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Marriage in Black

Despite the messages we hear from social scientists, policymakers, and the
media, black Americans do in fact get married—and many of these mar-
riages last for decades. Marriage in Black offers a progressive perspective on
black marriage that rejects talk of black relationship “pathology” in order
to provide an understanding of enduring black marriage that is richly lived.
The authors offer an in-depth investigation of details and contexts of black
married life, and seek to empower black married couples whose intimate
relationships run contrary to common—but often inaccurate—stereotypes.
Considering historical influences from Antebellum slavery onward, this
book investigates contemporary married life among more than 60 couples
born after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Husbands and wives tell their
stories, from how they met, to how they decided to marry, to what their
life is like five years after the wedding and beyond. Their stories reveal the
experiences of the American-born and of black immigrants from Africa or
the Caribbean, with explorations of the “ideal” marriage, parenting, finances,
work, conflict, the criminal justice system, religion, and race. These couples
show us that black family life has richness that belies common stereotypes,
with substantial variation in couples’ experiences based on social class, coun-
try of origin, gender, religiosity, and family characteristics.

Katrina Bell McDonald earned her PhD in Sociology from the University
of California at Davis. She is Associate Professor of Sociology, Co-Director
of the Center for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, and an
Associate of the Hopkins Population Center. She joined the faculty in 1994
and teaches and conducts research on the African-American family, race and
racism, racial privilege, intersectionality, and qualitative research methods.
She has been happily married for 23 years.

Caitlin Cross-Barnet earned her PhD in Sociology from the Johns

Hopkins University in 2010. She is a sociologist, public health researcher,
and an Associate of the Hopkins Population Center. Her current research
focuses on the social determinants of health. She has taught courses on
research methods, public health, gender, race-ethnicity, and social inequality.
She has been happily married for 26 years.
Given all the negative things written about marriage among blacks, it is
refreshing—even inspiring—to read the stories of successful black mar-
ried couples and to learn how they make their marriages work.
Andrew Cherlin, Benjamin H. Griswold III Professor of
Public Policy and Chair of the Sociology Department, Johns Hopkins
University; Author of The Marriage Go-Round: The State of Marriage
and Family in America Today

Marriage in Black is a comprehensive empirical examination of marriage

among African Americans, including topics ranging from marriage pat-
terns and attitudes to gender relations, childrearing, and conflict reso-
lution. The authors use a multiethnic feminist perspective to analyze
interviews from a class- and race- diverse group of native-born African
Americans, Black immigrants, and White married couples. The voices
of these couples provide a framework for engaging and critiquing an
array of sociological theories on marriage and family life. Situating each
topic within the context of historic and current laws and social policies
that continue to malign and marginalize African-American marriages,
Katrina Bell McDonald and Caitlin Cross-Barnet effectively challenge
the social deficit perspective on black married life and rectify the schol-
arly neglect of the topic. By examining intraracial differences among
Blacks, the book answers the call for a more nuanced portrait of family
life among people of African ancestry and emphasizes the intersection
between cultural and structural forces that shape their lives. This book
offers a refreshing reprieve from the litany of research focusing on the
marriage decline among African Americans.
Shirley A. Hill, Professor Emeritus of Sociology;
Past President of Sociologists for Women in Society

Many have researched the marriage gap between white and black cou-
ples, but little attention has been paid to the black marriages that do
form, and how they might be distinct from other marriages. Katrina Bell
McDonald and Caitlin Cross-Barnet fill this gap and present a compel-
ling sociological analysis of contemporary Black marriages in America.
Drawing upon in-depth interviews with African-Americans born in
the U.S., black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, and white
American couples, this book demonstrates the rich diversity among black
marriages in America, distinct features of these relationships, and the his-
torical and continuing impact of race relations in America on black mar-
riages. A must-read for any graduate student studying marriage or race!
Arielle Kuperberg, PhD., Associate Professor and Director of
Undergraduate Studies in Sociology, University of North Carolina
at Greensboro

McDonald and Cross-Barnet accomplish the heroic task of contradict-

ing current stereotypes about marriage in the American black commu-
nity, They show conclusively, through vibrant vignettes from interviews
with 60 couples, most of them black and all of them married for at least
5 years, that there is substantial support for the idea of being married, and
that many contemporary black couples are in long-term, stable marriages
in which they have varied ideas about friendship, love and passion, par-
enting, and egalitarian relationships. By interviewing some who came to
the U.S. from Africa or the Caribbean and others born in the U.S., they
show us how unproductive it has been to treat black couples as a homog-
enous group. A must-read for all who want to understand contemporary
black marriages in America.
Philip A. Cowan, Professor of Psychology Emeritus,
University of California, Berkeley;
Carolyn Pape Cowan, Adjunct Professor of Psychology,
Emerita, University of California, Berkeley

Katrina Bell McDonald and Cross-Barnet tackle the breath of complex

issues in contemporary married life—childrearing, sex, money, religion—
and while this is the usual array of topics one might find in a magazine
article, unlike the magazines, the authors never lost sight of the fact that
this is a serious piece of research. The analysis brings new understanding of
how African descendants in the U.S. navigate the history of forced separa-
tion, structural impediments and countervailing cultural norms to exhibit
through their very existence that marriage is—indeed—“for black people.”
Thomas A. LaVeist, PhD, Chairman and Professor,
The George Washington University
This page intentionally left blank
Marriage in Black
The Pursuit of Married Life among
American-born and Immigrant Blacks

Katrina Bell McDonald and

Caitlin Cross-Barnet
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Katrina Bell McDonald and Caitlin Cross-Barnet to be
identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-49765-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-49767-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-01818-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
 To our families, who inspire us to do our part in bringing
black marriage and family, in all of its configurations, in from
the margins:
To Ray, Jordan, David, Sharon, Little David, Kameron, and
Kerri McDonald
To Mike, Emily, Joshua, and Ezekiel “Story” Cross-Barnet
This page intentionally left blank
 CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XII

Chapter 1 The Socio-Historical Unshackling of

African-American Relationships 1
Black Immigration and Assimilation 9
A Few Words on Social Class 13
The Contemporary Black Marriage Study 14
Notes 17

Chapter 2 A Long View of Black Marriage 21

Pre-Colonial Africa 23
Slavery in America (1526–1865) 28
Reconstruction (1863–1877) 30
The Transition “Up North” (1910–1970) 34
Black Marriage, Social Policy, and the
Welfare State 40
The Modern Era of Black Marriage:
Into the Twenty-First Century 44
Notes 46

Chapter 3 Black Marital Beginnings 50

Finding Each Other 53
The Dating Phase 59

ix
x Contents

The Transition to Marriage 65

Budding Black Relationships 72
Notes 73

Chapter 4 Men and Women, Husbands and Wives:

New Perspectives on Egalitarianism 75
Marriage, Race, and Employment 76
Egalitarian Values and Practice 78
Conservative Values in Black and White 81
Immigrants and Married Life in America 85
A Spectrum of Values and Practices 88
Notes 91

Chapter 5 Contemporary Black Marriage and Parenting 94

Marriage and Childbearing 95
Good Parents … and Bad Ones 96
Identity, Structure, and Parenting 106
Notes 108

Chapter 6 Is Marriage for Black People?

