miscegenation laws
-
‘Octoroon,’ ‘Mulatto’ or ‘Aryan’: Couples Sue Virginia to Stop It From Forcing People to Choose a Race in Order to Get a Marriage License
Three couples in Virginia are invoking the names of Richard and Mildred Loving, the couple whose fight to be legally wed led to the striking down of laws banning interracial marriage, in their quest to stop Virginia from requiring racial ID — including outdated or outright offensive terms like “quadroon,” “mulatto” and “Aryan” — in…
-
Tracing Your Roots: Who Was My Black Colonial Ancestor?
A white woman discovers that she has African ancestry and wants help identifying her black New England forebear. Dear Professor Gates: I took a DNA test through 23andMe and it confirmed what I already knew: that I have black ancestry through my mother’s side, approximately 5.2 percent. There was talk during my childhood that my…
-
Tracing Your Roots: Untangle My Redbone Heritage
A mystery illustrates how an 18th-century family became caught up in Virginia’s laws around race, sex and freedom. Dear Professor Gates: My book about the triracial “redbones” of the 18th century, My Bones Are Red, came out in 2005 from Mercer University Press. I’d like to pick up where I left off in my research…
-
Tracing Your Roots: Did a White Lawyer Adopt My Granddad?
A family legend points to a turn-of-the-20th-century transracial adoption. Could that have actually happened? Dear Professor Gates: My mother and I have been tracing the family tree on the side of my father, Samuel Gibbs, for a while now. We have not been successful in finding out who the mystery white attorney is on my…
-
Tracing Your Roots: Our Family Matriarch Was a White Indentured Servant
Untangling the origins of Virginian ancestors whose lives crossed boundaries of race, freedom and the law. Dear Professor Gates: I am a descendant of Catherine Donathan, who was a white servant to Robert Bristow of Virginia. She had a relationship with a black slave from another plantation. She had a child, William. She has been…