{"id":57663,"date":"2019-02-23T21:23:53","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T21:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=57663"},"modified":"2019-02-23T21:25:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T21:25:15","slug":"the-miscegenation-troll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=57663","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cMiscegenation\u201d Troll"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cMiscegenation\u201d Troll<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

JSTOR Daily<\/a>
\n2019-02-20<\/p>\n

Mark Sussman<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nvia Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

The term \u201cmiscegenation<\/a>\u201d was coined in an 1864 pamphlet by an anonymous author.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1864, a pamphlet entitled \u201cMiscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro<\/a>\u201d began to circulate on the streets of New York<\/a>. The title certainly would have given New Yorkers pause. No one had ever seen the word \u201cmiscegenation<\/a>\u201d before. In fact, the pamphlet\u2019s anonymous author invented it, giving the reason that \u201camalgamation<\/a>\u201d\u2014then the most common term used to describe \u201crace mixing\u201d\u2014was a \u201cpoor word, since it properly refers to the union of metals with quicksilver.\u201d The term \u201cmiscegenation\u201d\u2014from the Latin miscere<\/em> (to mix) and genus<\/em> (race)\u2014had only one definition.<\/p>\n

Besides introducing a new word into the English language, the pamphleteer was also responsible for what appeared to be one of the most fearless documents in the archive of nineteenth century abolitionist<\/a> writing. Among many other claims and political recommendations, the pamphlet notes that, \u201cthe miscegenetic or mixed races are much superior, mentally, physically, and morally, to those pure or unmixed;\u201d that \u201ca continuance of progress can only be obtained through a judicious crossing of diverse elements;\u201d that \u201cthe Caucasian, or white race\u2026 has never yet developed a religious faith on its own;\u201d that \u201cthe true ideal man can only be reached by blending the type man and woman of all the races of the earth;\u201d that \u201cthe most beautiful girl in form, feature, and every attribute of feminine loveliness [the pamphleteer] ever saw, was a mulatto<\/a>.\u201d Most provocatively, the writer claimed that \u201cthe Southern beauty\u2026 proclaims by every massive ornament in her shining hair, and by every yellow shade in the wavy folds of her dress, \u2018I love the black man.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Miscegenation<\/em> was radical. Even among the most radical abolitionists of the day, interracial marriage was tolerated, but rarely explicitly encouraged. (Massachusetts<\/a> senator Charles Sumner<\/a> and prominent abolitionist Wendell Phillips<\/a> were exceptions.) Eurocentric<\/a> racial hierarchies were often deeply ingrained in their thinking…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The term \u201cmiscegenation\u201d was coined in an 1864 pamphlet by an anonymous author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,1196,8,26,20],"tags":[13319,27480,23090,2711,596],"class_list":["post-57663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-jstor-daily","tag-mark-sussman","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57663"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57665,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57663\/revisions\/57665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}