Ethnic Perceptions of Blacks
and the Institution of Marriage 110
Is the Institution of Marriage for Black People? 113
The Media 119
Labor and Economics 124
Religion 129
(In)Visibility Blues 135
Notes 136

Chapter 7 Sex, Money, and Beyond: Conflict in

Contemporary Black Marriages 138
Marital Conflict 139
A Social Policy Approach to Healthy Marriage 140
Conflict among the Contemporary Black Marriage Study
Couples 142
Making Marriages Healthy 163
Notes 166
 Contents xi

Chapter 8 A New Lens on Black Marriage 168

Marriage’s Place in the Life Course 169
Race, Immigrants, and Reasons to Marry 171
Policy, Values, and Healthy Marriage 173
The End of the Beginning 175
Note 177

APPENDIX A: THE STUDY COUPLES 179

APPENDIX B: CONTEMPORARY BLACK
MARRIAGE STUDY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 181
APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW FIELD GUIDE: THE
CONTEMPORARY BLACK MARRIAGE STUDY 187
AUTHOR INDEX 191
SUBJECT INDEX 195
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It takes a village to write a book. We wish to express our gratitude for

funding we received from the American Sociological Association’s Fund
to Advance the Discipline; the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy;
the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality; the Center
for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University; and the Hopkins
Population Center.
We received intellectual and personal support from so many of our
colleagues at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere that they are too numerous to
mention all by name, but special thanks go to Andrew J. Cherlin, Emily
Agree, and Beverly Silver of Johns Hopkins; Floyd Hayes, former senior
lecturer at the Center for Africana Studies; and Pamela Bennett of the
University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Many graduate students worked in research assistantships or offered
research support by notetaking during interviews, transcribing, compil-
ing and organizing data, coding, and conducting analyses. We offer spe-
cial thanks to Nazish Zafar, Sika Koudou, Elizabeth Talbert, and Kiara
Nerenberg. We were also fortunate to have assistance from many under-
graduates at Johns Hopkins over the years.We are grateful to them all, but
especially Sean Thompson.
We thank Ellen Kliman for her impeccable transcriptions.
We thank the editors and anonymous referees of Routledge Press for
their helpful reviews and other feedback.

xii
 Acknowledgments xiii

Some of the substance of this book was presented at conferences,

including those of the Southern Sociological Society, the Eastern
Sociological Society, and the American Sociological Association, and in
the journal Societies.
There is no better way to learn the joys and challenges of marriage
than being in one—to a legal spouse or a writing partner. From Katrina: I
am so grateful that I was supported by not only my loving husband, Ray,
and my devoted son, Jordan, but by a host of sister-friends and extended
kin who always knew what to say when the journey of writing this book
got rough. Caitlin has been a long-time friend who I always knew would
make a wonderful writing partner. We went through much together as
wives and I look forward to many more years of spending our profes-
sional and personal lives side by side.
From Caitlin: I offer my deepest gratitude to Michael Cross-Barnet,
my partner in everything, who financially supported our family so that
I could earn a PhD, spent countless evenings along with our three chil-
dren while I ran off to conduct interviews, and never lost faith as I spent
years wading in data to tell the stories of the couples Katrina and I met.
Mike also read and edited the final text. Katrina has been my mentor and
friend for more than a decade now.When I entered graduate school with
three young children in tow, she was the only member of the department
who was also raising a child. We bonded over the trials and tribulations
of marriage and motherhood as much as a passion for sociology and
qualitative research.
Finally, we both offer our deepest and most sincere thanks to the cou-
ples who gave us their time and let us into the most personal relationship
of their lives.
This page intentionally left blank
 1
The Socio-Historical Unshackling
of African-American Relationships

Marvin and Jennifer Johnson, an American-born black couple, met at a

local college, where they both studied areas of social work and justice. They
now have three healthy daughters, and Jennifer is pregnant again with a
boy. They have just a bought a new house in the city where they can raise
their growing family. Although they fought frequently before they married,
Jennifer said, “It just feels like God has moved in our marriage.” Now they
rarely argue. Jennifer believes female submission is essential to a successful
marriage, and that women prioritizing work or school over family responsi-
bilities are selfish. She said that black women in particular need to give up
the role of the “power woman.” Jennifer runs a small business from their
home and occasionally takes a substitute teaching shift, but Marvin is the
primary breadwinner, working two jobs.While Jennifer extolled submission,
Marvin spoke of their marriage as a partnership and said it is important
for spouses to have an equal role in everything. Jennifer agreed that “we
always end up coming together” on resolving problems and making deci-
sions. Especially now that Jennifer is at the end of her pregnancy, Marvin
cleans, does laundry, bathes the children, and goes shopping, and said he
loves doing it. Marvin said, “I wouldn’t trade being married to Jennifer and
raising a family together for anything in the world.”
When Anthony and Ava Tompkins first met, Ava said, God told her
that Anthony was to be her husband. Now, married for about eight
years and raising two daughters in a spacious house in the suburbs, the
Tompkins said that marriage has gotten better every year since the wedding.

1
2 Socio-Historical Unshackling

Ava, born and raised in Bermuda, remains devoted to “family first.”

Anthony, who has Caribbean parents but was born and raised in the
United States, agreed he was self-centered in the early years, but he has
come to embrace Ava’s family values, especially now that they are parents.
He believes they play similar roles in the marriage and that’s how it should
be. His younger daughter attends daycare at the university where he coaches,
and he picks up his older daughter from school on his way home. Ava, who
arrives home first and cooks dinner, believes in traditional roles for women
in general, but not for herself. She loves her job teaching high school, and she
loves being the family’s primary breadwinner. “If Anthony makes more, I’m
like, I will make more,” she said. “I will fight hard to make more.”When it
comes to marriage, she said, “My ideal is the man should lead,” then added,
“[but] I’m to be his advisor if there’s a decision to be made. I’m there to give
my opinion whether it’s wanted or not.”
Danny and Alena Chebet met at their church in Kenya when Alena was
17 years old, five years before their marriage. Under pressure from their
families, the two married about six months after their first child was born
and soon after Alena finished college. Two more children followed. Alena
explained that children complete their marital picture and help with the
“gloomy days”; there is a strong sense that their marriage is inseparable
from the children and their parenting roles. They moved to the United
States, where Danny had family members and where he felt he could pursue
his dreams. Alena has her master’s and a steady income, but Danny’s work
schedule and income fluctuate. He tries to work more so that he will earn
more than Alena. Danny said that if they had remained in Kenya, there
would be a lot of family pressure for Alena not to work, and he thinks this
would be unpleasant. He does, however, wish that she could stay home in
the United States so that she could raise their children with better “moral
values” that those he sees in American families. Alena said that she tends
to have more of an ideal regarding marriage. She thinks more in terms of
“don’ts” and sometimes compares Danny to her father, whose authoritarian
marriage style she did not like: “I want to have some say in getting that
final word.”
Andrew and Michelle Waller, a white couple, laugh at couples with tradi-
tional values and see the average marriage as boring and routine. Michelle
works the night shift three days a week as a nurse for an inner-city hos-
pital. Andrew does bookkeeping full time and is taking classes to advance
his career. Michelle became pregnant shortly after they met. Neither had
 Socio-Historical Unshackling 3

attended college when they married, and their older daughter was born
shortly after their wedding, when Michelle was 19 and Andrew was 20.
Their second daughter was born four years later. Michelle wanted to be
home with the girls when they were small, and Andrew was worried when
she began nursing school that she would no longer need him as a provider.
They earn similar incomes now even though Michelle does not work full-
time, and they were able to purchase a tiny, well-kept house outside the
city. Although they profess to split responsibilities in half, Michelle seems
to do the bulk of the cooking, cleaning, and management of the girls’ lives;
Andrew talked about grilling. Andrew is focused on increasing his earn-
ing power so that Michelle will not bring in the bigger paycheck when she
switches to full-time work in the next couple of years. They said they fight
a lot—it’s in their “nature”—and often don’t see each other for days at
a time because of their work schedules. At the same time, they agreed that
they are each other’s best friend and would never leave each other because
they are very happy.

