How were Smith and Pocahontas a mixed race couple? She was involved with
and married John Rolfe, not Smith.
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Finkelman
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 6:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Mildred Jeter Loving (1940-2008), & an apology
(was Re: What would Jeffer...
Smith and Pocahontas were an early mixed race couple. In the 1920s VA
passed its law declaring that any person with ANY non-white ancestry was
not white! A few years later the legislature passed an amendment to say
that people with less than 1/16th Indian ancestry were also "white." It
was known as the Pocahontas law because many FFV's claimed to be
descendants of Smith and his Indian bride. Before the Civil War people
who were less than 1/4th non-white were considered white. The
definition of "white" or "black" has alway been socially and legally
constructed.
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York 12208-3494
518-445-3386
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>>> [log in to unmask] 05/07/08 5:53 PM >>>
Weren't John Smith and Pocahontas a mixed race marriage in Virginia
We quote the late Ned Heite, who wrote about white-Indian couplings 30
Jan 2000:
What happened to
the Delmarva Indians? Dr. Helen C. Rountree, in her several
excellent
publications, has given us a picture of those Eastern Shore
Indian descendants
who have been identified. Many of our neighbors are clearly
identified
as Indians, and their ancestry is not in doubt.
However, I am coming
to the conclusion that most of the Indian descendants in the
Middle Atlantic
region today are identified as "white," and not "mulatto"
or "black."
There is plenty
of unwritten evidence that intermarriage between Indians and
whites was
the rule, rather than the exception, in the early years of
European colonization.
In the latest issue of the Archaeological Society of Virginia
bulletin
is Martha McCartney's insightful analysis of the census records
for the
Virginia colony compiled in 1619-1620. Most settlers were male;
in some plantations, all were male. There simply were no "available"
English women.
Therefore, we must
assume that these fellows were either gay, celibate, or mated
with Indian
women. Take your choice, but remember that they were largely
young and
robust single Englishmen, away from home and not terribly well
regulated.
So only the third choice stands the test of reasonableness.
Flash forward nearly
a century, and? ---the Virginia legislature passes a law stating
that the
child of a white and an Indian is a mulatto, but the child of a
white
and a half Indian (that is, with one Indian grandparent) is
white.--- ? This
rule seems to have held in Delaware and Maryland, too.
Why do legislatures
pass laws? Because some constituent believes there is an issue
to be addressed.
We don't talk about gun laws unless there is gun violence.
Clearly there
is a reason to enfranchise as "white" anyone with only one
Indian
grandparent. My suggestion: The legislators, or their
constituents, needed
to define a difference between "mulatto" and "white"
for purposes of the civil law.
The logical inference
from the Virginia legislature's definition is that there must
have been
plenty of white planters with Indian ancestry who wanted their
franchise
protected during a period when racial divides were becoming
sharper and
sharper.
Indian wives would
help explain why so many genealogies are easily traced through
the male
line, but hit dead ends at the female side. If the mother was an
Indian,
and if the marriage was sanctioned only in the most irregular
way, a child's
legal record (in cases of probate for example) would refer only
to his
or her father's side, the mother's family being outside the
English legal
system.
B&R Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, 7 May 2008 3:47 am
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Mildred Jeter Loving (1940-2008), & an apology
(was Re: What would Jeffer...
Weren't John Smith and Pocahontas a mixed race marriage in Virginia some
time before the Loving's decided to make a Federal case out of the whole
thing.
J South
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