UC Berkeley

This dissertation examines interracial relations between white men and non-white women in the antebellum period. Focusing on black, Indian, and Spanish American women, this dissertation argues that such liaisons were far more prevalent, institutionalized, and tolerated than historians have previously argued. Although such phenomena as black concubines, tribally organized Indian marriages, and land-rich Mexican wives have been separately examined, no single study has put them together and questioned their particular prevalence at a specific time in American history. This dissertation argues that the relationships white men formed with non-white women follow certain patterns that evidence a sexual "crisis" in antebellum America. This is specifically identified as a "crisis of white femininity," wherein cultural stereotypes of virile white men, passionless white women, and hyper-sexual non-white women created a significant threat to stable white marriages. Moreover, this dissertation argues that the romanticization of such relations extended far beyond the men who contracted them: some of the period's most popular fiction involved fantasies of interracial love, pointing to a far more deep-seated fascination and desire within the American public than has hitherto been acknowledged.