DOCSLIB.ORG

Intimacy and Inequality: Manumission and Miscegenation in Nineteenth-Century Bahia (1830-1888)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Intimacy and Inequality: Manumission and Miscegenation in Nineteenth-Century Bahia (1830-1888) INTIMACY AND INEQUALITY: MANUMISSION AND MISCEGENATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BAHIA (1830-1888) Jane-Marie Collins, BA, MA. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Hispanic and Latin American Studies. April 2010 Abstract This thesis proposes a new paradigm for understanding the historical roots of the myth of racial democracy in Brazil. In order to better comprehend the co-existence of race discrimination and racial democracy in Brazil it is argued that the myth itself needs to be subjected to an analysis which foregrounds the historically unequal relations of both race and gender. This study demonstrates how the enigma that is Brazilian race relations is the result of two major oversights in the scholarly work to date. First, the lack of critical attention to the historical processes and practices which gave rise to the so-called unique version of race relations in Brazil: manumission and miscegenation. Second, the sidelining of the role of gender and sex, as well as the specific and central place of black women’s labour, in theoretical formulations about Brazilian race relations. The overarching intellectual aim of this thesis is to invert the way notions of familiarity and intimacy have been represented in the history of miscegenation and manumission in Brazilian slave society. The role of intimacy in the social history of race relations is instead shown to be firmly located within a hierarchy of race and gender inequalities predicated on the inferiority of blacks and women. In turn, this thesis explores how these race and gender inequalities intersected to inform and shape enslaved women’s versions of resistance and visions of freedom. In doing so this study unpicks some of the notions of advantage and privilege traditionally associated with women in general and light skin colour in particular in the processes of manumission and miscegenation; notions that are foundational to the myth of racial democracy. Through an examination and analysis of primary sources pertaining to the lives of enslaved and freedwomen and their descendants in nineteenth-century Bahia, this study brings together different areas of their lived experiences of enslavement, manumission, miscegenation and freedom as these women came into contact with the authorities at pivotal moments in their lives. Collectively, these sources and the analysis thereof expose the limitations of advantage or privilege that have been associated with being female, parda or mulatta in the historiography of Brazilian slave society in general and the literature on manumission in particular. By foregrounding and highlighting the ways in which overlapping inequalities of race, gender and status determined experiences of enslavement and expectations of freedom during slavery, this study produces a new approach to interpreting race and gender history in Brazil, and a more comprehensive understanding of Brazilian slave labour relations. CONTENTS Acknowledgements. iv Glossary. v Section One: Introduction. Part 1. Introduction and overview. 2 Part 2. Intimacy and Inequality: inverting the paradigm of racial democracy. 12 Section Two: Becoming Freed. 2.1 Introduction. 17 2.2 Manumission in comparative perspective. 19 2.3 Manumission in Africa. 21 2.4 Manumission in the Americas. 27 2.5 Manumission in Brazil. 33 2.6 Manumission, a gendered perspective: assessing advantage. 41 2.7 Childhood manumissions, Salvador 1830-1871. 46 2.8. Disputing and defending freed status. 70 2.9 Conclusion. 81 Section Three: Work, Wealth and Mobility. Part 1: The Demographics of Slavery in nineteenth-century Brazil. 3.1 Introduction. 89 3.2 The slave trades: trans-Atlantic and domestic. 90 3.3 Brazilian slave societies: provincial profiles. 94 3.4 Conclusion. 100 3.5 Occupational hierarchies, race and gender. 101 3.6 Conclusion. 115 Part 2: Manumission and Mobility. 3.7 Introduction. 122 3.8 Manumission and creolisation. 123 3.9 Manumission and mobility. 126 ii 3.10 Lourença on liberty. 127 3.11 Markets, labour and love. 130 3.12 Africanas and brasileiras, libertas and livres. 135 3.13 Motherhood and marriage. 139 3.14 Material wealth. 141 3.15 Markets and mobility. 146 3.16. Lourença’s last words. 153 3.17 Conclusion. 155 Section Four: The Enslaved Family: Unity, Stability and Viability. 