The Relationship of White Men and Free Women of Mixed Ancestry

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Brief Article Summary
In his article, Warren Milteer explains how white men and free women of mixed ancestry in North Carolina established relationships that mirrored marriages that were sanctioned by the laws of the land although such relations were discouraged by legal pronouncements and indigenous beliefs. Children born from these relationships maintained constant interaction with their parents. This phenomenon was common in Hertford County in the 19th Century where such partners devised creative strategies of taking advantage of legal loopholes in their position (336-337). They succeeded in securing property rights and developing ways of preventing their arrangements from being legally scrutinized.
Although further research is required to establish the position of free women of mixed ancestry who were in illicit relationships with the whites, it is clear that they were better placed than their salve counterparts. Enslaved women ware always in a complicated situation against their white partners especially on the decision to treat the slaves as their brief subjects of sexual agreement or long-term partners. Warren also stresses that the free women who decided to enter into long-term relationships were from varied backgrounds and not wealthy (338). Nonetheless, the women of mixed ethnicity enjoyed a better life than their childhood lives because this is the only way they could find husbands who could help them reach their goal.
The relationships between free women of color and white women were engineered by factors such as social and economic motivation versus basic feelings. For instance, financial mobility influenced the choices of these free women. Given that there were fewer opportunities for them to earn more through work they considered these elicit unions as a chance to move up the financial ladder. In this way, they could improve their financial security as well as their s...