The Mulatto race was one that was stuck in between cultures, kind of suspended in this in between space in which they weren't necessarily strictly doomed to slavery as many African Americans were but they were not given the right of the white race either. The most key example that I observed being a large theme in both pieces was the marriage factor. both Jacob and Rosalie wanted to marry but if they were to do so they would not be able to be actually recognized as a marriage under law because of their suspended race. I took into consideration that maybe this problem of marriage was simply because Jacob was a slave which gave her no rights but Rosalie suffered from the same ideal issues of validity and she was not a slave. There was also the feeling of shame that was professed between Rosalie and her lover, she so wanted to be marries and even though he loves her and claims that she was his only love, he still married another because of the social ramifications of marrying a mulatto was too much for him to take, although he still ended up boring her child none the less.
Also just something to mention that i found very interesting as being kinda a mirrored effect between analyzing these two stories together is that Jacob was a slave throughout the story and then she was freed at the end, where as Rosalie was free through the entire story until her daughter was sold at the end. I just found that to be an interesting parallel.
You make a very good point that people of different races were hesitant to intermarriage because of the violations of social norms. Those people that were in an intermarriage of different races often were victims of hate crimes or shunned from the community. Even if their children had the slightest drop of African American blood in them, they would be considered black no matter the skin color and would be treated accordingly. I could understand why Rosalie and her lover chose not to marry because of the burden in would bring upon their family.
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