The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy, Freedom, and Desire in the Black Transatlantic

241 Pages·2016·2.777 MB·English

by  Lisa Ze Winters

The
Mulatta Concubine
Race in the Atlantic World, 1700–1900
Published in Cooperation with the Library Company of
Philadelphia’s Program in African American History
Series Editors
Richard S. Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology
Patrick Rael, Bowdoin College
Manisha Sinha, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Advisory Board
Edward Baptist, Cornell University
Christopher Brown, Columbia University
Vincent Carretta, University of Maryland
Laurent Dubois, Duke University
Erica Armstrong Dunbar, University of Delaware
and the Library Company of Philadelphia
Douglas Egerton, LeMoyne College
Leslie Harris, Emory University
Joanne Pope Melish, University of Kentucky
Sue Peabody, Washington State University, Vancouver
Erik Seeman, State University of New York, Buffalo
John Stauffer, Harvard University
The
Mulatta Concubine
terror, intimacy,
freedom, and desire
in the black
transatlantic
Lisa Ze Winters
The University of Georgia Press
Athens
Parts of chapter 4 first appeared in different form as “ ‘More desultory
and unconnected than any other’: Geography, Desire, and Freedom
in Eliza Potter’s A Hairdresser’s Experience in High Life,” American
Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2009): 455–75, Johns Hopkins University Press,
publisher. Copyright © 2009, the American Studies Association.
© 2016 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Set in 10/13 Adobe Caslon Pro by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Winters, Lisa Ze.
The mulatta concubine : terror, intimacy, freedom, and desire in the
Black transatlantic / Lisa Ze Winters.
pages cm. — (Race in the Atlantic world, 1700–1900)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8203-4896-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
isbn 978-0-8203-4897-1 (e-book) 1. Racially mixed women—
United States—History. 2. Racially mixed women—Atlantic Ocean
Region—History. 3. Free African Americans—Social conditions.
4. African American women—Social conditions. 5. Blacks—Race
identity—Atlantic Ocean Region. 6. Atlantic Ocean Region—Race
relations—History. 7. African diaspora. I. Title.
hq1410.56 2015
305.48’8960730163—dc23
2015013510
VèVè Amasasa Clark
Lynnéa Yuvella Stephen
Doris Marie Crandall Dawson
Earle Roberts Dawson
In loving memory
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contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Echo and the Myth of Origins 25
Chapter 2. Intimate Acts 67
Chapter 3. Authority, Kinship, and Possession 107
Chapter 4. Mapping Freedom and Belonging 144
Epilogue 180
Notes 185
Works Cited 205
Index 217
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acknowledgments
The wonderful paradox of writing is that it allows me at once to live in the
refuge of a most peaceful solitude and, when that solitude runs headlong into
anxiety and fear, to be held tightly by a community of friends and family who
step in to help me move my writing in ways impossible to do on my own. Over
the many years of writing this book, there were days, even months, when what
kept me going was the anticipation and responsibility of sitting down to write
these acknowledgments. It is my sincere hope that the people listed herein will
see their labor and generosity reflected in what is strongest about this book. Any
omissions in that list are unintentional, and I hope that anyone inadvertently
slighted here will allow me the opportunity to rectify the error in person. Any
missteps or errors in the pages that follow are mine alone.
I have enormous gratitude for the numerous librarians and archivists upon
whose expertise my project depends. Thanks are due to the staff of the Ban-
croft Library, the Historic New Orleans Collection, Tulane University’s Amis-
tad Research Center, the University of New Orleans’s Special Collections, and
the Archives nationales d’outre mer in Aix-en-Provence, France. I am especially
grateful to Phyllis Bischof, Librarian Emerita for African and African Ameri-
can Collections at the University of California, Berkeley; Gregory Osborn at the
New Orleans Public Library; and Mary Linn Wernet at the Cammie G. Henry
Research Center at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
At Wayne State University, Judith Arnold and Joshua Neds-Fox have kindly
provided ready research support and advice.
My research has received essential financial support from a number of sources.
Funding from UC Berkeley’s Graduate Opportunity Program, UC Berkeley’s
African American Studies Department, and the Ford Foundation Predoctoral
Fellowship Program provided me essential financial support toward the PhD.
The University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program af-
forded me time to figure out the terms and stakes of this project. At Wayne State
University I have received sustained financial support from a variety of sources,
including a University Minority/Women Summer Research Grant, subventions
for illustrations and indexing from the English Department and the College of
ix