4.1 Introduction. 160 4.2 The historiography of the Brazilian slave family: an overview. 162 4.3 Slave family 1: African/urban. 179 4.4 Slave family 2: mixed race/mixed status. 200 4.5 Slave family 3: married/rural. 216 4.6 Slave family 4: slave/free marriage. 227 4.7. Conclusion. 233 Section Five: Resistance. 5.1. Introduction. 240 Part 1: Flight 5.2 Paradigms. 246 5.3 Male flight. 250 5.4 Female flight: single women. 255 5.5 Female flight, family and protection. 263 5.6 Conclusion. 279 Part 2: Murder. 5.7 Introduction. 285 5.8 Case studies. 292 5.9 Analysis. 302 5.10 Conclusion. 323 Part 3: Infanticide. 5.11 Introduction. 326 5.12 Infanticide and slave resistance. 339 iii 5.13 Infanticide and Illegitimacy: a question of honour? 344 5.14 Conclusion. 349 Section Six: Conclusion. 355 Appendix. 368 Sources and Bibliography. 381 iv Acknowledgements. This thesis has proved, if nothing else, that there is an inverse relationship between the length of time it takes to complete a thesis and the number of people that need to be thanked. This is because the longer it takes to complete, the less likely you are to advertise the fact by calling on colleagues, friends and strangers to assist you. As a result, some of my deepest gratitude goes to people who barely remember me it is so long ago since they had contact with me and my thesis. First then, thanks to those who showed belief in me before the idea of self-belief had even entered my consciousness let alone my vocabulary. They include former staff at ILAS, University of Liverpool, particularly Rory Miller and John Gledson. My years spent there as a student where, ironically, some the most invigorating and productive years spent in academia to date. Other academics at other institutions have helped me along the way. Notably, Hilary Owens at the University of Manchester, João José Reis, Maria Inês de Oliveira and Maria José de Souza Andrade at UFBA. I owe thanks to colleagues at my current place of employment, SPLAS, University of Nottingham, for their patience and support in allowing me the time see this through and for always being so positive and encouraging. A special thank you is owed to the colleague who kindly and generously agreed to undertake the final and longest phase of supervision, Professor Dick Geary. A mention must go my trade union colleagues at UoN too, Chris, Mike and Pat, for taking over all my union commitments to get this thesis finished; thank you, it worked. I am very grateful to all the research assistants who worked with me along the way, particularly Virlene and Vera for their support and dedication to the research in Bahia. A big thank you to Vera for her wonderful companionship over the years. On that note too the biggest debt of gratitude goes to Bella, Cida and family for their support at every turn. Finally, thanks to Dave, Nina and Lois, for being there most of the time and not being there some of the time. Although completed as a staff PhD at the University of Nottingham, the research for this thesis was originally funded by the then British Academy for the first two years of study at the University of Liverpool. Since being in post at the University of Nottingham, the university and my department, SPLAS, have also provided financial support for subsequent research trips. v Glossary. Primary Sources. APEB - Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia Sec. Jud. - Secção Judiciária. Sec. Jud., LRT - Secção Judiciária, Livros de Registro de Testamentos. Sec. Jud., LN - Secção Judiciária, Livros de Notas. Journals. HAHR - Hispanic American Historical Review. JLAS – Journal of Latin American Studies. LBR - Luso-Brazilian Review. 1 SECTION ONE INTRODUCTION 2 PART 1. Introduction and overview. The publication of Gilberto Freyre’s Casa Grande e Senzala in 1933 marked a watershed in the historiography of Brazilian slavery as Frank Tannenbaum noted in his introduction to the English translation of 1963.1 While politicians, intellectuals, chroniclers and travellers, both in times of slavery and after, tended to associate race mixture with promiscuity and racial degeneration, Freyre proclaimed miscegenation as a statement of Brazilian racial authenticity, a symbol of the making of a modern democracy. The ability to mix racially was interpreted by Freyre and his followers as a mark of distinction in the history of New World race relations; Brazil had produced a unique form of democracia racial.2 The other historical cornerstone of the myth of racial democracy has been manumission. In his 1946 comparative