ARE THEY BLACK OR ARE THEY WHITE

ARE THEY BLACK OR ARE THEY WHITE

(Slavery) Bowditch, William I. WHITE SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. Anti-Slavery Tracts. No. 2. Nd. c. 1855. 8 pgs. Various advertisements for runaway slaves that could pass for white. Example from the New Orleans Picayune dated 1848.

“Fifty Dollars Reward. - Ran away from the subscriber about two months ago, a bright mulatto girl, named Mary, about twenty-five years of age, almost white, and reddish hair, front teeth out, a cut on her upper lip; about five feet five inches high; has a scar on her forehead; she passes for free; talks French, Italian, Dutch, English and Spanish. Andre Grasso

Upper side of St. Mary’s Market – N.O. Picayune.

“We have no statistics in relation to the number of the mixed races; it must, however, be large. The female slave cannot resist her master’s power; and the law every where practically teaches her to acquiesce in his wishes, by denying her the capacity to contract a valid marriage even with a slave. If she must be the concubine of some one, how much better, then, to be the mistress of the owner, who has it in his power to do so much for her! She cannot commit adultery; nor is a slave ever punished for incontinence. It was a southerner who said that the best blood of Virginia flowed in the veins of her slaves!

An interesting work discussing the laws of the various Southern states and court cases on what is black and what is white. Sewn as issued, clean tear on page 5, overall in vg cond.