What miscegenation is!: and what we are to expect now that Mr. Lincoln is re-elected.

by L.C.B. Seaman

Nook

About the author

(Lewis Charles Bernard)

Reviews

[Kathy Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I discovered the existence of this short essay after watching the film "Loving" about Richard and Mildred Loving and their successful bid in the Supreme Court against Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws.

This is essentially an 1864 essay in pamphlet form which mocks abolitionists and uses miscegenation as one of several devices for racial fear-mongering and denigration. To further his argument and position, the author employs sarcasm and paints a picture where the tides of race are inverted such that people of color are considered to be a superior class, and whites relegated to the bottom dregs of society wishing only to be more like them, even to the point of using charcoal to powder their white faces. Sadly, writings and perspectives like this surely aided the persistence of anti-miscegenation laws in Virginia and other states until Loving v. Virginia in 1967.

I gave the essay 2 stars instead of 1 (being that there is no zero stars option) on account of its historical significance and as an example of common perspectives in the author's time period. Things of this nature severely affront most of us today. It would nonetheless be unfortunate for people to fail in examining such fragments of history on account of a low book rating.

A photocopied version of the booklet can be found at the Internet Archive.

[Miles Smith]

Gives a good idea of just how racist society in the northern United States was even during the Civil War.