🌟 Presented by UCD Humanities Institute 

In the wake of slavery, black women living in concubinage became particularly elusive in the archival records. The growing surveillance of black sexual morality and increasing restrictions on interracial sex prompted cohabiting black women to keep their intimate relationships out of the public record whenever possible. Through a critical read of the archive, Dr. McPherson will demonstrate the way that post-emancipation concubinage functioned as an extension of slavery’s sexual economy and considers the lives of black women who forged opportunities for themselves through their intimate labor.

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