HIS202H1 Study Guide - Final Guide: Miscegenation, White Supremacy, Class Discrimination
Document Summary
What: negative term that refers to the interbreeding of people from different racial backgrounds. When: term appeared in a pamphlet that circulated nyc in 1860"s ( miscegenation: the theory of the blending of the races, applied to the american white man and negro ) Resulted in anti-miscegenation laws (created by fear of interracial sex), which was a key element of the eugenics movement in the early 20th century. The social, cultural and legal disapproval of interracial sexual relations because it was believed that a mixed race would reverse the evolutionary process and pollute the racial purity of the whites. Interracial sexual relationships were not a threat to the system as long as the man was white because the child"s racial status would come from the mother- creating legally negro" children would benefit the upper white class. It became an issue if the woman was white and the man was black.
