Re: N.A./Black Relations before the Civil War?

pollarde@email.uah.edu
Mon, 6 Mar 1995 22:52:23 -0600

Those on the net interested in this subject might want to have a look at
Brewton Berry's _Almost White_, Macmillan, 1963. It is out-of-print, but a
good academic library might have it. Berry reviews the literature on a
number of supposed "triracial (Indian-White-Black) isolates" in the
eastern United States. Recent editions of George Peter Murdock's
_Ethnographic Bibliography of North America_ include a listing of
references on such groups. There were several issues of the _American
Anthropologist_ in the 1970s devoted to studies of them.

What needs to be kept in mind when reading these books and articles is
that the claim these groups had some degree of Black ancestry may be
more apparent than real. I am reminded that Alfred L. Kroeber noted
that many of the full-blooded Northern Arapaho he did fieldwork among
in the early part of this century had skin pigmentation that was
nearly black, yet the genealogies he collected failed to show any
African-American ancestry. His explanation, and that of more recent
researchers, is that this is the result of inbreeding. Geneticists on
this net might be better able than I to explain this.

In nearly every case, it is assumed that genes from the African-
American population entered the group before the nineteenth century.
Some references on the absorption of runaway slaves by the Seminole
and Miccosukee in Florida were given in a post on this list (not mine)
some months ago. On the other hand, it is frequently reported that
members of the so-called "triracial isolates" who marry or even
regularly associate with Blacks become outcasts. To recognize them as
members would be to admit the claim of many local Whites that the
members of the group are really mulattos. Some of the groups Berry
discusses (e.g., the Wesorts in Maryland) have apparently been absorbed
into the Black population, while those who can "pass for white" no
longer identify with the group (e.g., such people among the Melungeons
in east Tennessee and southeastern Virginia). Others have since succeeded
in gaining recognition (state and/or federal) as Native American tribes,
or are still seeking it. Most have little or no recognizable Native
American culture and speak no language other than English.

Grosvenor Pollard

via Elizabeth B. Pollard
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Elizabeth Pollard
Systems Librarian Internet: pollarde@email.uah.edu
University of Alabama in Huntsville Compuserve: 72457,1560
Huntsville, AL 35899 Phone: (205)895-6313
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-