History of Interracial Relationships in America
Uploaded by spootyhead on Mar 19, 2007
History of Interracial Relationships in America
Interracial relationships in America go back to the beginning of this country. For many years, settlers settled down with Indian woman because there was a lack of European women. In addition, Indian women proved to be a valued resource in race relations in the earlier Frontier. Indian Chiefs used their beautiful women as ambassadors of goodwill.
In today's society, there are many different types of interracial relationships. They come in many different forms such as black and white, red and yellow, black and yellow, and white and red. Society is so diverse that the racial make-up of a couple could be any combination.
Antimiscegenation Laws
In the beginning little social distinction was made in America on the base of race. However, as the racial reason for slavery developed, there began to creep into the mores a distinction between blacks and whites. One of its first sign was the passage of laws against intermarriage. When black servants were reduced to slavery, the colonial governing classes redoubled their efforts to exclude racial mixing. Miscegenation in this time was not only a serious violation of Puritan morality, but also a serious threat to slavery and the stability of the servile labor force.
The earliest record available against the cohabitation of black-white servants was the case of Hugh Davis, a white servant in Virginia who was sentenced to a public beating on Sept. 17, 1630, before a group of Negroes and others for ruin himself with a Negro. It was required that he confesses as much the following Sabbath.
The first law to deter racial intermarriage was enacted in the early colonial period. The General Assembly of the Colony of Maryland in 1661 deplored the fact that there were many cases of intermarriage between white female servants and Negro slaves. It legislated that if any free born white woman intermarried with a Negro slave; she would have to serve her husband’s master as long as the slave lived.
In 1681, a new Maryland law decreed that any freeborn white woman who married a Negro slave with the permission of the slave’s master could retain her freedom. However, the master or mistress of the intermarried slave and the clergyman performing the ceremony were to be penalized by a fine. This law was an attempt to prevent racial intermarriage by changing the penalty to those allegedly...