study of slavery and race relations in the Americas, Tannenbaum, a contemporary of Freyre, first drew attention to the historical role of both processes in the formulation of race relations in the respective hemispheres.3 As Carl Degler pointed out in his 1971 revision of the Tannenbaum thesis, although his study was not directly concerned with Brazilian slavery per se, Tannenbaum frequently drew examples from Brazil to illustrate his argument about the fundamental differences between the slave regimes across the Americas.4 As the 1 Gilberto Freyre, Casa-grande e senzala: formação da família brasileira sob o regime de economia patriarcal (Rio de Janeiro: Maia and Schmidt, 1933). Gilberto Freyre, The mansions and the shanties: the making of modern Brazil, trans. and ed. Harriet de Onís, introd. Frank Tannenbaum (New York: Knopf, 1963). 2 For a discussion of the background to the origin of the term, see Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães, “Racial Democracy,” in Imagining Brazil, ed.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Three-Fifths Clause: a Necessary American Compromise Or Evidence of America’S Original Sin?
    THE THREE-FIFTHS CLAUSE: A NECESSARY AMERICAN COMPROMISE OR EVIDENCE OF AMERICA’S ORIGINAL SIN? A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Continuing Studies and of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies By Michael D. Tanguay, B.A. Georgetown University Washington, DC 4 April 2017 COPYRIGHT Copyright 2017 by Michael D. Tanguay All Rights Reserved ii THE THREE-FIFTHS CLAUSE: A NECESSARY AMERICAN COMPROMISE OR EVIDENCE OF AMERICA’S ORIGINAL SIN? Michael D. Tanguay, B.A. MALS Mentor: James H. Hershman, Ph.D. ABSTRACT For over 230 years historians and scholars have argued that the Three-fifths Clause of the United States Constitution, which counted slaves as three-fifths a citizen when calculating states’ population for apportionment in the House of Representatives, gave Southern states a disproportional amount of power in Congress. This “Slave Power” afforded by the additional “slave seats” in the House of Representatives and extra votes in the Electoral College allegedly prolonged slavery well beyond the anticipated timelines for gradual emancipation efforts already enacted by several states at the time of the Constitutional Convention. An analysis of a sampling of these debates starts in the period immediately following ratification and follows these debates well into the 21st century. Debates on the pro- or anti-slavery aspects of the Constitution began almost immediately after ratification with the Election of 1800 and resurfaced during many critical moments in the antebellum period including the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision, The Compromise of 1850 and the Wilmot Proviso.
    [Show full text]
  • 5.5 X 10 Long Title.P65
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-71155-5 - Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century Junia Ferreira Furtado Frontmatter More information Chica da Silva Junia´ Ferreira Furtado offers a fascinating study of the world of a freed woman of color in a small Brazilian town where itinerant merchants, former slaves, Portuguese administrators, and concubines interact across social and cultural lines. The child of an African slave from Costa da Mina and a Brazilian mil- itary nobleman of Portuguese descent, Chica da Silva won her freedom using social and matrimonial strategies. But the story of Chica da Silva is not merely the personal history of a woman nor the social history of a colonial Brazilian town. Rather, it provides a historical perspective on a woman’s agency, the cul- tural universe she inhabited, and the myths that were created around her in subsequent centuries, as Chica de Silva came to symbolize both an example of racial democracy and the stereotype of licentiousness and sensuality always attributed to the black or mulatta female in the Brazilian popular imagination. Junia´ Ferreira Furtado holds a Ph.D. in social history from the Universidade de Sao˜ Paulo, Brazil. She is currently a professor of history at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Her work on Chica da Silva has won awards from the Carlos Chagas Foundation for Women and Gender Research and the Ford Foundation. She has also contributed articles to Cartografia da conquista das minas and History of Cartography, volume 4. The Portuguese-language edition of this book was awarded honorable mention in 2004 by the Casa de las Americas´ Foundation of Cuba.
