'Wedding Bells and Colonial Hells': Indigenous-Settler Intermarriage in Colonial North America

Abstract

This essay examines the practice of Indigenous-settler intermarriage during the colonial period of North America. While historians know that intermarriage was an economic strategy used by both settler men and North American native women during the fur trade era, inaccuracies in parish records fail to demonstrate how prevalent the practice really was in this region. This paper thus presents an examination of what reasons both sides of the dynamic had for practicing interracial marriage and what benefits they derived from its execution. Indeed, the first half of the essay aims to analyze the physiological, psychological, economic, and imperialistic benefits Indigenous women, settler men, and related stakeholders enjoyed as a result of intermarriage using examples from both colonial Canada and America. The second half looks at what drawbacks resulted from intermarriage, emphasizing that these drawbacks were mainly isolated to the later years of colonization when European influence and power had spread throughout the continent. The legacy of Indigenous-settler intermarriage and the devastation of colonization persists still today which is why this topic is a worthy addition to the historical discourse.