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Black Dutch is a term with several different meanings inUnited Statesdialect andslang. It generally refers toracial,ethnic orcultural roots. Its meaning varies and such differences are contingent upon time and place. Several varied groups of multiracial people have sometimes been referred to as or identified as Black Dutch, most often as a reference to their ancestors.[1][2][3][4]
The term Black Dutch appears to have become widely adopted in the Southern Highlands and as far west asTexas in the early 1800s by certain Southeastern families ofmixed race ancestry, especially those ofNative American descent.[5] When used in the South, it usually did not implyAfrican admixture, although some families who used the term were of tri-racial descent.
In addition, some mixed-race persons of European and African descent identified as Portuguese or Native American, as a way to explain their variations in physical appearance from Europeans and to be more easily accepted by European-American neighbors.[6] By the late 18th century, numerous free mixed-race families were migrating west, along withwhite Americans, to the frontiers ofVirginia andNorth Carolina, where racial castes were less strict than in plantation country of theTidewater.[6]
Many tribes, specifically Chocktaw and Chickasaw tribes, fought for The Confederacy to keep their slaves. After The Civil War, those slaves who had moved onto reservations with their Native American owners were released from enslavement and labeled Freedmen. Tribes have separate lists in the Dawes Rolls, (1898-1914) where some of these Freedmen are named. A large population settled in The Choctaw Territory at Oak Hill to pursue education, specifically literacy to vote and industrial training for employment. Oak Hill Academy is one such place.[citation needed]
Late 20th-century research by Paul Heinegg found that 80 percent of people listed asfree people of color in North Carolina censuses from 1790–1810 could be traced back to free blacks in Virginia in colonial times. Based on his research, he found that most such free black families before theAmerican Revolution were descended from unions in the working class – between white women (whose status made their children free by the principle ofpartus sequitur ventrem) and African men: free, indentured servants and slaves.[6] Since the late 20th century,DNA tests of people from core Melungeon families, as documented in theMelungeon DNA Project coordinated by Jack Goins, have shown most individuals are of European and African descent, and having little Native American ancestry. This is a confirmation of Heinegg's genealogical research, summarized in hisFree African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware (1995–2005).[6] Many triracial isolate ethnic groups in Eastern North America including theMelungeons,Lumbee, Louisiana Redbones,Great Dismal Swamp maroons, and Brass Ankles of South Carolina have similar stories.
As early as the 18th century, ethnic Germans and Irish/Scots-Irish migrated from Pennsylvania into Virginia through theShenandoah Valley and settled in the backcountry of theAppalachian Mountains, areas considered the frontier compared toTidewater Virginia and the Low Country of the coast. They likely continued to use their term of "Black Dutch" to refer to swarthy-skinned people or, more generally, political opponents. Historically,mixed-race European-Native American and sometimesfull blood Native American families of the South adopted the term "Black Dutch" for their own use, and to a lesser extent, "Black Irish," first inVirginia,North Carolina, andTennessee. As the researcher Paul Heinegg noted, the frontier was also the area of settlement of mixed-race families of African and European ancestry, who also used the terms.[6]
They may have attempted to "pass" and avoid being removed toIndian Territory or stigmatized by what became a majority Anglo-American society.[5] Some Native Americans, mainly from theFive Civilized Tribes of the Southeast, claimed "Black Dutch" or "Black Irish" heritage in order to purchase land in areas which United States treaties and other laws had reserved for people of European descent. Once they owned the land, such families who had escaped forced removal would not admit to their Native American heritage, for fear of losing their property.[5]
As an example, an exhibit at the state-runOakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum inLawrence County,Alabama gives the history of the term amongCherokee in the local area after Indian Removal:
Before theIndian Removal Act in 1830, many of Lawrence County's Cherokee people were already mixed with white settlers and stayed in the country of the Warrior Mountains. They denied their ancestry and basically lived much of their lives in fear of being sent West. Full bloods claimed to be Black Irish or Black Dutch, thus denying their rightful Native American blood. After being fully assimilated into the general population years later, these Irish Cherokee mixed-blood descendants, began reclaiming their Native American heritage in the land of the Warrior Mountains, Lawrence County, Alabama. During the 1900 U.S. Census only 78 people claimed their Native American heritage. In 1990, more than 2000 individuals claimed Native American descent. Today more than 4000 citizens are proud to claim their Native American heritage and are members of theEchota Cherokee tribe.
Over time, the term "Black Dutch" migrated with certain families of mixed ancestry from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee toMissouri andArkansas, as well as toMississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma, where its original meaning became lost. Many people born in the 20th century have claimed Black Dutch heritage, sometimes in addition to Native heritage.[5] Unlike families in Pennsylvania or Virginia, most of the mixed-race Black Dutch families of theDeep South have English, Scots, or Irish surnames, and have no German ancestry in their families.[5]