    [Show full text]
  • John Punch Indentured Servant
    John Punch Indentured Servant Which Orbadiah inclined so metaphysically that Lester overglazed her fieldstones? Fitting Odie secularise spinally. Son hoping slangily as unmaimed Spiro subintroduced her hajjis pronounce sooner. Were punished while on trial of john punch shall lift up the general council president too many indentured servant and heavily on what type of passenger transportation beyond his gun 1640 Indentured servant John Punch is sentenced to a lifetime of slavery in. Mixed Race Studies John Punch. Obama roots traced to reduce slave in US named John Punch. Virginia and the Carolinas Laws Flashcards Quizlet. Servants and duty boys all forms of indentured servitude regulated by social customs and contracts. Indentured servitude in British America Wikipedia. But previous research could open a curb Was John Punch the slave. Slavery Antislavery and his Underground Railroad. 1640 Virginia courts sentenced a strong run away servant John Punch to either his. 1640 Virginia courts sentenced a black border away servant John Punch shall serve. John Punch of an enslaved African who lived in the colony of Virginia Thought to that been an indentured servant Punch attempted to enhance to Maryland and was sentenced in July 1640 by the Virginia Governor's Council would serve as a burn for any remainder to his life. Slave John Punch Build Nation. An African servant John Punch is sentenced to bank after school away. African slavery rather than indentured servitude in history American colonies. Had ended with our man named John Punch being declared a thank for prime as. Thought might have sent an indentured servant Punch attempted to band to Maryland and was sentenced in July 1640 by the.
    [Show full text]
  • THE BLACK SLAVE OWNERS by Joseph E. Holloway the Majority of Black Slave
    THE BLACK SLAVE OWNERS By Joseph E. Holloway The majority of black slave owners were members of the mulatto class, and in some cases were the sons and daughters of white slave masters. Many of the mulatto slave owners separated themselves from the masses of black people and attempted to establish a caste system based on color, wealth, and free status. According to Martin Delany, the colored community of Charleston City clung to the assumptions of the superiority of white blood and brown skin complexion. These mulattoes of the old free Black elite did not attend church with the dark-skinned blacks of Charleston City. They not only formed congregations which excluded freedmen of dark complexion, but they only married among other mulattoes to “keep the color in the family.” Large numbers of free Blacks owned black slaves in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society. According to the federal census of 1830, free blacks owned more than 10,000 slaves in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. The majority of black slave-owners lived in Louisiana and planted sugar cane. Slave holding among the mulatto class in South Carolina was widespread according to the first census of 1790, which revealed that 36 out of 102, or 35.2 percent of the free Black heads of family held slaves in Charleston City. By 1800 one out of every three free black recorded owning slave property. Between 1820 and 1840 the percentage of slaveholding heads of family ranged from 72.1 to 77.7 percent, however, by 1850 the percentage felt to 42.3 percent.
