ECU Libraries Catalog

Blurring the lines of race and freedom : Mulattoes and mixed bloods in English colonial America / A.B. Wilkinson.

Author/creator Wilkinson, A. B. (Aaron B.) author.
Format Book and Print
Publication Info Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 2020.
Descriptionx, 320 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Subject(s)
Series The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture
John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture. ^A413403
Contents The rise of hypodescent in seventeenth-century English America -- Children of mixed lineage in the colonial Chesapeake -- Mulattoes and Mustees in the northern colonies and Carolinas -- Mixed-heritage identities in the eighteenth century -- Mulatto marriages, partnerships, and intimate connections -- The advantages and disadvantages of blended ancestry.
Abstract "Using archival records from the colonies where intermixture was most common in North America, and records from English colonies in the Caribbean, Wilkinson is able to follow the stories of those identified as 'mixed blood,' highlighting those people caught between monoracial categories. Wilkinson shows how the position of 'mixed people' complicated colonial systems of servitude and slavery, and that the struggle for freedom by people of blended ancestry and their families prevented colonial elites from firmly establishing a concrete socioracial order. He argues that there is a better framework than the one-drop rule for understanding early mixed-race ideologies in the English colonies. He uses the term hypodescent, indicating how a person of mixed ethnoracial ancestry is often associated with their socially inferior lineage, yet their legal or socioracial status may be elevated based on their proximity to European heritage or racial whiteness. This book combines intellectual, social, and cultural history to show how the complicated socioracial order in the colonies never fit neatly with a legal status of either bound or free"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Genre/formHistory.
LCCN 2020004240
ISBN9781469658988 (cloth)
ISBN1469658984
ISBN9781469658995 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN1469658992
ISBN(ebook)

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks E184 .A1 W4525 2020 ✔ Available Place Hold