This will not be your typical journey through the analysis of dismal
statistics on the status of black1 marriages in America. Neither will it
be a purely celebratory tale steeped in Afrocentrism that ignores what
underlies black marital trends, especially the trends of non-marriage and
divorce.There is no denying that black married couples are at greater risk
of divorce than couples from other racial-ethnic groups2 and that cur-
rently only about 31% of blacks are married (versus 48% for Hispanics
and 55% for whites).3 It is also a fact, however, that black marriage has
survived—through the transatlantic slave trade, Reconstruction, lynch-
ing, political disenfranchisement, and fierce racial segregation that persists
to the present day in the United States. And despite all of these barriers,
blacks are just as intent as other groups on marrying at some point in
their lives.4 The black couples introduced above offer the kind of hetero-
sexual marriage stories we seek to illuminate.
We wish to flip the script. Virtually all discussions of contemporary
black heterosexual marriage focus on the failure to marry, the negative
consequences of relationship instability, or marital dissolution. The lit-
erature explores such subjects as why black women choose single moth-
erhood, why black fathers do not stick around for the long haul, why
black couples who cohabit don’t marry, and how extended kin networks
4 Socio-Historical Unshackling

operate in lieu of the nuclear family arrangement and with less ­success.
Numerous examples of such research and commentary abound.5 In 2001,
Bachand and Caron wrote, “[w]hile an abundance of literature exists on
the marital relationship, most focuses on divorce and the consequences of
divorce in our society” (161);6 this is all the more true in literature that
considers black marriages. The intense focus on difficulties in getting or
staying married has precluded direct investigation into determining what
may provide for black marital longevity or for black marital content-
ment. This leaves us with a limited understanding of the world of black
marriage and desensitizes us to the world of black couples who remain
married despite their struggles. Thus, Marriage in Black contributes to
a shift in sociological research towards examining contemporary black
marriages currently in place.
Public policy has been focused on promoting “healthy” marriage,
beginning with the enactment of the 1996 welfare reform law,7 a law
directed largely at poor black women. Child outcomes have often been
central to considering the health of black marriages, though the focus
is most commonly on how parents negatively impact the health and
welfare of their children.8 Despite the interest in promoting marriage
among black Americans, definitions of healthy marriage have not con-
sidered that the concept of marital “health” may not be universal. There
has been little attention given to the diversity of black marital life, pri-
marily because few scholars acknowledge the diversity of black origins
and black experience in the United States, neglecting immigration, inte-
gration, and inequality within the black population.9 Much of this is due
to an abundance of scholarship on marriage across socioeconomic or
class lines where poverty and child outcomes tend to take a front seat.10
In almost all of these cases, blacks are generally treated as a monolithic
cultural population.
So, in this book we make an attempt at balance—a vision of contem-
porary, heterosexual black marital life that ebbs and flows. We proceed
from the progressive perspective on black marriage that suggests that we
would do best to move away from talk of black relationship “pathology”
in order to offer greater understanding of how personal decisions and
structural social forces can lead to black marriage that is richly lived.
 Socio-Historical Unshackling 5

We strongly argue that the experience of black marriage is not only

culturally different from marriages among other racial-ethnic groups in
America, but also among black couples with different ethnic origins.
Blacks are most commonly discussed as though they are a homogenous
racial mass with no variation in ethnic and cultural substance. Yet his-
torical and contemporary immigration patterns dictate that the study
of black marital life in the United States must at least incorporate those
African- and Caribbean-born, the two largest black immigrant groups
in the United States. Recent migration from Africa has resulted in the
fastest growth in the African-born population of the United States in the
past four decades.11 According to the New York Times, “more (Africans)
have arrived voluntarily than the total who disembarked in chains before
the United States outlawed international slave trafficking in 1807.”12 Still,
half of black immigrants hail from the countries of the Caribbean.13
Demographic changes in African-American marriage and in black
immigration to the United States have been accompanied by dramatic
changes in American attitudes and social norms regarding gender and
marriage. For example, sociologists of the family place great emphasis
on gender relations and on how men and women negotiate prescribed
social roles within marriage. Beginning in the 1970s, the sharp increase
in women’s paid labor force participation led to a societal rethinking of
family gender lines.While black and white married women now engage
in paid work at roughly equal rates, this shift in the rate of employment
represented substantially more change for white wives than for black
women, who historically had been much more likely to be employed.14
As such, the debate about the gendered balance between paid employ-
ment and unpaid home-based labor was new in the context of white,
middle-class life, but perhaps less so in the context of black family life.
For white women, stepping into the workforce was sometimes seen
as a step toward egalitarianism. This 1970s shift also had more endur-
ing consequences for black men, who were more likely than white
men to have blue collar jobs. The historical differences in the necessity
and prevalence of dual-earner households may have driven speculation
that black families have held egalitarian beliefs for a long time. With
women now contributing a much larger portion of the family income
6 Socio-Historical Unshackling

than in the past, black women even more so than white women,15
feminists and feminist scholars question the assumption that women
will continue to enact gender-based family roles.16 The “second shift”
that women have endured—engaging in two full-time jobs, first at
work and then at home—demonstrated that patriarchal hegemony was
alive and well.17 Unfortunately, there is no analysis of the position of
Black women of the “second shift” in this earlier scholarship. And since
African and Caribbean18 families have primarily been studied in their
countries of origin or countries other than the United States, and with
a focus other than gender relations, there is little in the current lit-
erature that explores the context of Black immigrant life in regard to
gender and marriage at all.
Interest in egalitarianism spans at least the past two centuries in our
nation. It is best embodied in the civil rights era, which focused on
equality of the races, of the sexes, and later of gays, lesbians, and other
sexual minorities. In this work, we are particularly interested in the con-
tinued struggle to change gender attitudes and social norms, a struggle
that began in earnest in the mid-1900s. Researchers have at times exam-
ined the phenomenon of men and women experimenting with egalitari-
anism as an alternative to the oppressive traditional marriage structure.
At least one economic historian, Robert William Fogel,19 predicts that
the 1950s mythical version of traditional family is likely to become a
stronger rather than a weaker image in this postmodern era due to new
media and new technology allowing for and putting greater emphasis on
workplace family connections. That is, he believes that the weakening
on the private/public will allow for a stronger desire of ­family closeness.
About eight years ago, we asked our colleague, the distinguished
­sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin (Benjamin H. Griswold III Professor of
Public Policy at Johns Hopkins), the question of whether sociologists had
proven that egalitarian marriage was better than non-egalitarian mar-
riage back in the 1960s and 1970s. He responded, somewhat surprised
and unsatisfied, “No, I really don’t think we did.” So we set out to write
Marriage in Black, not just to revive the debate on egalitarian marriage,
but to make sure Black families were properly at the table. Even though
a qualitative study cannot offer definitive conclusions on this, we were
 Socio-Historical Unshackling 7

determined to make egalitarianism the centerpiece of our text and use

our data to reveal the various ways that couples speak of egalitarianism (if
at all) and the ways they attempt to adopt it in their relationships.
Despite decades of research and discussion, there is little consensus as
to what constitutes egalitarian marriage. Definitions range from equal-
ity of spousal earning power, to shared “final word” decision-making,
to sharing of household duties, to equal contributions of nurturance, to
equivalent well-being, and to comparable amount of work versus lei-
sure time.20 It is said that, “A true egalitarian would neither disapprove
of a woman assuming the male role of business executive nor disap-
prove of a man assuming the stereotypically female role of child care
provider” (72).21 Better still, Brighouse and Wright state that “strong
egalitarianism” is

a structure of social relations in which the division of labor around

housework and caregiving within the family and occupational dis-
tributions within the public sphere are unaffected by gender. By
“unaffected by gender,” we mean that there would be no socially
constructed gender-differentiated norms around the division of
labor: no specific activities would be thought of as men’s work or
women’s work; nor would any activities be seen as more appropri-
ate for men or for women.22 (363)

