Sex, Race, and the Colonial Project

Abstract

tions in early America has begun to place sexuality in the context of the larger imperialist project. Nation, race, and sexuality in the colonies intersected in ways that are now receiving the careful investigation they deserve. Both the legal regulations and the social repercussions of sexual relations, it is clear, were part of the colonizing process. Trade relations, colonial land policy, intercultural negotiations and conflict, along with changing demographic conditions, cultural attitudes, and colonial aims, influenced the promotion or prohibition of different kinds of intercultural sex. Not surprisingly, therefore, women, families, and the rules that sought to regulate their behavior often appear in historical analyses as tools of conquest. While this was often the case, scholars should not lose sight of agency and desire; the sexual behavior of individuals remains undertheorized compared to the analysis of the impact of sexual rules and sexualized representations of colonized women and colonizing men. If sexual relations crucially shaped the colonial enterprise, we still need to think through the shifting terrain of sexual contact very carefully. How did the interplay among desire, domination, dependency, and policy evolve? We can see how colonial policy toward European and Native American intermarriage changed over time, but how do we chart the experiences of intermarriage and interracial sex? For if there is no moment in which sex is not part of the colonial project, there is also no moment in which desire, domination, and dependency did not also shape the behavior of those involved, sometimes with unforeseen results. People are seldom fully compliant with rules regarding their intimate behavior, so how did native, colonial, and African American women and men shape their intimate relationships-and so also colonial policies? It is important to move beyond a discussion of sexual regulation as political strategy to explore how peoples' interactions continually pushed against government-imposed regulations. Sex and sexuality figured strongly in whites' concerns about race and the social hierarchy. With regard to the psychological meanings of inter-