Paul Heinegg said --
 

The origin and genealogy of nearly every African American family that was free 
n Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware during the colonial period is 
ublished on my site. http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Virginia_NC.htm. The 
escendants of many of these families have come to be known as Indians. The site 
s based on my research of nearly every colonial court record at the archives 
or those states during the past 25 years. Full citation of sources for Virginia 
nd North Carolina is at http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/sources.htm, and 
here is a shortened citation in brackets in the text.

 
I thank you for your dedication and excellent research dedicated to publicizing these overlooked groups of Americans.
 
I know many of the members of the Nanticoke Indian organization of Millsboro, DE.  They all acknowledge blended heritage and would agree that they are not entirely of Native American descent.  Their desire to create a community based on one facet of their 
ancestry is to be commended, especially for up and coming generations. 
 
You have chosen to call them 'Free Afican Americans', which is problematical because it assigns them to a continent of origin, uncertain at best.  Except for the few persons identified in early records as 'negro' or 'freed slave' (which in itself is a dicey term vis-a-vis origins) there is in reality no way to separate African from Native American or Mediterrean or from any other source of color: too many instances of changes of color descriptors in any one family over time operate against such a notion.   
 
I wish you had named your web site 'Free Persons of Color of...' which I believe would be more accurate, but, of course, that is your call.
 
Overall, nice work!


Best wishes,
Ray Terry

---------------




-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]>
To: VA-HIST <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sun, Nov 25, 2012 1:24 am
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Bunch Family


R. Terry said,
he theory that such families were descendants of Indians was invented during 
he Jim Crow Period to create a third caste.
>Your source(s), please.
In 1885 Hamilton McMillan of Robeson County, North Carolina's Democratic Party 
rote and helped pass a law creating separate school districts for the former 
ree persons of color of the county in an effort to win their votes in a county 
nd state that were about equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. 
cMillan invented the name "Croatan Indians" and theorized that they had 
escended from a friendly tribe of Indians on the Roanoke River in eastern North 
arolina who had mixed with the whites in Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony in 
587 and had settled in Robeson County during the colonial period. The law 
reated three castes: white, Negro and Indian. To maintain the racial purity of 
hese Indians who had supposedly mixed with (only) whites, marriage to Negroes 
former slaves) was forbidden. Later, there would be three sets of water 
ountains, seating areas, rest rooms, etc. [Blu, Karen, The Lumbee Problem, 23, 
2-3]. See also http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/introduction.htm (do an 
dit, find on this page: Lumbee)
This influenced Anthropologist James Moody of the Smithsonian to study other 
ossible Indian groups in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina in 
889. Moody visited the mixed-race community in Charles and Prince George's 
ounties, Maryland, made up of members of the Proctor, Butler, Newman, Savoy, 
wann, and Thompson families which came to be called "Piscataway Indians" or 
Wesorts" [Porter, Quest for Identity, 99-100; Gilberts, Surviving Indian Groups 
f the Eastern United States]. These were all families clearly identified in the 
olonial court records as having descended from white women who had children by 
en of African descent, convicted of "Mulatto bastardy" and sold as servants. 
About the year 1900 the Smithsonian took photos of members of the "Indian" Bass 
nd Weaver families of Norfolk County, Virginia. The former free-person-of-color 
ommunity was recognized by the state as Nansemond Indians in 1984. The Bass 
amily did descend from an Indian, but they were more African than Indian 
ecause the grandson of  John Bass and his Indian wife married the manumitted 
aughter of a white man and a "Negro" slave in 1729. The Weaver family descends 
rom East Indians who blended into the free African American community of 
ancaster County, Virginia, in the early 1700s.
http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/photos_Indians.htm
In 1903 the former free-person-of-color community of Sussex County, Delaware 
which had been granted permission to run their own separate schools after the 
ivil War) petitioned the legislature to change their name from "a certain class 
f Colored Persons" to the "Offspring of the Nanticoke Indians," and the 
egislature complied [State Laws of Delaware XXII, Chapter 470, 986 cited by 
eslager, Delaware's Forgotten Folk, 117].
For more on Maryland and Delaware see http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Intro_md.htm
The origin and genealogy of nearly every African American family that was free 
n Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware during the colonial period is 
ublished on my site. http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Virginia_NC.htm. The 
escendants of many of these families have come to be known as Indians. The site 
s based on my research of nearly every colonial court record at the archives 
or those states during the past 25 years. Full citation of sources for Virginia 
nd North Carolina is at http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/sources.htm, and 
here is a shortened citation in brackets in the text.
Paul
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