The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy, Freedom, and Desire in the Black Transatlantic

Lisa Ze Winters's analysis challenges the binary narratives of the 'free(d) mulatta concubine'—as either seductress or victim—revealing a complex figure whose identity was shaped by terror, desire, and the tenuous nature of freedom in the Black Atlantic. By synthesizing written, oral, and visual sources spanning Senegal, Saint Domingue/Haiti, New Orleans, and beyond, Winters uncovers how free women of color navigated and resisted racialized and gendered power structures. The study highlights the archival gaps and cultural refractions that complicate official histories, particularly through the lens of signares in Gorée and Marie Laveau's contested legacy in New Orleans. It also critiques 19th-century ethnographies and travel memoirs for their stereotypes while centering the agency of free women of color.

Kopelson, H. M. (2017). The Mulatta Concubine: Terror, Intimacy, Freedom, and Desire in the Black Transatlantic. Journal of American History, 103(4), 1036–1037. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaw534