Author: Joshua Daniel Rothman, Department of History, University of Alabama - Wikipedia

Abstract: »Laws and social disapprobation in Virginia before the Civil War militated againstsex across the color line, yet interracial sex abounded in plantation, town. and urban communities throughout the state. This dissertation studies that interracial sex. in early national and antebellum Virginia. It examines diverse kinds of interracial sexual relationships by reconstructing some of the social and economic networks of local communities. It explores how legal and judicial authorities in the state capital resolved cases involving illicit sex. that required their intervention. Finally, it looks at how persons of ambiguous racial appearance produced by interracial sex exposed the complexities and contradictions of racial hierarchy in the state. Under most circumstances. even if they never approved of it. local white communities routinely accommodated all sorts of interracial sexual behavior in their midst. White Virginians gossiped behind closed doors about the sex Ii ves of their neighbors far more than they ever complained about them to public officials. Moreover. when public grievances did emerge, expressed outrage at the crossing of racial boundaries often only thinly veiled the personal or economic discord between two or more individuals that really lay at the heart of the matter. Similarly. state authorities in Richmond demonstrated that maintaining strict boundaries between blacks and whites was just one priority among many when determining their courses of action toward sexual criminals. Depending on the nature of the case. a state official might have to evaluate the ramifications of his decision not only upon the racial order. but also on slavery, gender roles. class hierarchies. property rights, criminal justice. and the white family. Interracial sex provoked issues that touched on nearly every significant component of Virginia society. Keeping society in balance. rather than enforcing draconian implementation of the law, dictated the strategy of governing officials when they confronted such potentially explosive matters. Investigating the gamut of interracial sexual connections and holding them together with and against one another demonstrates how these connections both supported and undermined racism and slavery in the early national and antebellum South.« (Source: Thesis)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. i)
	Introduction (p. 1)
	Chapter l: Thomas Jefferson. Sally Hemings. James Callender. And Sex Across the Color Line Under Slavery in Virginia (p. 15)
	Chapter 2: "Notorious in the Neighborhood": An Interracial Family in Early National and Antebellum Virginia (p. 82)
	Chapter 3: "The church and the brothel are only separated by a pane of glass": Sex and Race on the Streets of Antebellum Richmond (p. 140)
	Chapter 4: "the strongest passion that can possibly aggitate the Human mind": Sexual Violence. Slave Crime. Law, and the White Community (p. 203)
	Chapter 5: "to be freed from thate curs and let at liberty": Interracial Adultery and Divorce (p. 263)
	Chapter 6: "Let there be but two races among us": ''Mixed Bloods" In Early National and Antebellum Virginia Law and Society (p. 319)
	Epilogue (p. 374)
	Bibliography (p. 381)
		Primary Sources (p. 381)
		Printed Primary Sources (p. 383)
			Travel Narratives/Contemporary Slavery Works (p. 383)
			Slave Narratives (p. 383)
			Government and Legal Sources (p. 384)
		Other Published Primary Materials (p. 385)
		Secondary Sources (p. 386)
	Tables, Maps, and Genealogies

Publication:

Wikipedia: History of the Americas: History of the United States / History of the United States (1789-1849), History of Virginia | Slavery: Slavery in the United States / Treatment of slaves in the United States | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in the United States