Recent studies indicate that the majority of young couples believe in

egalitarian relationships between men and women in marriage,23 marking
the relevant generational shift serving as the foundation of the research
reported here. Whether this shift is equally relevant for black and white
Americans remains unclear, thus our interest in at least exploring quali-
tatively the extent to which this ideal is expressed among the couples
we interviewed.
Changes in gender attitudes and social norms have focused to date
primarily on white, middle-class patterns of marital life.Thus, very little is
known about how egalitarianism varies among racial/cultural groups in
either contemporary or historical contexts, but many scholars have pos-
ited that deep African cultural roots, the historical legacy of slavery, and
economic conditions resulting from ongoing racism and d­ iscrimination
8 Socio-Historical Unshackling

have led to different marital ideals and practices for black couples. Robert
Staples and Leanor Johnson, for example, have posited that,

[u]nlike the White family, which is typically believed to be patri-

archal and sustained by the economic dependence of women [on
men], the Black dyad has been characterized by more egalitarian
roles and economic parity in North America … [and] relationships
between the [Black] genders were ordered along sociopsychologi-
cal dimensions rather than reflecting an economic compulsion to
marry and sustain marriage.24 (153)

Still, research indicates that while African-American men are more

positive than white men about women’s workforce participation, on
other attitudes regarding gender and marriage African-American men
are more conservative or “traditional” than white men.25 So while
there are oft-repeated claims and speculation in the sociological and
feminist literature of egalitarianism among blacks,26 there has been
­little substantiation.
And so, Marriage in Black is largely about the ideals heterosexual black
couples hold for themselves in marriage, particularly where gender rela-
tions are concerned. But it is also a rare glimpse into what every-day black
marriage truly looks like. Not like a sitcom. Not like a reality show. And
not like most Hollywood films. You will see that black couples are not
trivial or arbitrary in the construction of their lives. Here, husbands and
wives, along with their children and parents, and their extended and cul-
tural kin, work to hold marriages together for the long-haul. Each holds a
marital ideology, a vision of what they believe it means to be married and
how to make marriage work. Black couples struggle, like couples of all
backgrounds, to structure marriage so as to satisfy and survive. And these
couples are by no means a homogeneous population; while from similar
national and cultural roots, the various black cultures represented here
exhibit important differences in their approach to housework, money
and finances, sexual relations, family health, childbearing and parenting,
religion, and gender relations. And we find that it is marital ideology in
regard to gender relations that seems to flavor virtually all else that must
be managed by the couples, American-born and immigrant.
 Socio-Historical Unshackling 9

Black Immigration and Assimilation

Odell and Kylie Velarde miss many things about their home country. There,
they said, their toddler could play in the streets under the watchful eye of
family members and extended kin. No one seemed perplexed by their dif-
ference in skin color—but in the United States when Kylie travels with her
daughter, other black women constantly ask if her husband is white. She has
had to learn racial terminology that her American counterparts do not find
offensive. Like many couples who hail from the Caribbean, Odell and Kylie
were together for many years before formalizing their union, and Kylie is
pleased that Odell, who is fifteen years her senior, had mostly lost interest in
pursuing other women by the time they met. She believes his only infidelity
was during her pregnancy, and she finds this acceptable because he did not give
her a sexually transmitted infection. Both Odell and Kylie are well educated
and have years of work experience in STEM fields, but these skills have not
transferred to the job market in the United States, where Odell works as a
laborer and Kylie is a hotel maid. Despite the drudgery of low-wage work, the
couple feels they have great economic opportunity in the United States. Most
important to them, though they now live in a small apartment, they no longer
have to share a home with Kylie’s extended family. They miss things about
their original home, but they have committed to a life in the United States.

Forty-five percent of the couples whose experiences are reported from

this study are immigrant couples, from either the continent of African
or the Caribbean. The process of assimilating after ­immigration to
America may seem to some like a simple process, but it can be taxing
in a number of ways. First, assimilation generally means “the process
through which individuals and groups of differing heritages acquire the
basic habits, attitudes, and mode of life of an embracing culture.”27 In this
case, assimilation is a process that considers to what extent immigrants
take on the values and behavior patterns of the dominant American
culture,28 with “dominant” meaning white America or “mainstream”
America. It is often considered a straight-line process during which the
“melting pot” absorbs immigrants until they become integral to the
dominant culture. But such “melting” did not occur at the same rate
or with same result for all groups. This is particularly true for African
Americans, despite their long history of residence in the United States.
In the 1960s—hundreds of years after their forced immigration into
10 Socio-Historical Unshackling

enslavement, 100 years after the end of the Civil War, and through the
ratification of the Civil Rights Amendment—Milton Gordon posited
that African Americans had only undergone a very mild version of
assimilation (76).
While most immigrants come to the United States voluntarily to seek
opportunity, and others come as refugees, escaping dire circumstances such
as war, most American-born blacks’ ancestors came to the United States
involuntarily as part of the slave trade.The vast majority came directly from
West Africa, but some were initially routed through the Caribbean during
the slave era, some imported to the United States mainland as slaves, but
others arriving as free people.29 Ogbu and Simons30 point out that “invol-
untary minorities” have been made a part of American society against their
own will. Black involuntary minorities are further disadvantaged in the
United States as caste-like minorities, meaning that by virtue of their ori-
gins in Africa, their relatively low social status, and their dark skin, they are
perpetually locked into a lower group status that is even more confining
than being locked into a lower social class.31 Thus, although most blacks
can trace their American residency back much further than even some
whites can, they still occupy an “outsider” position in relation to the domi-
nant culture, much as many immigrants initially do.

American Immigration Policy

Early immigration laws were designed to maintain the dominant status
of whites, particularly those who were educated and hailed from Western
Europe. As sociologist Stephen Klineberg notes,

The law was just unbelievable in its clarity of racism. It declared

that Northern Europeans are a superior subspecies of the white
race. The Nordics were superior to the Alpines, who in turn were
superior to the Mediterranean peoples, and all of them were supe-
rior to the Jews and the Asians.32

