1870's Interracial Couples

According to U.S. Census records, there were 80 interracial couples living in Manhattan's Eigth Ward in 1870. Most of the couples were African American men married to Irish women writes, Rachel L. Swarns for The New York Times, "After Deadly Draft Riots, a Shared Experience Reshaped Families in Manhattan" (3/16/2014).

 'We have this sense that racism is so rigid, that color consciousness is so rigid, Dr. [Marcy] Sacks said. 'These stories remind us that we are human first.'

Over the generations, the voices of these couples have been lost. No letters, diaries or photographs have been found. (Many of the women and some of the men were illiterate.) Many questions remain: How did the families withstand the pressures of a society that viewed interracial marriages as unnatural and immoral? How were they viewed by the elite and the working class in the black community? What did parents tell their mixed-race children about the relations between Irish immigrants and African-Americans?

Read the full article here.