, but case files of folks prosecuted for flouting the laws.
> Also, what preliminary research I've done in this family; the mulatto
> female does not show up in the Fauquier County Free Negro Registry
> (compliance was an issue, I know, but the registry was a result of post Nat
> Turner uprising sentiment,) and neither does the family surname turn up in
> any Chancery case files -- anywhere in VA. Thus far, the only place I've
> found Alethea Preston and her (kin?) is in the census. What I know of
> Alethea and her heirs is more substantive -- I even have pictures of her
> daughter Margaret "Molly" Pinn Colvin and Catherine "Katy" Bell Colvin,
> mulattoes one of whom, Katy, married into the long line of black,
> evangelical Baptist preachers, the Tapscotts -- currently in their 6th
> generation of that profession. But the genealogical data doesn't answer the
> primary questions.
>
>
> A.
>
> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 5:58 PM, Craig Kilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>
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