Significant immigration laws were enacted in 1917, 1924 (the Johnson

Reed Act), and 1952 (the McCarran-Walter Bill). The McCarran-
Walter Bill reorganized the structure of immigration law but kept quotas
intended to preserve the majority status of whites.33 During this period,
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
found numerously within 100 miles of it. They adhere to stones in
rapid water, and differ from the Melaniidae of the Old World and of S.
America in the absence of a fringe to the mantle and in being
oviparous. They do not occur north of the St. Lawrence River, or
north of U.S. territory in the west, or in New England. Three-quarters
of all the known species inhabit the rough square formed by the
Tennessee River, the Mississippi, the Chattahoochee River, and the
Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi is a formidable barrier to their
extension, and a whole section (Trypanostoma, with the four genera
Io, Pleurocera, Angitrema, and Lithasia) does not occur west of that
river. The Viviparidae are also very largely developed, the genera
Melantho, Lioplax, and Tulotoma being peculiar. The Pulmonata are
also abundant, while the richness of the Unionidae may be gathered
from the fact that Wetherby states[377] that in 1874 no less than 832
species in all had been described.
The entire Mississippi basin is inhabited by a common
assemblage of Unionidae, and a considerable number of the species
are distributed over the whole of this area, Texas, and parts of E.
Mexico. Some species have spread out of this area into Michigan,
Canada, the Red River, and Hudson’s Bay district, and even into
streams in New York which drain into the Atlantic. An entirely
different set of forms occupy the great majority of the rivers falling
into the Atlantic, the Appalachian Mountains acting as an effective
barrier between the two groups of species, which appear to mingle
below the southern end of the range. In many cases Unionidae seem
to have no difficulty in migrating from river to river, if the distance is
not extreme; they probably are carried across overflowed districts in
time of flood.[378]
 Fig. 227.—Helix (Arionta)
fidelis Gray, Oregon.
(2) The Californian Sub-region is markedly distinct from the rest
of N. America. The characteristic sombre Helices of the Eastern
States are almost entirely wanting, and are replaced by Arionta (20
sp.), a larger and more varied group, which may have some affinity
to Chinese forms. Glyptostoma (1 sp.) is also peculiar. Selenites
here has its metropolis, and Pristiolma is a remarkable group of
small Hyalinia (Zonites), but the larger forms of the Eastern States
are wanting. Several remarkable and quite peculiar forms of slug
occur, namely, Ariolimax (whose nearest relation is Arion),
Prophysaon, Hemphillia, and Binneya. There are no land
operculates.
Not more than 15 to 20 species of the Pleuroceridae (sect.
Goniobasis) occur west of the Rocky Mountains, and only a single
Unio, 5 Anodonta, and 1 Margaritana, which is common to New
England. Pompholyx is a very remarkable ultra-dextral form of
Limnaea, apparently akin to the Choanomphalus of L. Baikal.
Bithynia, absent from the Eastern States, is represented by two
species. The general indications are in favour of the Californian
fauna having migrated from an Old World source after the upheaval
of the Sierras; the American fauna, on the other hand, is purely
indigenous, with no recent Old World influence at all.
Land Mollusca of the Nearctic Region
Glandina 4
Selenites 6
Limax 4
Vitrina 4
 Vitrinozonites 1
Mesomphix 15
Hyalinia 22
Conulus 1
Gastrodonta 9
Pristiloma 2
Tebennophorus 4
Ariolimax 6
Prophysaon 2
Hemphillia 1
Binneya 1
Patula 18
Punctum 2
Arionta 20
Praticola 2
Glyptostoma 1
Mesodon 27
Stenotrema 11
Triodopsis 21
Polygyra 23
Polygyrella 2
Gonostoma 1
Vallonia 1
Strobila 2
Pupa 18
Vertigo 8
Holospira 2
Cionella 1
Bulimulus 6
Macroceramus 1
Succinea 21
Vaginulus 1
Helicina 2

F. The Neotropical Region

The land Mollusca of the Neotropical Region stand in complete
contrast to those of the Nearctic. Instead of being scanty, they are
exceedingly abundant; instead of being small and obscure, they are
among the largest in size, most brilliant in colour, and most singular
in shape that are known to exist. At the same time they are, as a
whole, isolated in type, and exhibit but little relation with the Mollusca
of any other region.
The most marked feature is the predominance of the peculiar
genera Bulimus and Bulimulus, the centre of whose development
appears to lie in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, but which diminish, both
in numbers and variety of form, in the eastern portion of the region.
In the forests of Central America, Venezuela, and Ecuador, and, to a
lesser degree, in those of Peru and Brazil, occurs the genus
Orthalicus, whose tree-climbing habits recall the Cochlostyla of the
Philippines. These three groups of bulimoid forms constitute, as far
as the mainland is concerned, the preponderating mass of the land
Mollusca. Helix proper is most strongly developed in the Greater
Antilles, which possess several peculiar groups of great beauty. In
Central America Helix is comparatively scarce, but in the northern
portions of the continent several fine genera (Labyrinthus, Isomeria,
Solaropsis) occur, which disappear altogether towards the south.
Carnivorous land Mollusca are, so far as Central America is
concerned, more highly developed than in any other quarter of the
world, particularly in the genera Glandina and Streptostyla. These
genera also penetrate the northern portions of the continent,
Glandina reaching as far as Ecuador, and Streptostyla as far as
Peru. The Greater Antilles have also characteristic forms of these
genera. Streptaxis is tolerably abundant all over tropical South
America, and is the one pulmonate genus which shows any affinity
with the African fauna.
The slugs are exceedingly scarce. Vaginula occurs throughout,
and is the only genus in any sense characteristic.
Clausilia, in the sub-genus Nenia, occurs along the Andean chain
from the extreme north (but not in Central America) as far south as
Bolivia. It has in all probability made its way into S. America in
exceedingly remote ages from its headquarters in Eastern Asia. No
species survives in N. America, and a single straggler is found in
Porto Rico. The genera Macroceramus, Cylindrella, and Strophia,
are characteristic West Indian forms, which are only slightly
represented on the mainland. Homalonyx, a curious form akin to
Succinea, is peculiar to the region.

