"The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation"

[My Name Is Kate]

(03-13-2015 10:18 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  I know that miscegenation was illegal not only in the South, but in all of America until relatively recently. So how did Americans responsible for putting those laws on the books explain and justify all the mulatto and mixed race men and women? Were White men ever prosecuted 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?

I would hazard to guess that the white men (and maybe white women too, and who knows, maybe even a few of the black mothers of the mulattoes, as well as some of the mulattoes themselves) justified or condoned or tolerated all the miscegenation as something that could ultimately be beneficial to the black race (you know, something along the lines of "it'll do them/us good to get some white blood in their/our veins.") All one has to do is look at what is happening today to see that that is a distinct possibility. There are more than a few black males (I have no idea what percentage, though) who seem to prefer white females over black females. Just look at some of the rich and famous black men in sports, TV, etc., who are married to white women and have mixed race children. Why do they prefer white women? Was there evidence, back in the days when the miscegenation laws were created, that some black men might actually prefer white women? Is that too hard to believe?

I am not so sure that the miscegenation laws were designed to protect white women so much as designed to keep the white women available only to white men. The white men who created those laws were thinking mainly of themselves, IMO. Could it be that some black men today are having their revenge against those laws? It seems to me that white women are mainly just pawns in all this.