Racist marriage laws pushed free women of color into compensated partnerships.
Evidence
Such febrile talk was a way to finesse the contradictions produced by white patriarchy, of abstracting these relationships from the complicated and contorted relations of power that defined them. … But, as Julien Raimond pointed out, it was racist laws that forced free women of color “to prostitute themselves to whites” rather than marry them. … Indeed free women of color were a major economic, social, and cultural force. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 247 (
#contradicts, via linked claim)
In the case of black women and white men, inter-racial sex was both encouraged and condoned as long as it did not lead to marriage. By perpetuating the myth that all black women were incapable of fidelity and sexually loose, whites hoped to so devalue them that no white man would marry a black woman. After manumission, white men who treated black women with respect or sought to integrate a black female into respectable white society were persecuted and ostracized. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 193 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Wealth passed through free women of color, not their white husbands.; Racist marriage laws drove free women of color into concubinage — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 247; Racist laws actively shaped the sexual relationships they claimed to condemn. (+2 more)
Related
- Wealth passed through free women of color, not their white husbands. (similarity 0.95)
- Racist marriage laws drove free women of color into concubinage (similarity 0.93)
- Racist laws actively shaped the sexual relationships they claimed to condemn. (similarity 0.91)
- Whites sustained intimate family ties to people of color they legally degraded (similarity 0.91)
- Raimond blamed racist law on jealous white women and interracial desire (similarity 0.88)
- Racist marriage laws punished white men yet did not stop cohabitation (similarity 0.84)
- White men were encouraged to exploit black women but not marry them (similarity 0.81)
- Colonial marriage attitudes shifted from handicapping to requiring white wives (similarity 0.79)
- Economic incentives outweighed official pressure for white men to marry free women of color (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Racist marriage laws drove free women of color into concubinage
#contradicts(0.80) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 247 - Racist laws actively shaped the sexual relationships they claimed to condemn.
#expands(0.75) - White men were encouraged to exploit black women but not marry them
#expands(0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 193 - White male-black female marriage would threaten white patriarchal rule unlike the reverse
#corroborates(0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 199