"Passing" is a phenomenon that I don't think
has gotten enough academic attention. I know
that part of the reason for that would be the
problems encountered in interviewing those
who would admit to it or who would admit that
their families have done it.
I am interested in "passing" as a phenomenon
partly because I have Melungeon ancestry from
the community near Phillippi, West Virginia,
on my mother's side and yet-undetermined
American Indian heritage on my father's side.
My mother's family, some of whom are still
quite dark even in my generation, have been
much fiercer about hiding and denying the
Melungeon ancestry. (My mother's maternal
grandmother's father fled Grafton, West
Virginia, with his family following the
murder of a teenage son around 1900. He took
the family to Fayetteville, NC, and then, a
few years later, migrated to Washington, DC.)
My father's family has generally ignored the
mixed ancestry, though some have claimed
Jewish ancestry. It took several sometimes
loud family verbal disputes, but I finally
established that I'm not claiming any
"Cherokee princesses." (While white women in
the South rarely owned anything on their own,
Cherokee women, and other American Indian
women in the South, "owned" their houses as
they were members of a matrilineal society.
See Theda Perdue.) My father's family were
clergy in the Methodist church (Methodist
Episcopal Church, South) from about 1800 to
1935, and some cousins are clergy in the
United Methodist Church. My paternal
great-grandfather's paternal grandfather
migrated from Wake County (Raleigh), NC, to
western South Carolina ca. 1800, then
recently Cherokee territory, and not far from
Creek/Yuchi territory.
Elizabeth Whitaker
Paul Heinegg wrote:
> Anyone interested in researching this subject should take note that
> there was a very light-skinned, free African American family named
> Harden in Sampson County, North Carolina, during the colonial period
> that was culturally white.
> Paul
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