Fig. 228.—Homalonyx unguis Fér.,

Demerara. sh, Shell (shown also
separate); p.o, pulmonary orifice.
Land operculates attain a most extraordinary development in the
Greater Antilles, and constitute, in some cases, nearly one-half of the
whole Molluscan fauna. Several groups of the Cyclostomatidae find
their headquarters here, and some spread no farther. On the
mainland this prominence does not continue. West Indian influence
is felt in Central America and on the northern coast district, and
some Antillean genera make their way as far as Ecuador. The whole
group entirely disappears in Chili and Argentina, becoming scarce
even in Brazil.
Among the fresh-water operculates, Ampullaria is abundant, and
widely distributed. Vivipara, so characteristic of N. America, is
entirely absent. Chilina, a remarkable fresh-water pulmonate, akin to
Limnaea, is peculiar to Chili, Patagonia, and Southern Brazil, but is
not found in the tropical portion of the continent. Of the fresh-water
Pelecypoda Mycetopus, Hyria, Castalia, Leila, and Mülleria are
peculiar forms, akin to the Unionidae.
(1) The Antillean Sub-region surpasses all other districts in the
world in respect of (1) extraordinary abundance of species, (2) sharp
definition of limits as a whole, (3) extreme localisation of the fauna of
the separate islands. The sub-region includes the whole of the half-
circle of islands from the Bahamas to Grenada, together with the
extreme southern end of the peninsula of Florida, which was once,
no doubt, a number of small islands like the Bahamas. Trinidad, and
probably Tobago, although containing an Antillean element, belong
to the mainland of S. America, from which they are only separated
by very shallow water.
The sub-region appears to fall into four provinces:—
(a) Cuba, the Bahamas, and S. Florida; (b) Jamaica; (c) San
Domingo (Haiti), Porto Rico, and the Virgin Is., with the Anguilla and
St. Bartholomew group; (d) the islands from Guadeloupe to
Grenada. The first three provinces contain the mass of the
characteristic Antillean fauna, the primary feature being the
extraordinary development of the land operculates, which here
reaches a point unsurpassed in any other quarter of the globe. The
relative numbers are as follows:—
Cuba Jamaica San Domingo Porto Rico
Inoperculate 362 221 152 75
Operculate 252 242 100 23
It appears, then, that the proportion of operculate to inoperculate
species, while very high in Cuba (about 41 per cent of the whole),
reaches its maximum in Jamaica (where the operculates are actually
in a majority), begins to decline in San Domingo (about 40 per cent),
and continues to do so in Porto Rico, where they are not more than
24 per cent of the whole. These operculates almost all belong to the
families Cyclostomatidae and Helicinidae, only two genera
(Aperostoma and Megalomastoma) belonging to the Cyclophorus
group. Comparatively few genera are absolutely peculiar to the
islands, one or two species of most of them occurring in Central or S.
America, but of the several hundreds of operculate species which
occur on the islands, not two score are common to the mainland.
 Map to illustrate the
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
of the Land Mollusca of the
WEST INDIES.
The red line marks the 100 fathom line.
London: Macmillan and Cọ. London: Stanford’s Geogḷ Estabṭ.
The next special feature of the sub-region is a remarkable
development of peculiar sub-genera of Helix. In this respect the
Antilles present a striking contrast to both Central and S. America,
where the prime feature of the land Pulmonata is the profusion of
Bulimus and Bulimulus, and Helix is relatively obscured. No less
than 14 sub-genera of Helix, some of which contain species of
almost unique beauty and size, are quite peculiar to the Greater
Antilles, and some are peculiar to individual islands.
 Here, too, is the metropolis of Cylindrella (of which there are 130
species in Cuba alone), a genus which just reaches S. America, and
has a few species along the eastern sea-board of the Gulf of Mexico.
Macroceramus and Strophia are quite peculiar; the former, a genus
allied to Cylindrella, which attains its maximum in Cuba and San
Domingo, is scarcely represented in Jamaica, and disappears south
of Anguilla; the latter, a singular form, resembling a large Pupa in
shape, which also attains its maximum in Cuba, is entirely wanting in
Jamaica, and has its last representative in S. Croix. One species
irregularly occurs at Curaçao.
The carnivorous group of land Mollusca are represented by
several peculiar forms of Glandina, which attain their maximum in
Jamaica and Cuba, but entirely disappear in the Lesser Antilles.
A certain number of the characteristic N. American genera are
found in the Antillean Sub-region, indicating a former connexion,
more or less intimate, between the W. Indies and the mainland. The
genera are all of small size. The characteristic N. American Hyalinia
are represented in Cuba, San Domingo, and Porto Rico; among the
Helicidae, Polygyra reaches Cuba, but no farther, and Strobila
Jamaica. The fresh-water Pulmonata are of a N. American type, as
far as the Greater Antilles are concerned, but the occurrence of
Gundlachia (Tasmania and Trinidad only) in Cuba is an unexplained
problem at present. Unionidae significantly occur only at the two
ends of the chain of islands, not reaching farther than Cuba (Unio 3
sp.) at one end, and Trinidad (which is S. American) at the other.
A small amount of S. American influence is perceptible throughout
the Antilles, chiefly in the occurrence of a few species of Bulimulus
and Simpulopsis. The S. American element may have strayed into
the sub-region by three distinct routes: (1) by way of Trinidad,
Tobago, and the islands northward; (2) by a north-easterly extension
of Honduras towards Jamaica, forming a series of islands of which
the Rosalind and Pedro banks are perhaps the remains; (3) by a
similar approximation of the peninsula of Yucatan and the western
extremity of Cuba. Central America is essentially S. American in its
fauna, and the characteristic genera of Antillean operculates which
occur on its eastern coasts are sufficient evidence of the previous
existence of a land connexion more or less intimate (see map).
(a) Cuba is by far the richest of the Antilles in land Mollusca, but it
must be remembered that it is also much better explored than San
Domingo, the only island likely to rival it in point of numbers. It
contains in all 658 species, of which 620 are land and 38 fresh-
water, the land operculates alone amounting to 252.
Carnivorous genera form but a small proportion of the whole.
There are 18 Glandina (which belong to the sections Varicella and
Boltenia) and 4 Streptostyla, the occurrence of this latter genus
being peculiar to Cuba and Haiti (1 sp.) among the Antilles, and
associating them closely with the mainland of Central America,
where Streptostyla is abundant. These two genera alone represent
the Agnatha throughout the sub-region.
There are no less than 84 species of Helix, belonging to 12 sub-
genera. Only one of these (Polymita) is quite peculiar to Cuba, but of
7 known species of Jeanerettia and 8 of Coryda, 6 and 7
respectively are Cuban. Thelidomus has 15 species (Jamaica 3,
Porto Rico 3); Polydontes has 3, the only other being from Porto
Rico; Hemitrochus has 12 (Jamaica 1, Bahamas 6); Cysticopsis 9
(Jamaica 6); Eurycampta 4 (Bahamas 1).
The Cylindrellidae find their maximum development in Cuba. As
many as 34 Macroceramus occur (two-thirds of the known species),
and 130 Cylindrella, some of the latter being most remarkable in
form (see Fig. 151, B, p. 247).
The land operculates belong principally to the families
Cyclostomatidae and Helicinidae. Of the former, Cuba is the
metropolis of Ctenopoma and Chondropoma, the former of which
includes 30 Cuban species, as compared with 1 from San Domingo
and 2 from Jamaica. Megalomastoma (Cyclophoridae) is also
Haitian and Porto Rican, but not Jamaican. Blaesospira, Xenopoma,
and Diplopoma are peculiar. The Helicinidae consist mainly of
Helicina proper (58 sp.), which here attains by far its finest
development in point of size and beauty, and of Eutrochatella (21
sp.), which is peculiar to the three great islands (Jamaica 6 sp., San
Domingo 6 sp.).
The Bahamas, consisting in all of more than 700 islands, are very
imperfectly known, but appear to be related partly to Cuba, partly to
San Domingo, from each of which they are separated by a narrow
channel of very deep water. They are certainly not rich in the
characteristic groups of the Greater Antilles. The principal forms of
Helix are Plagioptycha (6 sp.), common with San Domingo, and
Hemitrochus (6 sp.), common with Cuba. Strophia is exceedingly
abundant, but Cylindrella, Macroceramus, and Glandina have but
few species. There are a few species of Ctenopoma, Chondropoma,
and Cistula, while a single Schasicheila (absent from the rest of the
sub-region) forms a link with Mexico.

Fig. 229.—Characteristic Cuban

Helices. A, Polydontes imperator
Montf. B, Caracolus rostrata Pfr.
C, Polymita muscarum Lea.
Southern Florida, with one or two species each of Hemitrochus,
Cylindrella, Macroceramus, Strophia, Ctenopoma, and
Chondropoma, belongs to this province.
(b) Jamaica.—The land Mollusca of Jamaica are, in point of
numbers and variety, quite unequalled in the world. There are in all
as many as 56 genera and more than 440 species, the latter being
nearly all peculiar. The principal features are the Glandinae, the
Helicidae, and the land operculates. The Glandinae belong
principally to the sub-genera Varicella, Melia, and Volutaxis,
Streptostyla being absent, although occurring in Cuba and San
Domingo. There are 10 genera of Helix, of which Pleurodonta is
quite peculiar, while Sagda (13 sp.) is common only with S.W. San
Domingo (2 sp.), and Leptoloma (8 sp.) only with Cuba (1 sp.). The
single Strobila seems to be a straggler from a N. American source.
Macroceramus has only 2 species as against 34 in Cuba, and of
Cylindrella, in which Cuba (130 sp.) is so rich, only 36 species occur.
The genus Leia, however (14 sp.), is all but peculiar, occurring
elsewhere only in the neighbouring angle of San Domingo, which is
so closely allied with Jamaica. The complete absence of Strophia is
remarkable.

