Colonial North Carolina Summary

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Social and sexual relationships in Colonial North Carolina teach us a great deal about the eighteenth century. In ordinary people’s intimate relations numerous ideas of race and relations came about. Through social hierarchy you could see racial distinctions developing. These ideas included things from skin color and to how people lived their daily lives. Most use political directives to shape their views on race, but people’s behavior and beliefs can shape this as well. During the seventeenth century, the physical and behavioral differences between both men and women changed greatly. Among men and women sex was seen differently. Men and women’s views on sex were far from similar and this affected their views on race. Ways of life were very …show more content…

Overall, Kirsten Fischer, in Suspect Relations: Sex, Race and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina presents how gender inequality and differences contribute to the ideas of race and racial differences.
Throughout chapter one of Suspect Relations, Fischer argues that Native Americans and Quakers offered alternatives to the mainstream patriarchy that worried many people. Having a patriarchal household was a staple in the social order. In these households, they strongly controlled property and regulated transfers from one male to his heirs. Women a part of these patriarchal households were treated like property. A woman had no identity apart from that of her husband. The unequal, mistreatment of Colonial women in North Carolina came about when compared to the alternative gender roles among Native Americans. Unlike women a part of the patriarchal households, Native American women played more significant roles in the household and in the community. These roles Native American women played went highly against the English ideals. When married, English women became a “feme covert” (Fischer 17), which meant that she was under the influence and protection of her husband. In the patriarchal household’s, divorce was very uncommon and was only granted …show more content…

In chapter two Fischer goes in depth regarding Indian-Anglo interactions. With these interactions there was a great shift of power from the Native American to the Colonists. Indian women were seen to be the means of imagining, planning, and explaining colonization. European men were very fond of Native American women and their physical features. Indian women of this time were known as “trading girls” by the Europeans. These women were taken advantage of because of their openness with sexual activity. The English used this to their advantage. Englishmen used these women not only for pleasure, but for business as well. Some Englishmen even promoted intermarriage to be a more prominent force in that region. They also intermarried to obtain ownership of the Indian land. With this land, they would later give it away as their daughter dowries. They used these women not only for sexual relationships, but to learn native medicine and surgery. Learning aspects of the Native culture, such as these could help them with their trades. Native American women were seen more as a pawn to advance farther in life rather than an actual person. Indian women were used because of their race for the Englishmen to become more elite in society. Slavery was another main point in that Fischer discussed in chapter two and

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