Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Moulton, Amber D. (1980-....)
Titre(s) : The fight for interracial marriage rights in antebellum Massachusetts [Texte imprimé] / Amber D. Moulton
Publication : Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2015
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (280 pages) : (black and white) illustrations ; 25 cm
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references and index
Well known as an abolitionist stronghold before the Civil War, Massachusetts had taken
steps to eliminate slavery as early as the 1780s. Nevertheless, a powerful racial
caste system still held sway, reinforced by a law prohibiting "amalgamation"--Marriage
between whites and blacks. The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum
Massachusetts chronicles a grassroots movement to overturn the state's ban on interracial
unions. Assembling information from court and church records, family histories, and
popular literature, Amber D. Moulton recreates an unlikely collaboration of reformers
who sought to rectify what, in the eyes of the state's antislavery constituency, appeared
to be an indefensible injustice. Initially, activists argued that the ban provided
a legal foundation for white supremacy in Massachusetts. But laws that enforced racial
hierarchy remained popular even in Northern states, and the movement gained little
traction. To attract broader support, the reformers recalibrated their arguments along
moral lines, insisting that the prohibition on interracial unions weakened the basis
of all marriage, by encouraging promiscuity, prostitution, and illegitimacy. Through
trial and error, reform leaders shaped an appeal that ultimately drew in Garrisonian
abolitionists, equal rights activists, antislavery evangelicals, moral reformers,
and Yankee legislators, all working to legalize interracial marriage. This pre-Civil
War effort to overturn Massachusetts' antimiscegenation law was not a political aberration
but a crucial chapter in the deep history of the African American struggle for equal
rights, on a continuum with the civil rights movement over a century later.
Sujet(s) : Mariage interethnique -- Massachusetts (États-Unis) -- 18e siècle
Mariage interethnique -- Massachusetts (États-Unis) -- 19e siècle
Mariage mixte -- Droit -- Massachusetts (États-Unis) -- 18e siècle
Mariage mixte -- Droit -- Massachusetts (États-Unis) -- 19e siècle
Relations interethniques -- Massachusetts (États-Unis) -- 18e siècle
Relations interethniques -- Massachusetts (États-Unis) -- 19e siècle
Indice(s) Dewey :
306.845 0973 (23e éd.) = Mariages, partenariats, unions interethniques - États-Unis
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780674967625. - ISBN 0674967623
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb457958010
Notice n° :
FRBNF45795801
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
Table des matières : Introduction ; Amalgamation and the Massachusetts ban on interracial marriage ;
Interracial marriage as an equal rights measure ; Moral reform and the protection
of Northern motherhood ; Anti-Southern politics and interracial marriage rights
; Advancing interracialism ; Epilogue.
