| The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum Massachusetts Subjects: Interracial marriage -- Massachusetts -- History -- 18th century; Interracial marriage -- Massachusetts -- History -- 19th century; Interracial marriage -- Law and legislation -- Massachusetts -- History -- 18th century; Interracial marriage -- Law and le; Well known as an abolitionist stronghold before the Civil War, Massachusetts had taken steps to eliminate slavery as early as the 1780s. Nevertheless, a powerful racial caste system still held sway, reinforced by a law prohibiting "amalgamation"--marriage between whites and blacks. The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum Massachusetts chronicles a grassroots movement to overturn the state's ban on interracial unions. Assembling information from court and church records, family histories, and popular literature, Amber D. Moulton recreates an unlikely collaboration of reformers who sought to rectify what, in the eyes of the state's antislavery constituency, appeared to be an indefensible injustice. |