Miscegenation and creolization in colonial America and contemporary interracial dating

Race Relations

Colonial Race Relations

In the American colonial period, people believed that it was wrong for any racial mixing to take place, and there were also taboos associated with some ethnic mixes. The first case, racial mixing is termed "miscegenation," and the second is called "creolization." Miscegenation was a special problem as it concerned the mixing of whites and blacks, but there was some concern when those of Asian ancestry and Native Americans mixed with whites also (Gudmundson). White males coupling with Native American females was actually somewhat common among trappers and others who traveled to remote areas in the vast American forests, but among the more civilized people along the eastern seaboard, it was anathema. Creolization, in the other hand, was common among the many ethnicities that peopled Europe, but it was still considered a weakening from the purity which was the English stock (Brown). This essay discusses the impact of the two practices in Colonial America, how those issues continue to affect the United States, and how people of African descent were affected by the freedom and independence movements in colonial America.

Many of the colonists who arrived in America on the earliest transports were moving because they had endured religious persecution from the Church of England and the Roman Catholic church while residents in England. The desire of the people was to worship God in the manner that they believed was necessary. Unfortunately, many of these religious groups were just as bigoted, in one way or another, as the heavy handed monarchs and church leaders they had just left. Most people had the belief that people of Caucasian ancestry were the chosen people, and that mixing with others of a different race or from a mixed ethnicity was against the will of God. Therefore, when these colonists arrived in the new world, they were more than willing to convert the "savages" from the base, animistic religions, but they were not willing to mix with them (Besson 171). Legislation was passed by many of the colonial groups that mixing with the Native Americans was to carry a criminal penalty of some degree. The main issue for colonial Americans is that thought the mixing criminal, whether it was with blacks or natives, because they believed that these other groups were inferior. As a matter of fact, many people believed that other groups were somehow less than human.

In present day America, some of this attitude does persist, and it can cause rifts between whites and other ethnic and racial groups. The legislation that outlawed miscegenation and creolization has long been struck from the books, but some of the same attitude remains. A society that was built, in some part, around the subjugation of other people, has a difficult time completely eradicating those beliefs. Creolization is something that people do not pay attention to as much in today's society, but miscegenation can be an issue. Many still hold to the belief that it is wrong to mix races, even if they do not believe that one race is inherently superior to another.