Fig. 230.—Characteristic
Jamaican and Haitian
Mollusca: A, Sagdae
pistylium Müll., Jamaica; B,
Chondropoma salleanum Pfr.,
San Domingo; C,
Eutrochatella Tankervillei
Gray, Jamaica; D, Cylindrella
agnesiana C. B. Ad.,
Jamaica.
 The land operculates form the bulk of the land fauna, there being
actually 242 species, as against 221 of land Pulmonata, a proportion
never again approached in any part of the world. As many as 80 of
these belong to the curious little genus Stoastoma, which is all but
peculiar to the island, one species having been found in San
Domingo, and one in Porto Rico. Geomelania and Chittya, two
singular inland forms akin to Truncatella, are quite peculiar. Alcadia
reaches its maximum of 14 species, as against 4 species in San
Domingo and 9 species in Cuba, and Lucidella is common to San
Domingo only; but, if Stoastoma be omitted, the Helicinidae
generally are not represented by so many or by so striking forms as
in Cuba, which has 90 species, as against Jamaica 44, and San
Domingo 35.
(c) San Domingo, although not characterised by the extraordinary
richness of Cuba and Jamaica, possesses many specially
remarkable forms of land Mollusca, to which a thorough exploration,
when circumstances permit, will no doubt make important additions.
From its geographical position, impinging as it does on all the islands
of the Greater Antilles, it would be expected that the fauna of San
Domingo would not exhibit equal signs of isolation, but would appear
to be influenced by them severally. This is exactly what occurs, and
San Domingo is consequently, although very rich in peculiar species,
not equally so in peculiar genera. The south-west district shows
distinct relations with Jamaica, the Jamaican genera Leia,
Stoastoma, Lucidella, and the Thaumasia section of Cylindrella
occurring here only. The north and north-west districts are related to
Cuba, while the central district, consisting of the long band of
mountainous country which traverses the island, contains the more
characteristic Haitian forms.
The Helicidae are the most noteworthy of the San Domingo land
Mollusca. The group Eurycratera, which contains some of the finest
existing land snails, is quite peculiar, while Parthena, Cepolis,
Plagioptycha, and Caracolus here reach their maximum. The
Cylindrellidae are very abundant, but no section is peculiar. Land
operculates do not bear quite the same proportion to the Pulmonata
as in Cuba and Jamaica, but they are well represented (100 to 152);
Rolleia is the only peculiar genus.
The relations of San Domingo to the neighbouring islands are
considerably obscured by the fact that they are well known, while
San Domingo is comparatively little explored. To this may perhaps
be due the curious fact that there are actually more species common
to Cuba and Porto Rico (26) than to Porto Rico and San Domingo.
Cuba shares with San Domingo its small-sized Caracolus and also
Liguus, but the great Eurycratera, Parthena, and Plagioptycha are
wholly wanting in Cuba. The land operculates are partly related to
Cuba, partly to Jamaica, thus Choanopoma, Ctenopoma, Cistula,
Tudora, and many others, are represented on all these islands, while
the Jamaican Stoastoma occurs on San Domingo and Porto Rico,
but not on Cuba, and Lucidella is common to San Domingo and
Jamaica alone. An especial link between Jamaica and San Domingo
is the occurrence in the south-west district of the latter island of
Sagda (2 sp.). The relative numbers of the genera Strophia,
Macroceramus, and Helicina, as given below (p. 351), are of interest
in this connexion.
Porto Rico, with Vièque, is practically a fragment of San Domingo.
The points of close relationship are the occurrence of Caracolus,
Cepolis, and Parthena among the Helicidae, and of Simpulopsis,
Pseudobalea, and Stoastoma. Cylindrella and Macroceramus are
but poorly represented, but Strophia still occurs. The land
operculates (see the Table) show equal signs of removal from the
headquarters of development. Megalomastoma, however, has some
striking forms. The appearance of a single Clausilia, whose nearest
relations are in the northern Andes, is very remarkable. Gaeotis,
which is allied to Peltella (Ecuador only), is peculiar.
 Fig. 231.—Examples of West Indian
Helices: A, Helix (Parthena)
angulata Fér., Porto Rico; B,
Helix (Thelidomus) lima Fér.,
Vièque; C, Helix (Dentellaria) nux
denticulata Chem., Martinique.
Land Mollusca of the Greater Antilles
Cuba. Jamaica. S. Domingo. Porto Rico.
Glandina 18 24 15 8
Streptostyla 4 ... 2 ...
Volutaxis ... 11 (?) 1 ...
Selenites 1 ... ... ...
Hyalinia 4 11 5 6
Patula 5 1 ... ...
Sagda ... 13 2 ...
Microphysa 7 18 8 3
Cysticopsis 9 6 ... ...
Hygromia (?) ... ... 3 ...
Leptaxis (?) ... ... 1 ...
Polygyra 2 ... ... ...
Jeanerettia 6 ... ... 1
Euclasta ... ... ... 4
Plagioptycha ... ... 14 2
Strobila ... 1 ... ...
Dialeuca ... 1 ... ...
Leptoloma 1 8 ... ...
Eurycampta 4 ... ... ...
Coryda 7 ... ... ...
Thelidomus 15 3 ... 3
Eurycratera ... ... 7 ...
Parthena ... ... 2 2
Cepolis ... ... 3 1
Caracolus 8 ... 6 2
Polydontes 3 ... ... 1
Hemitrochus 12 1 ... ...
Polymita 5 ... ... ...
Pleurodonta ... 34 ... ...
Inc. sed. 5 ... ... ...
Simpulopsis ... ... 1 1
Bulimulus 3 3 6 7
Orthalicus 1 1 ... ...
Liguus 3 ... 1 ...
Gaeotis ... ... ... 3
Pineria 2 ... ... 1
Macroceramus 34 2 14 3
Leia ... 14 2 ...
Cylindrella 130 36 35 3
Pseudobalea 2 ... 1 1
Stenogyra 6 7 (?) ...
Opeas 8 (?) 4 6
Subulima 6 14 2 2
Glandinella 1 ... ... ...
Spiraxis 2 (?) 2 1
Melaniella 7 ... ... ...
Geostilbia 1 ... 1 ...
Cionella 2 ... ... ...
Leptinaria ... 1 ... 3
Obeliscus ... ... 1 2
Pupa 2 7 3 2
Vertigo 4 ... ... ...
Strophia 19 ... 3 2
Clausilia ... ... ... 1
Succinea 11 2 5 3
Vaginula 2 2 2 1
Megalomastoma 13 ... 1 3
Neocyclotus 1 33(?) ... ...
Licina 1 ... 3 ...
Jamaicia ... 2 ... ...
Crocidopoma ... 1 3 ...
Rolleia ... ... 1 ...
Choanopoma 25 12 19 3
Ctenopoma 30 2 1 ...
 Cistula 15 3 3 3
Chondropoma 57 (?) 19 4
Tudora 7 17 5 ...
Adamsiella 1 12 ... ...
Blaesospira 1 ... ... ...
Xenopoma 1 ... ... ...
Cistula 15 3 3 ...
Colobostylus 4 13 5 ...
Diplopoma 1 ... ... ...
Geomelania ... 21 ... ...
Chittya ... 1 ... ...
Blandiella ... ... 1 ...
Stoastoma ... 80 1 1
Eutrochatella 21 6 6 ...
Lucidella ... 4 1 ...
Alcadia 9 14 4 ...
Helicina 58 16 24 9
Proserpina 2 4 ... ...
The Virgin Is., with St. Croix, Anguilla, and the St. Bartholomew
group (all of which are non-volcanic islands), are related to Porto
Rico, while Guadeloupe and all the islands to the south, up to
Grenada (all of which are volcanic), show marked traces of S.
American influence. St. Kitt’s, Antigua, and Montserrat may be
regarded as intermediate between the two groups. St. Thomas, St.
John, and Tortola have each one Plagioptycha and one Thelidomus,
while St. Croix has two sub-fossil Caracolus which are now living in
Porto Rico, together with one Plagioptycha and one Thelidomus
(sub-fossil). The gradual disappearance of some of the characteristic
greater Antillean forms, and the appearance of S. American forms in
the Lesser Antilles, is shown by the following table:—
S
P S S G M t
o t S t u a S .
r . t A . a D r t B T
t S . T n A d o t . a V G r
o T t o g K n e m i r i r i
h . C r u i t l i n L b n e n
R o r t i t i o n i u a c n i
i m J o o l t g u i q c d e a d
c a a i l l ’ u p c u i o n d a
 o s n x a a s a e a e a s t a d
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bulimulus 7 4 2 4 1 2 2 3 8 9 5 3 3 6 2 4
Cylindrella 3 2 1 1 1 . . . . 1 1 1 1 . . 1
Macroceramus 3 1 1 . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . .
Cyclostomatidae, etc.23 4 1 5 1 1 1 . 4 . . . . . . 1
Dentellaria . . . . . . 1 1 8 5 11 2 2 . 1 1
Cyclophorus . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 . . . . .
Amphibulimus . . . . . . . . 2 3 1 . . . . .
Homalonyx . . . . . . . . 1 1 . . . . . .

