Arkansas History Dangerous Liaisons: Sex and Love in the Segregated South Charles F. Robinson II is the author of Dangerous Liaisons: Sex and Love in the Segregated South. His main goal in writing this novel was to examine how Southern whites enforced anti-miscegenation laws. Robinson shows that the real crime was to suggest that black and white individuals could be equal. While writing the book, Robinson used various sources. He examined legal cases from across the South, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, debates in state legislatures, comments in the record of the U.S. Congress, newspaper editorials, anti-miscegenation laws, private correspondence, and some personal writings by African Americans. From the conclusion: "For white Southerners, punishing intimacy between whites and blacks had more to do with maintaining caste divisions between the races than with preventing interracial sex...Love or the appearance of affection sincere mattered more than sex because they suggested that the two individuals involved in the interracial relationship saw each other as social equals. Whites hardly tolerated such open pants, as this undermined the legitimacy of an economic, political, and social structure it ensured white supremacy” (Robinson). Public and domestic unions between blacks and whites threatened the political, social and cultural structure of white supremacy and suggested the possibility of racial equality interracial and sex were a known thing. In 1662, the Virginia colonial assembly passed a law dealing with the special illegitimacy of interracial couples. If convicted, the fines would be doubled and the penalties would be twice as severe. In 1691, interracial marriages became… middle of paper… aged interracial sex to prove that whites and blacks are equal and on the same playing field. Many people did not agree with interracial relationships, which is still true today in the South. By having a relationship, especially an intimate one, couples demonstrated that color should not matter. Personally, I think the book was an interesting read. It's crazy to even imagine a time when blacks and whites were segregated. Reading stories about how people viewed and acted toward interracial couples is saddening because of the harsh punishment they would face, but it also provides an explanation for why many Southern white men, especially older ones, still have a such strong opinion on interracial couples. .Works Cited: Robinson, Charles F. Dangerous Liaisons: Sex and Love in the Segregated South. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas, 2003. Print.