Carole,

You have asked important and often vexing questions. I'll answer them in order where I can. I'll also add a caveat that most of my research has been focused on the Eastern Algonquian people who lived in the Virginia's Lower and Middle Peninsulas and the Northern Neck, so circumstances on the Eastern Shore, South of the James, and for the Piedmont and West may differ according to local whites' attitudes about their Indian neighbors.

> Were Indians ever included in Virginia's  personal property tax-payers lists ?  If so, in what year did they begin to  be included ?  

Based on a number of factors, I would assume that inclusion varied from county to county, but I have not made an exhaustive comparison. In King William County's Personal Property Records, the first time "Indians" are classified as such is 1787, when an assessment was made on people living at the Pamunkey "Indian Town." There were eight heads of household, two of which were taxed. They were likely white men who lived on the Pamunkey Reservation. After 1787, the assessments appear to be intermittent. So if you're looking for reservation Indians, then start with the County that contains the reservation. That said, while the Pamunkey are listed, there is no mention in the King William County Personal Property Tax Records of the Mattaponi Reservation, just a few miles away. 

> I'm also wondering about part-Indians. Were they included  ?

By the 1830s, Virginia Indians, whether of mixed parentage or not, were quickly being consumed into an amorphous group labeled "free persons of color,"  which also included free "negroes" and free "mulattos." But the color line was very fluid, and some Indians as well as some mulattos could sometimes pass for white. I have a sense that Indians jumped color lines more easily than mixed-blood blacks, but I say that because I am no longer surprised to find Indians listed on different records with different racial markers. In general, if Indians held a protected reservation, there was a greater chance that the Commonwealth considered them as Indian. However, the vast majority of Virginia Indians lived without protected reservations and their racial classification was determined by their white neighbors, which meant that Indians frequently appear in the records as "free colored" or "mulatto" or "black."

> On the same general subject, I'm also  wondering if Indians (and/or 
> part-Indians) were at all considered in  the 1850 Census. If so, how were they 
> designated as to race ?  The column  for "color" only shows options for 
> white, black, and mulatto (1850 definition =  ??).  

Virginia had long been frustrated about how to define the racial makeup of its citizens, and the racial designations on the 1850 Census reflected how arbitrary identity could be. Indians were identified variously as white, black, or mulatto. It was not until 1866 that the Virginia Assembly defined Indians for the first time in Virginia’s history!  “Every person having one-fourth or more of negro blood shall be deemed a colored person, and every person not a colored person having one-fourth or more of Indian blood shall be deemed an Indian.” (_Acts of the Assembly_, 1865-1866, pp. 84-85) This is also the first time the Virginia Code uses the term "colored person."

> And, did it make a difference whether one's mother was an Indian  or if one's father was an Indian ?


Paternity only mattered some times, and it never mattered outside the community.

Hope this is helpful but it probably only muddies the water for you.

Good luck with your research,

Edward

Edward DuBois Ragan, Ph.D.
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318.426.9303



On Nov 14, 2011, at 7:17 AM, Carole D. Bryant wrote:

> Greetings, fellow-researchers !
> 
>    Were Indians ever included in Virginia's  personal property tax-payers 
> lists ?  If so, in what year did they begin to  be included ?  I'm also 
> wondering about part-Indians. Were they included  ?
> 
>    On the same general subject, I'm also  wondering if Indians (and/or 
> part-Indians) were at all considered in  the 1850 Census. If so, how were they 
> designated as to race ?  The column  for "color" only shows options for 
> white, black, and mulatto (1850 definition =  ??).  And, did it make a 
> difference whether one's mother was an Indian  or if one's father was an Indian ?
> 
>    Thank you very much for your help  !
>        Carole
> 
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