Amalgamationist & Abolitionists

 

Amalgamationist & Abolitionists

"Amalgamation"--the code word for sexual relations between the races--was feared. 

"Amalgamationists vs Abolitionists"

    Anybody liberal enough to publicly espouse the view that Blacks were human and deserved the same legal rights as Whites was labeled "an Amalgamationist." Further, it implied legal inter racial marriages.   It was possible--quite common, in fact--to be an abolitionist and not an amalgamationist.  

    Abolitionists were considered a Northern fringe group of eccentrics demanding the impossible. Abolitionists existed before the founding of the republic, but the movement stirred the South's ire starting in the 1830s. 

    In modern terms they were a bit like PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.) For example, most people do not think animals should be treated with mindless cruelty--that does not mean most people think chickens should have the vote or allowed to serve on a jury with baby seals and cats. Being anti slavery did not mean an Abolitionist believed Blacks were entitled to equal rights.

    PETA extremist members might be said to be viewed as fringe nutcases (though being overshadowed now by so many other nutcases in Congress.) 

    Abolitionists wanted slavery ended and many thought the solution after that was to send all the Blacks back to Africa to colonize and Christianize the continent. It didn't really matter where in Africa they were sent. It has never been clear to me why "the send them back" crowd thought all Blacks were alike.  

    Abraham Lincoln was certainly a man of time when he met with a number of free Blacks to discuss sending manumitted slaves and free Blacks "...back to Africa, your own country." The response was immediate and angry. "America is our own country!" They went on to point out Europe was "not every white man's own country."

    I find it odd the woodcut above depicts an amalgamation family as seemingly being a white couple that has adopted black children rather than the modern concept of a bi-racial couple. 

Freed slaves in New Orleans

(Notice the four White looking children are actually slaves.

I don't think it was because their grandmothers and great grandmothers were overly aggressive.) Many slave owners were quite obviously secret Amalgamationists.

Even teaching Black children to read and write was a sign of "amalgamationist tendencies."