Before the influx of slaves from Africa, the southern colonies had made use of indentured servants. Sexual contact with and even rape of female indentured servants was fairly common. Interracial sex was legal, and southern white men often took black slaves as wives. After 1670, African slaves became common in the South, and many states passed antimiscegenation (an-TEE-miss-seg-jen-nay-shun) laws. At first the laws were largely ignored. Sexual relations between whites and blacks continued, ranging from brutal rape to genuinely affectionate, long-term relationships. By the end of the 18th century, mixed-race children accounted for one-fifth of the children born out of wedlock in Virginia (D’Emilio & Freedman, 1988).
The sex lives of slaves were different from those of colonists due to the relative lack of female slaves, the restrictions put on contact with members of the other sex, and the different cultural traditions of Africa. African slaves were accused by whites of having loose morals because women tended to have children by different fathers and children slept in the same rooms as their copulating parents. These sexual habits of slaves were used as an excuse to rape them, break up their families, and even, at times, kill them. Of course, slave owners did not consider that they were responsible for forcing slaves to live that way. The fear that freed black men would rape white women (or accusations that they had) was often used as justification to keep blacks segregated or to lynch them, even though it was far more common for white men to rape black slaves and servants. White women, on the other hand, had their movements and freedoms restricted for fear that they would “lose their virtue” to black males. The paradox was that the sexual availability of female black slaves severely damaged the sexual relations between white men and women.
The slaves themselves developed a social system to protect their few freedoms. Adults formed and tried to maintain stable unions when possible, although marriage was officially illegal between slaves. Despite harsh conditions, there was a strong sense of morality within the slave community, and slaves tried to regulate sexual behavior as much as possible, forcing men to take care of the women they impregnated and sanctioning girls who were too promiscuous. The myth of slave sexual looseness is disproved by the lack of prostitution and very low venereal disease (STI) rates among slaves (D’Emilio & Freedman, 1988). It is difficult, however, to maintain sexual unions when the woman’s body is legally owned by the white master or when sexual favors might free one from harsh labor in the cotton fields. Despite the fact that plantation owners often condemned the promiscuity of the blacks (and therefore excused their own sexual exploitation of them), slaves’ premarital sexual activity was probably not much different from that of poor whites.
Settlers throughout early American history used the sexuality of minorities as an excuse to disdain or oppress them. Native Americans had their own cultural system of sexual morality; nonetheless, they were branded as savages for their acceptance of premarital sex and their practice of polygamy, which existed primarily because of the large