What of the quadroon balls?
Wherever there was the concubinage of African women by white plantation owners and white men generally, there were vehicles for procuring concubines. These were dances that represent an aristocratic tradition, in the, quote, “mixed-race community” of New Orleans. Many of the attendees were slave women. Some of them were free women of color, and they came together, oftentimes chaperoned by their mothers, and at these dances they were chosen by protectors and many of these relationships lasted for life. They were not all exploitative. The quadroon ball was the vehicle through which the white male could procure this concubine. Of course, interracial marriage was illegal, but many of the men had Catholic ceremonies carried out nevertheless, by priests who were willing to violate the interracial marriage laws. And so these institutions, these dance institutions were places where women were taken as concubines. These were institutions in which the women were expected to display good breeding
