Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Harriet Wilson's Our Nig

Additional portrayals of interracial relationships in the 19th century can be found in Harriet Wilson's Our Nig and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Wilson's depiction of the relationship between Mag, a white outcast, and Jim, a working class black man, begins with Jim proclaiming that he has a "white heart" though he is black on the outside. Once Mag becomes his wife, despite the fact that she has been rejected by the white community, Wilson describes her as Jim's "treasure, a white wife." The relationship is one that arises out of desperation, pity, and convenience, and its result is a life of suffering for the light-but-not-quite-light-enough-to-pass-as-white child that is produced.

While Wilson portrays a northern scenario, the circumstances under which Jacobs frames her narrative are probably more typical of the kind of interracial relationship of the 19th century, that is the illicit relationship between a slave and a free person, typified by the overheard: "He not only thinks it no disgrace to be the father of those little niggers, but he is not ashamed to call himself their master." The fact that Linda has a child by a white man other than her master is both controversial and threatening to the power he holds over her. She uses this relationship to gain a sense of independence and freedom that cannot come from either a relationship with another slave or from one with her master. The fact that her white lover has no direct control over her, and that she chooses to have an affair with him of her own volition, is liberating. It might even be said that interracial relationships of this sort challenged the philosophy of slavery.

Equally significant is the role of the children that are the intended result of the relationship. Hoping to use their father's freedom as a ticket to her children's emancipation, Linda attempts to edge herself a little further away from slavery. Unlike Wilson's text where the children are a sad reminder of a condemned partnership, the children in Jacobs' story are a deliberate manipulation of the master.

We do not find any examples of "pure" or positive interracial relationships in the literature of this time because, it is argued, they were not possible. People cannot exist outside of the social context, therefor the negative portrayals we are provided with reflect reality. The negative aspects do not stem necessarily from the relationship itself but from the suffering and chastisement caused as a result.

In 1895, South Carolina banned the union of whites and blacks. In modern day language, interracial dating was prohibited. On Tuesday, November 3, a question on the ballot was whether or not this precedent should stand. Most southern states had formed this kind of law during the 1800s. The Supreme Court ruled the Virginia ban unconstitutional in 1967, after which many southern states got rid of the law except for Alabama and South Carolina.

As it was written, the constitution for the state of South Carolina reads: "marriage of a white person with a Negro or mulatto or a person who shall have one-eighth or more of blood" is prohibited.

Emmet Till is a name that will go down in history, even though most history books don't have his name in them. Emmet Till was 14 years old when he was beaten and killed.

A handsome and vivacious young man from Chicago, he was unaware of Southern ways and laws. He went to Mississippi for a visit in August of 1955. While there, he would accept a dare that would end his promising life. Emmet was dared to address a white woman in public by saying 'hey baby.'

There are not many accounts of this story, but as it has been told, the woman went home and told her husband. Her husband rallied up his friends and went after Emmet. Capturing him, they beat him until he fied. He was beat beyond recognition. After returning his body up north, his mother had an open casket at his funeral. Her purpose was to let the world see what was done to her baby.

The time was 1922 and the place was Sumner, Florida. Fanny Taylor believed that her husband was cheating on her. When she accused him on New Year's morning of 1923, he beat her severely. She was covered with bruises from head to toe. Fanny ran out into a crowd of white people and told them that she was beat and raped by a "nigger."

Her housemaid was Sara Carter, who lived in Rosewood. Sara was in the house during the whole attack. When she told the crowd that it was a white man, the crowd ran her out of town to her home in Rosewood, three miles away from Sumner.

The county sherrif was called to the scene. A black man had escaped the chain gang. The white men formed a posse, brought out the bloodhounds, and went to Rosewood to find their accuser.

Innocent victims were killed and all of Rosewood was burned. After Fannie caused all of this mayhem, she admitted that it was all a lie. She lied to cover up her affair that she was having with another lover. History has written that only two whites and six blacks died in the massacre. One of the blacks that was killed was Fannie's housemaid, Sara Carter, who was also called "Slave Woman" because she was born before Lincoln freed the slaves. Sara was also a midwife who has assisted and nursed half the men who killed her.

One of the most recent portrayals of modern day interracial relationships that deals with the issue directly rather than in a peripheral or overly simplified manner, is Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, which was released in 1991. Though there has been much discussion and criticism that Lee's characters are stereotyped, the film serves as a point from which to discuss the issue in current light.

Flip Purify, an African-American architect who lives in Harlem with his daughter and wife, hires a new receptionist, Angie Tucci. Angi is an Italian-American woman who lives in Bensonhurst. After staying late at the office one evening, Angie and Flip have sex and an affair begins. Flip tells his friend, who tells his wife, who tells Flip's wife. She reacts and kicks him out of the house. Angie's father finds out that she is dating a black man and beats her. They move into an apartment together, but the relationship fails because the two realize that they are attracted to each other more out of curiosity for the "other" than for their individual characteristics. They mutually decide to give up the relationship after the neighbors call the cops on them, thinking that Flip is trying to assault her.

Flip's wife is hurt over the whole ordeal because she is mixed- her mother was black and her father was white. She had developed a complex about her skin color because she was teased about being mixed in school. Flip's father is upset because he was raised in Willicoochie, GA, where the slave women were raped by white men.

In the end, Angie goes back home to her family and Flip goes back to his wife. Lee makes direct and severe statements about interracial relationships through this film. Essentially, he argues that in the context of modern American society, interracial relationships are motivated by curiosity as a result of historical stigma. The generation just before Angie and Flip projects fear, ignorance, and violence with regard to mixed- race unions, and so the their children's response is a reactionary one. In Lee's view, it is black women that are victimized as a result of interracial relationsahips, whereas the black man realizes his mistake and asks for forgiveness, and the white woman basically persues her life as before the incident occurred. The only real change that occurs is that the latter two have satisfied their curiosity, which was all that was at stake to begin with.

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