    [Show full text]
  • O GRES Acadêmicos Do Salgueiro E As
    Universidade Federal Fluminense Centro de Estudos Gerais Instituto de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia Área de História Programa de Pós-Graduação em História - Doutorado Guilherme José Motta Faria O G.R.E.S. Acadêmicos do Salgueiro e as representações do negro nos desfiles das escolas de samba nos anos 1960 Niterói 2014 1 Universidade Federal Fluminense Centro de Estudos Gerais Instituto de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia Área de História Programa de Pós-Graduação em História – Doutorado Guilherme José Motta Faria O G.R.E.S. Acadêmicos do Salgueiro e as representações do negro nos desfiles das escolas de samba nos anos 1960 Tese de Doutorado apresentada ao Programa de Pós- Graduação em História da Universidade Federal Fluminense, como requisito parcial para obtenção do título de Doutor, sob orientação da Prof. Dra. Martha Campos Abreu. Orientadora: Prof. Dra. Martha Campos Abreu Niterói 2014 2 Universidade Federal Fluminense Centro de Estudos Gerais Instituto de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia Área de História Programa de Pós-Graduação em História – Doutorado Guilherme José Motta Faria O G.R.E.S. Acadêmicos do Salgueiro e as representações do negro nos desfiles das escolas de samba nos anos 1960 Banca Examinadora: Prof. Dra. Martha Campos Abreu (Orientadora) Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFF _______________________________________________ Prof. Dra. Marilene Rosa Nogueira da Silva Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UERJ ________________________________________________ Prof. Dra. Rachel Soihet Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFF _________________________________________________ Prof. Dr. Marcelo de Souza Magalhães Instituto de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia da UNIRIO ________________________________________________ Prof. Dr. Matthias Wolfram Orhan Rohring Assunção Universidade de ESSEX (Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origins and Uses of the Three-Fifths Clause Related to Slavery and Taxation
    The Origins and Uses of the Three-Fifths Clause Related to Slavery and Taxation A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of History at Liberty University in Candidacy for a Master of Arts in History by William F. Hughes Advisory Committee Dr. Carey M. Roberts, Committee Chair Dr. Joseph Super, Reader 2018 i Table of Contents Abstract . ii Introduction . 1 Historiography . 9 Historical Interpretation . 17 Thesis Objectives . 25 Chapter 1: Slavery and Citizenship . 27 Chapter 2: Slavery and Representation . 57 Chapter 3: Slavery and Taxation . 76 Conclusion . 104 Bibliography . 113 ii Abstract The Three-fifths clause of the 1787 U.S. Constitution is noted for having a role in perpetuating racial injustices of America’s early slave culture, solidifying the document as pro- slavery in design and practice. This thesis, however, examines the ubiquitous application of the three-fifths ratio as used in ancient societies, medieval governments, and colonial America. Being associated with proportions of scale, this understanding of the three-fifths formula is essential in supporting the intent of the Constitutional framers to create a proportional based system of government that encompassed citizenship, representation, and taxation as related to production theory. The empirical methodology used in this thesis builds on the theory of “legal borrowing” from earlier cultures and expands this theory to the early formation of the United States government and the economic system of the American slave institution. Therefore, the Three-fifths clause of the 1787 U.S. Constitution did not result from an interest to facilitate or perpetuate American slavery; the ratio stems from earlier practices based on divisions of land in proportion to human scale and may adhere to the ancient theory known as the Golden Ratio.
    [Show full text]
  • Slave Trading and Slavery in the Dutch Colonial Empire: a Global Comparison
    rik Van WELie Slave Trading and Slavery in the Dutch Colonial Empire: A Global Comparison INTRODUCTION From the early seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century, slavery played a fundamental role in the Dutch colonial empire.1 All overseas possessions of the Dutch depended in varying degrees on the labor of slaves who were imported from diverse and often remote areas. Over the past decades numer- ous academic publications have shed light on the history of the Dutch Atlantic slave trade and of slavery in the Dutch Americas.2 These scholarly contribu- tions, in combination with the social and political activism of the descen- dants of Caribbean slaves, have helped to bring the subject of slavery into the national public debate. The ongoing discussions about an official apology for the Dutch role in slavery, the erection of monuments to commemorate that history, and the inclusion of some of these topics in the first national history canon are all testimony to this increased attention for a troubled past.3 To some this recent focus on the negative aspects of Dutch colonial history has already gone too far, as they summon the country’s glorious past to instill a 1. I would like to thank David Eltis, Pieter Emmer, Henk den Heijer, Han Jordaan, Gerrit Knaap, Gert Oostindie, Alex van Stipriaan, Jelmer Vos, and the anonymous reviewers of the New West Indian Guide for their many insightful comments. As usual, the author remains entirely responsible for any errors. This article is an abbreviated version of a chapter writ- ten for the “Migration and Culture in the Dutch Colonial World” project at KITLV.
