"The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation"

[LincolnToddFan]

I have to agree with Linda. A few years ago I became very excited at the idea of tracing my ancestry. I only got as far as a plantation in Alabama in the early 19th century, and a Scottish-American overseer. I appreciate all of the erudite, interesting contributions and comments on this thread but I don't think I can articulate how frustrating and heartbreaking that was for me and many others like me.

In the new LIFE book about Lincoln, former Congressman Julian Bond of Georgia explains his experiment with tracing his ancestry, remarkably similar to mine. His great grandmother was a slave girl in Kentucky in 1863, given as a wedding gift to a new bride. And when the young bride became pregnant, the young bridegroom exercised his right to substitute his wife's slave girl for marital relations while the wife was indisposed.(pg#252)

The result was James Bond, the congressman's grandfather. So, no. I do not agree that it is much worse now than it was then. How so? In what way? There are legions of influential advocates today-the past and current queens of Jordan(Noor and Rania) movie stars like Angelina Jolie- espousing the cause of unfortunate women and girls degraded in this manner. With the exception of a handful of people who were considered fanatics, who stood up for exploited female slaves in ante-bellum America?

Sexual slavery in anytime-past or present- must be the most dehumanizing of experiences. Anyone who endures it and survives has nothing but my admiration and respect.

I know that miscegenation was illegal not only in the South, but in most of America until relatively recently. So how did Americans responsible for putting those laws on the books explain and justify all the mulatto/ mixed race men and women? Were White men ever prosecuted for having relations with slave women and girls ? Or was the point of the miscegenation laws in place-as I suspect- to protect only White females?