Amber D. Moulton is Researcher for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
An outstanding piece of history. Moulton is the first to provide a
thorough examination of the shifting arguments for and against the
repeal of laws prohibiting interracial marriage. She offers a
nuanced and convincing explanation for why the forces of repeal
were able to overturn the ban without diminishing white resistance
to marriage across the color line. Her book is an insightful
exploration of the evolving political, social, and moral thinking
of whites and blacks struggling to comprehend the complex meaning
of black freedom in the North.
*Joanne Pope Melish, author of Disowning Slavery: Gradual
Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780–1860*
Amber Moulton’s finely-grained history of the nation’s first
sustained fight for marriage rights chronicles the petitioning
campaign that culminated in the repeal of Massachusetts’
interracial marriage ban in 1843. As advocates for equality
struggled to make the case that marriage is a civil right on which
all other social and political rights are dependent, those invested
in preserving the North’s racial caste system waged a pitched
political battle in newspapers, political cartoons, and the
streets, warning that ‘amalgamation’ would lead to licentiousness
and the end of social stability. Both sides had a role in shaping
the debate about marriage and civil rights that continues to this
day, making The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum
Massachusetts important reading for historians and activists
alike.
*Elise Lemire, author of Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath
in Concord, Massachusetts*
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