    [Show full text]
  • The Slavery of Emancipation
    University at Buffalo School of Law Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 1996 The Slavery of Emancipation Guyora Binder University at Buffalo School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation Guyora Binder, The Slavery of Emancipation, 17 Cardozo L. Rev. 2063 (1996). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles/301 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SLAVERY OF EMANCIPATION Guyora Binder* I. THE CLAIM: MANUMISSION IS NOT ABOLITION The Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution com- mands that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist."' What has been the effect of this command? It will serve my present purpose to offer the following too- simple answer to this complex question: the Thirteenth Amend- ment secured little more than the manumission of slaves already practically freed by the friction of war. It guaranteed, in Confeder- ate General Robert Richardson's now well-known phrase, "noth- 2 ing but freedom." Supposing this answer to be true, a further question presents itself: Did the Thirteenth Amendment's effect fulfill its command? Did universal manumission abolish slavery? A full answer to this question would require a rich historical account of the evolving institution of American slavery, the fea- tures of that institution that survived the Reconstruction era, and how those features evolved in the ensuing century and a quarter.
    [Show full text]
  • Pennsylvania Colonization Society As an Agent of Emancipation
    Rethinking Northern White Support for the African Colonization Movement: The Pennsylvania Colonization Society as an Agent of Emancipation N 1816 WHITE REFORMERS WHO HOPED to transport black Americans to Africa established the American Colonization Society (ACS). Over the next ten years, the ACS founded the colony of Liberia and organized scores of state and local auxiliary associations across the United States. Among these was the Pennsylvania Colonization Society (PCS), which was formed in 1826. For those PCS supporters who envisioned the group sending the Keystone State's black population to Liberia, decades of disappointment were forthcoming. Between 1820 and 1860 the number of African Americans in Pennsylvania grew from thirty thousand to fifty-seven thousand. During the same period, less than three hundred of the state's black residents moved to Africa. The PCS nevertheless remained a vibrant and conspic- uous institution. But if the organization rarely sent black Pennsylvanians to Liberia, what did it do to advance the colonization cause?' 1 The standard work on the ACS is P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865 (New York, 1961). For black Pennsylvanians, see Joe William Trotter Jr. and Eric Ledell Smith, eds., African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting HistoricalPerspectives (University Park, Pa., 1997); Julie Winch, Philadelphia'sBlack Elite: Activism, Accommodation, and the Struggle for Autonomy, 1787-1848 (Philadelphia, 1988); and Julie Winch, ed., The Elite of Our People:Joseph Willson's Sketches of Black Upper-Class Life in Antebellum Philadelphia (University Park, Pa., 2000). On nineteenth-century Liberia, see Tom W. Shick, Behold the Promised Land: A History of Afro-American Settler Society in Nineteen th-Century Liberia (Baltimore,' 1980).
    [Show full text]
  • Popular Culture Imaginings of the Mulatta: Constructing Race, Gender
    Popular Culture Imaginings of the Mulatta: Constructing Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation in the United States and Brazil A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Jasmine Mitchell IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Bianet Castellanos, Co-adviser Erika Lee, Co-adviser AUGUST 2013 © Jasmine Mitchell 2013 Acknowledgements This dissertation would have been impossible without a community of support. There are many numerous colleagues, family, friends, and mentors that have guided ths intellectual and personal process. I would first like to acknowledge my dissertation committee for their patience, enthusiasm, and encouragement while I was in Minneapolis, New York, São Paulo, and everywhere in between. I am thankful for the research and methodological expertise they contributed as I wrote on race, gender, sexuality, and popular culture through an interdisciplinary and hemispheric approach. Special gratitude is owed to my co-advisors, Dr. Bianet Castellanos and Dr. Erika Lee for their guidance, commitment, and willingness to read and provide feedback on multiple drafts of dissertation chapters and applications for various grants and fellowships to support this research. Their wisdom, encouragement, and advice for not only this dissertation, but also publications, job searches, and personal affairs were essential to my success. Bianet and Erika pushed me to rethink the concepts used within the dissertation, and make more persuasive and clearer arguments. I am also grateful to my other committee members, Dr. Fernando Arenas, Dr. Jigna Desai, and Dr. Roderick Ferguson, whose advice and intellectual challenges have been invaluable to me.
