White, Female Adultery across the Color Line in North Carolina during Slavery and Reconstruction, c. 1800-1870

Molloy, Marie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1500-5990 (2024) White, Female Adultery across the Color Line in North Carolina during Slavery and Reconstruction, c. 1800-1870. Journal of Family History: studies in family, kinship and demography. ISSN 0363-1990

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Abstract

This article focuses on female adultery across the color line between white, married women and enslaved men or free men of color in the context of US slavery. It explores white women’s sexual transgression of the societal norms and legislative structures governing the southern family and racial and gender norms of the era. The cases in North Carolina subvert our understanding of white women’s place within southern marriage and in relation to slavery, to reveal a complex picture, of white women’s sexual agency in their adultery with black men, set within the restraints of southern marriage, and patriarchal dominance.