Nel wrote the following: 

I and my family are listed in the 1790 Richmond Co, NC as Free Negro. I think I'm white but I may be 1/2 Indian. I'm positive my wife is Indian but she may be part Negro (or at least darker skinned). My kids could be a mish-mosh of light to dark.
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In 1790 sparsely populated Richmond County, NC was on a principal early road/trail from Wilmington to Charlotte and on west, and the law, though primitive by our standards, was present and active.  Just as today, a person - black or white or in between - was known to his/her community, hence it is doubtful that your family, once acquainted in the area, would be required to show identification or "freedom papers" as you went about your life.  As now, strangers were suspect, and the papers of such people would have been demanded and carefully examined (especially since there often was a reward for unemancipated Slave), while others lnown to the residents would not be bothered.     

More important, mixtures of the races on this continent had been taking place for then 175  years+-,  and quite like today, there were many shades of color among those of mixed lineage.  That fact and the genealogy of most, no matter what color, being quite unknown, when the enumerator came by, if you were known, and though you did not know your lineage, the enumerator put down what you appeared to be just as he used phonetic spelling of those who were illiterate).  Since, if you were any part Black you were considered all Black, many claimed to be part Indian, thus avoiding bringing to themselves the stigma of being known as "Black".  (Even though in many places being of American Indian blood carried the same social rejection.)

Finally, notice that by 1790 in Tidewater country it had been more than 100 years since there had been Indian/White harsh conflicts, so there you were less likely to be believed if you claimed Indian blood, while in the moutains of NC/VA/etc.,  the likelihood that you would be believed was much greater.  Paul   

Our ancestors acted and thought VERY much as you do.  I suggest that if you encountered that mixed race family, and they had been known to you or your friends, you would likely not ask for identification, yet still would put them down in the census catgory that seemed to fit.  By the same token, if you were that head of household in Richmond county, when asked for your race, you quite likely would at least consider asserting that you were part Indian and not Black.     
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