    [Show full text]
  • How Mixed-Race Americans Navigated the Racial Codes of Antebellum America
    James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses, 2020-current The Graduate School 5-7-2020 Under cover of lightness: How mixed-race Americans navigated the racial codes of Antebellum America Alexander Brooks Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/masters202029 Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Brooks, Alexander, "Under cover of lightness: How mixed-race Americans navigated the racial codes of Antebellum America" (2020). Masters Theses, 2020-current. 48. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/masters202029/48 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses, 2020-current by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Under Cover of Lightness: How Mixed-Race Americans Navigated the Racial Codes of Antebellum America Alex Brooks A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History May 2020 FACULTY COMMITTEE: Committee Chair: Rebecca Brannon Committee Members/ Readers: Gabrielle Lanier David Owusu-Ansah Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Miscegenation 3. North 4. Upper South 5. Lower South 6. 1850s Turbulence 7. Liberia 8. Conclusion ii Abstract This thesis investigates the way people of mixed “racial” ancestry—known as mulattoes in the 18th and 19th centuries—navigated life in deeply racially divided society. Even understanding “mulatto strategies” is difficult because it is to study a group shrouded in historical ambiguity by choice.
    [Show full text]
  • Representations of Slave Women in Discourses of Slavery and Abolition, 1780-1838
    The University of Hull Representations of Slave Women in Discourses of Slavery and Abolition, 1780-1838 A thesis submitted to the Department of Economic and Social History in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Henrice Altink Cardiff, Wales September 2002 :If CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v MAP OF JAMAICA 1834 vii INTRODUCTION 1 PART I. SLAVE WOMEN AS MOTHER INTRODUCTION TO PART I 27 CHAPTER 1 BELLY-WOMEN 34 Incentives to Breed Pregnancy The Delivery The Lying-In Period Conclusions CHAPTER 2 PICKENINY MUMMAS 60 'If [Only] They Were Encouraged As Nurses' 'The Most Essential and Most Important of All the Maternal Duties' Conclusions PART II. SLAVE WOMEN AS COMPANIONS INTRODUCTION TO PART II 85 CHAPTER 3 DEVIANT AND DANGEROUS: ATTITUDES TO SLAVE WOMEN'S SEXUALITY 93 'Rat-Traps Who Have Two Husbands, and Make Love to the Bucicras' 'Naturally. Endowed with Moderate Passions' Conclusions CHAPTER 4 SLAVE MARRIAGE: SOLUTION OR PROBLEM? 130 From an Undesirable to an Acceptable Institution Official Encouragement to Slave Marriage A Beneficial or Harmful Institution? Conclusions CHAPTER 5 SLAVE MARRIAGE: THE FOUNDATIONS OF FREEDOM 158 Marriage as the Preparation for Freedom Marriage as the Blessing of Freedom Conclusions 111 PART III. SLAVE WOMEN AS SUBJECTS TO PLANTATION DISCIPLINE INTRODUCTION TO PART III 184 CHAPTER 6 THE INDECENCY OF THE LASH 192 'An Outrage on All Decency' A Just Punishment for Unruly Women? Conclusions CHAPTER 7 SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME 222 'Repugnant to Every Feeling of Humanity' 'I did Not See Any Cruelty Practised' Conclusions CONCLUSION 260 BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 Manuscript Sources Printed Primary Sources Secondary Sources iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have incurred many debts while researching and writing this thesis.
    [Show full text]