Mixed Blood Rhetorical Analysis

This passage is after Henry had left the comrades of Nat Turner and now had reached the last point of his journey, Richmond. It illustrated the extent of the division that whites had placed not only between himself and the blacks but also between blacks and the mixed bloods. In this passage, Delany introduced us once again to another portion of the mixed bloods. As Henry discovered, not many mixed bloods were amicable to the black race. Many of them took it upon themselves to spread the hatred of the blacks. This was due to the identity issue that the whites had placed upon them. Mixing of the race, although frowned upon, was inevitable. Therefore, rules had to be established to keep the line between the races as intact as possible. In the paragraph before this passage, Delany informed us of the law in that state that declared any mixed bloods with a white mother also to be white. This law was probably put in place to protect white women from the …show more content…
Delany said that they “spurned by the one and despised by the other” which means that other whites did not regard them as equal. This quickly made them realize their stand in society. It shook the base of their mentality – being part of the ‘superior blood.’ Being of mixed bloods meant that some parts of them were composed of the ‘inferior blood.’ Knowing themselves to not be pure, yet, being surrounded by whites made them question their identity and their place. They could never be the superior beings that they were made to believe that whites possessed. Without a doubt, they projected that loss of pureness towards the people who were responsible for it – the blacks. Mixed bloods who were pronounced whites were among the worst masters because they wanted to put as much distance between the slaves and themselves as possible. Delany said that most of these mixed blood intermarried whites to leave the black blood behind as soon as