|
Alex
Haley wrote the Foreword to Ethnic Genealogy: A Research
Guide, published by Greenwood Press of Westport,
Connecticut in 1983 and edited by Jessie Carney Smith. Ethnic Genealogy: A Research Guide is no longer in
print, so check with your local libraries to see if they
have a copy.
Selections of the Foreword to Ethnic Genealogy:
A Research Guide
Tracing
ancestors as far back as possible has brought to many people
great satisfaction and pleasure. Even documenting one's
family thoroughly for but a few generations can prove just
as exciting and fulfilling as a more sketchy documentation
across two or three centuries. Each individual ancestral
relative previously unknown and genealogically discovered is
its own special thrill! No less thrilling is the discovery
of records rich with information, which would have remained
untouched, which would never have come to light, unless you
had gotten caught up in the multiple, magnetic lures of
genealogy.
Young
and old alike find that knowing one's roots, and thus
coming better to know who one is, provides a personally
 rewarding experience. But even more is involved than
uncovering a family history, for each discovered United
States family history becomes a newly revealed small
piece of American history. Stated simply: a nation's
history is only the selective histories of all of its
people. It is only through an unfolding of the people's
histories that a nation's culture can be studied in its
fullest meaning.
Ethnic
Genealogy is not only timely, it is necessary. Had this
work appeared long before now, many a genealogical
researcher could have experienced far less frustrations.
Now, the volume can immensely aid countless researchers who
are just beginning their search, or others who have become
muddled and confused in the pursuit.
There is a legend that the “Yellow Rose of
Texas” is one Emily West, a mulatto, possibly originally from
Bermuda. While the song’s writer is unknown, we do know that
the song appeared in the mid-1830’s, and the writer may have
been Negro, a solider, and from Tennessee.
There's a yellow rose
in Texas, that I am going to see,
No other darky knows
her, no darky only me
She cryed so when I
left her it like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her,
we nevermore will part.
She's the sweetest rose
of color this darky ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as
diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your
dearest May, and sing of Rosa Lee,
But the Yellow Rose of
Texas beats the belles of Tennessee.
In the 1850’s and
after, the song was performed by Negro Minstrels.
Through the years, the song was changed and during the
latter part of the Civil War,
it acquired a stanza about Confederate General John B.
Hood’s retreat from Nashville.
Then came the
unkindest cut of all. Mitch Miller’s 1955 version so
“whitewashed” our Yellow Rose that she appeared much less than
she was. Political correctness at work.
So what does this
mean to genealogists? It means we need to dig for the truth. We
can not accept everything at face value.
Things were hidden. Obvious things like
the imprisonment of a relative or the commitment of a relative
to a mental institution were not mentioned. Among white
families, the disclosure of a “colored” ancestor might only
appear in a death bed confession -- “Did you know that your
great-grandma was part Negro?”
The free Negro had
of course adopted surnames mostly of northern European origin.
And it should be noted the free Negro were in America during
the colonial times. However prior
to the Civil War, almost all
slaves had no surnames. It is
said that during that war, when
the U. S. Army conscripted the Negro,
surnames were applied and those names
were often the names of their
former owners. These surnames are
today often referred to as “slave
names.” But a word of caution
here. Not all names that were
adopted were the names of the
former owners. Sometimes the name
came from a friend, even a Negro
friend. Negro men were known to
have changed their post-Civil War
names to one more of there liking.
The given names that were familiar to
the slaves were the names from the plantations. A friend
writes; “. . . I have just noticed that about 1870, there are
many folks who take the name of their previous owner . . .
even down to naming their children the same names as children
of previous masters and of course, lots of kids named after
presidents . . .” Another word of caution here. The white
families recycled given names. It would be possible to find
two white brothers, each with children of the same names, and
each brother owning a slave named “Bob.”
Prior to the Civil War,
free persons with less than one-eighth or one-sixteenth Negro
ancestry were classified a white. When doing genealogy, it is
wise to consider that the only absolute is: there is
absolutely nothing sure. Question everything!
Colonial America & ethnic Classification
Spanish colonial ethnic identity
Caste System
Bermejos 100%
European
Indios 100% Native
American
Negros 100% African
Mulatos
European and African mixture (7 categories)
Mestizos European and Native American mixture (5
categories)
17th
century Spanish colonial America, there were 15 "racial"
categories based on the percent of one's ancestry from
different groups:
The
term "mestizo" is still commonly used in Mexico.
Depending on the person speaking, it can be a term of
pride or of derision. "Ladino" is now more often used
instead of "mestizo" in Central America. Cultural traits
are often as important as biological ones in ethnic
identity there. In Guatemala, for instance, it is often
language (Spanish or Maya Indian), education, and style of
clothing that are used to identify people as being ladino
instead of indio (Indian).
|