(d) In Guadeloupe we find Cyclophorus, Amphibulimus,

Homalonyx, and Pellicula, which are characteristic of S. America,
and nearly all recur in Dominica and Martinique. These islands are
the metropolis of Dentellaria, a group of Helix, evidently related to
some of the forms developed in the Greater Antilles. Stragglers
occur as far north as St. Kitt’s and Antigua, and there are several on
the mainland as far south as Cayenne. Traces of the great Bulimus,
so characteristic of South America, occur as far north as S. Lucia,
where also is found a Parthena (San Domingo and Porto Rico).
Trinidad is markedly S. American; 55 species in all are known, of
which 22 are peculiar, 28 are common to S. America (8 of these
reach no farther north along the islands), and only 5 are common to
the Antilles, but not to S. America. The occurrence of Gundlachia in
Trinidad has already been mentioned.
The Bermudas show no very marked relationship either to the N.
American or to the West Indian fauna. In common with the former
they possess a Polygyra, with the latter (introduced species being
excluded) one species each of Hyalosagda, Subulina, Vaginula, and
Helicina, so that, on the whole, they may be called West Indian. The
only peculiar group is Poecilozonites, a rather large and depressed
shell of the Hyalinia type.
(2) The Central American Sub-region may be regarded as
extending from the political boundary of Mexico in the north to the
isthmus of Panama in the south. It thus impinges on three important
districts—the N. American, West Indian, and S. American; and it
appears, as we should perhaps expect, that the two latter of these
regions have considerably more influence upon its fauna than the
former. Of the N. American Helicidae, Polygyra is abundant in
Mexico only, and two species of Strobila reach N. Guatemala, while
the Californian Arionta occurs in Mexico. S. American Helicidae, in
the sub-genera Solaropsis and Labyrinthus, occur no farther north
than Costa Rica. Not a single representative of any of the
characteristic West Indian Helicidae occurs. Bulimulus and
Otostomus, which form so large a proportion of the Mollusca of
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, together with Orthalicus,
are abundant all over the region. Again, Cylindrella, Macroceramus,
and some of the characteristic Antillean operculates, are
represented, their occurrence being in most cases limited to the
eastern coast-line and eastern slope of the central range.
Besides these external elements, the region is rich in indigenous
genera. Central America is remarkable for an immense number of
large carnivorous Mollusca possessing shells. There are 49 species
of Glandina, the bulk of which occur in eastern and southern Mexico;
36 of Streptostyla (S.E. Mexico and Guatemala, only 1 species
reaching Venezuela and another Peru); 5 of Salasiella, 2 of Petenia,
and 1 of Strebelia; the last three genera being peculiar. Streptaxis,
fairly common in S. America, does not occur. Velifera and
Cryptostracon, two remarkable slug-like forms, each with a single
species, are peculiar to Costa Rica. Among the especial peculiarities
of the region are the giant forms belonging to the Cylindrellidae,
which are known as Holospira, Eucalodium, and Coelocentrum (Fig.
232). They are almost entirely peculiar to Mexico, only 7 out of a
total of 33 reaching south of that district, and only 1 not occurring in it
at all.
 Fig. 232.—Examples of
characteristic Mexican
Mollusca: A, Coelocentrum
turris Pfr.; B, Streptostyla
Delattrei Pfr.
The land operculates are but scanty. Tomocyclus and
Amphicyclotus are peculiar, and Schasicheila, a form of Helicina,
occurs elsewhere only in the Bahamas. Ceres (see Fig. 18, C, p. 21)
and Proserpinella, two remarkable forms of non-operculate
Helicinidae (compare the Chinese Heudeia), are quite peculiar.
Pachychilus, one of the characteristic fresh-water genera, belongs to
the S. American (Melaniidae) type, not to the N. American
(Pleuroceridae). Among the fresh-water Pulmonata, the Aplecta are
remarkable for their great size and beauty. In the accompanying
table “Mexico” is to be taken as including the region from the United
States border up to and including the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and
“Central America” as the whole region south of that point.
Land Mollusca of Central America
Mexico Central Common to
only. America both.
only.
Strebelia 1 ... ...
Glandina 33 13 3
Salasiella 4 ... 1
Streptostyla 18 12 6
Petenia ... 1 1
Limax ... 1 ...
Velifera ... 1 ...
Omphalina 10 1 1
Hyalinia 2 5 3
Guppya ... 8 3
Pseudohyalina 2 ... 2
Tebennophorus 1 ... ...
Cryptostracon ... 1 ...
Xanthonyx 4 ... ...
Patula 3 ... 4
Acanthinula 1 2 2
Vallonia ... 1 ...
Trichodiscus 2 2 3
Praticolella 1 ... 1
Arionta 3 ... ...
Lysinoe 1 1 1
Oxychona 2 5 ...
Solaropsis ... 2 ...
Polygyra 14 1 2
Strobila 1 1 ...
Labyrinthus ... 5 ...
Otostomus 23 20 7
Bulimulus 6 5 2
Berendtia 1 ... ...
Orthalicus 6 3 3
Pupa 1 1 1
Vertigo 1 ... ...
Holospira 12 ... ...
Coelocentrum 6 1 1
Eucalodium 15 ... 5
Cylindrella 6 4 ...
Macroceramus 2 1 ...
Simpulopsis 2 1 ...
Caecilianella 1 ... ...
Opeas 1 2 3
Spiraxis 8 2 1
Leptinaria ... 2 ...
Subulina 2 3 4
Succinea 11 3 1
Vaginula 1 ... ...
Aperostoma ... 4 1
Amphicyclotus 2 1 2
Cystopoma 2 ... ...
Tomocyclus ... 1 2