Cyndie's Musings: William Goyens, Jr of Nacogdoches, TX

William Goyens, Jr of Nacogdoches, TX

Cyndie discusses her ancestor William Goyens Jr and his family origins in North Carolina. She speculates on white versus black, but notes her family were free people of color and considered to be Croatan or Lumbee. She relates an interesting story of a NC cemetery, where some of her family are buried, stating that the bodies were buried in a standing up position. It looks as if some of her other posts may be quite interesting too.

Ariela Gross | "Of Portuguese Origin": Litigating Identity and Citizenship among the "Little Races" in Nineteenth-Century America

Ariela Gross "Of Portuguese Origin": Litigating Identity and Citizenship among the "Little Races" in Nineteenth-Century America Law and History Review, 25.3 The History Cooperative


ABSTRACT: The history of race in the nineteenth-century United States is often told as a story of black and white in the South, and white and Indian in the West, with little attention to the intersection between black and Indian. This article explores the history of nineteenth-century America's "little races"—racially ambiguous communities of African, Indian, and European origin up and down the eastern seaboard. These communities came under increasing pressure in the years leading up to the Civil War and in its aftermath to fall on one side or the other of a black-white color line. Drawing on trial records of cases litigating the racial identity of the Melungeons of Tennessee, the Croatans/Lumbee of North Carolina, and the Narragansett of Rhode Island, this article looks at the differing paths these three groups took in the face of Jim Crow: the Melungeons claiming whiteness; the Croatans/Lumbee asserting Indian identity and rejecting association with blacks; the Narragansett asserting Indian identity without rejecting their African origins. Members of these communities found that they could achieve full citizenship in the U.S. polity only to the extent that they abandoned their self-governance and distanced themselves from people of African descent.

The Croatan Indians of Sampson County, North Carolina. Their Origin and Racial Status. A Plea for Separate Schools

George Edwin Butler, 1868-1941. The Croatan Indians of Sampson County, North Carolina. Their Origin and Racial Status. A Plea for Separate Schools: "The Croatan Indians of Sampson County, North Carolina. Their Origin and Racial Status. A Plea for Separate Schools:
Electronic Edition.

The digitalized book includes names of petitioners and the history of the Lumbee or Croatan Indians of this region.

This is from the web site: "Documenting the American South (DocSouth)," which includes ten thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture. Their homepage is located at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/

Racial mixtures of the Upper South

"Our Legacy:Racial mixtures of the Upper South," Columnists - HometownAnnapolis.com, By Janice Hayes-Williams, For The Capital. Published October 25, 2007. Follow link for full article.

Excerpt:
The ethnicity of many blacks in the United States and in particular Maryland can be tied to the Indian population that was removed from this area hundreds of years ago. Relations between blacks and Indians can be traced back to the 1600's with the emergence of slavery.

Excerpt:
The relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans began somewhat agreeable but diminished in less than 200 years. Because of the intermarriages of Native Americans with whites and blacks, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century racial categories evolved.

Excerpt:
In Maryland counties such as St. Mary's, Charles, Prince George's, and Calvert there were large numbers of individuals that were not of two races but three. The Catholics kept very good records and called these people Indians, partly because of were they lived. Anthropologists called them "Wesort's;" census enumerators called them mulattoes and today sociologists call them "Tri-Racial Isolates." During the 18th and 19th centuries these individuals in Maryland were also called "Free People of Color," "Free Negro" or mulatto.

Throughout the South there are numerous tri-racial isolate groups formerly enumerated as mulattoes; they are: "Brass Ankles" of South Carolina, "Guineas" of West Virginia, "Haliwas" and "Lumbees" of North Carolina, "Melungeons" of Tennessee and Kentucky, "Red Bones" of South Carolina and Louisiana and "Turks" also of South Carolina.

A few summers ago on a trip to Point Lookout here in Maryland, I had the opportunity to see one of the original muster rolls of soldiers who came from Blackistone Island in St Mary's County, now called Clements's Island. Most interesting was the fact that the men who came from Blackistone Island to fight during the Civil War listed their race not as White, Negro or mulatto, but "Griffe." Because many of these men had the last name Blackistone, I called Mr. Blackstone here in Annapolis and asked him "What in the world is a Griffe?"

He explained without hesitation that these were the people that inhabited Blackistone Island for 200 years and were of three races - European, African and Indian, a tri-racial isolate. Mr. Blackstone is a descendant of these people.