Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: "I Thought That to Seem Was to Be": Spectacles of Race in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Imaginary 1

1 "Stamped and Molded by Pleasure": The Transnational Mulatta in Jamaica and Saint-Domingue 17

2 "Fascinating Allurements of Gold": New Orleans's "Copper-Colored Nymhs" and the Tragic Mulatta 37

3 "Oh Heavens! What Am I?": The Tragic Mulatta as Sensation Heroine 65

4 "I Wonder What Market He Means That Daughter For": The Beautiful Jewess and the Tragic Muse 92

5 "After All, Living Is but to Play a Part": The Tragic Mulatta Plays the Tragic Muse 128

Conclusion: "I Know What I Am": Race and the Triumphant "New Woman" 159

Notes 189

Index 219