"To BE FREE IS VERY SWEET:" RACIAUSED REPRESENTATIONS OF SLAVERY... 77

 grievance. Mrs. Nugent shared the general belief among whites that Africans
 were ruled by ungovernable sexual impulses, evident in their practice of
 serial mating. The planters' disinclination to promote formal marriages
 between the enslaved only encouraged casual sexual behaviour, inevitably
 creating disorder among the enslaved community. Monogamous Christian
 marriages among the enslaved would, Maria Nugent argued, be advantageous
 in several respects; slave marriages would have the effect of producing
 stability and order among the enslaved, increasing their happiness. In
 recalling a conversation with Mr. Vaughan, owner of Flamstead plantation,
 she shares her opinion, "on his estate, ...he has Christened all his negroes
 and induced many of them to marry, and lead regular lives. He says, they
 have in consequence improved in all respects; are sober, quiet and well-
 behaved; and the last year twelve children were born of parents regularly
 married. How delightful this is! I wish to God it could be made general, and
 the benefits arising from it, in every point of view, would be incalculable"
 (Wright 242). Slaveowners would also benefit from encouraging Christian
 marriages among the enslaved. Happily married slaves would be more
 inclined to produce healthy offspring, thus inadvertently reproducing the
 slave population by natural increase, and eventually rendering the slave trade
 "out of the question provided their masters were attentive to their morals."
 Nugent's advocacy for slave marriages missed an essential point; though
joined together in holy matrimony by God, husbands and wives could be
separated by their owners, sold away from the plantation, perhaps never to
meet again. Moreover, planters wielded ultimate authority over slave families,
and enslaved husbands had no claims to authority over their wives or
children. There was the blind spot in her argument. Mrs. Nugent's suggestion
that marriage might tend towards greater stability within the enslaved
community sprang from her own rosy vision of patriarchal Christian
marriages in which the family was sacrosanct. The ties that bound enslaved
husbands, wives, and children in familial relationships could be all too easily
loosened. On their part, white males saw few advantages to encouraging
religion or marriage among their slaves; as Mrs. Nugent quickly learned, white
males of all classes freely indulged in sexual relations with enslaved women,
and staunchly defended this prerogative. She could hardly remain oblivious
to these voluntary or unwilling interracial liaisons; among the mulatto women
with whom she held frequent soirees were many "daughters of members of
the assembly, Officers etc." (Wright 78). The white women of her circle were
always eager to engage in gossip and told her "strange stories of the influence
of the black and yellow women, and Mrs. Bullock called them serpents"
(Wright 12). These sexual encounters across racial boundaries were, she
believed, the result of white males' own lack of moral fibre and leadership,
and set a poor example to enslaved blacks. When questioned about his
reluctance to marry, a male slave replied: "Hi Massa, you tell me have one
wife, which is no good! You tinky I no see you buckra no content wid one,