Kate Chopin's short story "Désirée's Baby" is much more than a simple narrative; the story expresses very strong political and societal assertions. The story takes place in the 1840s on the Louisiana plantations in the midst of the disputes between the abolitionists and the pro-slavery theorists. During this time period, slavery was widespread and successful, but the abolitionists were persistent and powerfully challenged their opponents. They emphasized the words of The Declaration of Independence in addition to the laws of Christianity, both of which demanded "equality" as the way of life.
             In their own defense, the proslavery theorists put together a rationalization that made it seem as though slavery was necessary for racial relations. They claimed that African Americans were incapable of living productive, humane free lives and they used the African American's alleged failure to build a civilized society in Africa as their evidence. They rendered biological arguments that made it seems as though blacks were both physiologically and anatomically inferior to the white race and they exploited these ideas along with the horrifying, yet- ever- so- convenient idea of miscegenation in an attempt to frighten the people into accepting slavery as a necessity.
             Miscegenation is the mixture of races, especially intermarriages between a white person and a person of another race. This concept was first used in the "Herrenvolk Democracy" in the 1830s and 1840s, the same time from which this story originated, as a defense for the white supremacists. The Herrenvolk Democracy used this term to haunt society, convincing them that the end of slavery would lead to interracial marriages and would eventually bring about the elimination of the white race altogether (Fredrickson 65).
             This term became so powerful that it was advantageously used in 1863 in an attempt to disgrace Abraham Linco...