Great Grandmother's Blog

atlantic creoles: the answer to the riddle

 
Above are my three ancestors who self-identified as 'Moors.'  On the left, Mary A. Carney Whittingham, born in 1832 in Delaware to John (listed as 'white' on the census) and Luisa Carney (listed as 'mulatto' which in Delaware often meant 'Indian' ie Native American).  In the middle, her youngest son Joseph Whittingham, born 1879 in Pennsylvania, and on the right his daughter, my mother, Dorothea, born in 1906 in Philadelphia.

Scroll down to the 'My Delaware Moor Great-Grandmother' post to read more about my convoluted journey to discover what the 'ethnic secret' of our family was.  This secret was withheld from me because to my mother and grandmother I looked 'white' and they wanted me to grow up with a white identity.  This certainly makes a lot of sense, since I look so very white indeed!  When I first moved to Berkeley California from Philadelphia, I met a beautiful woman with huge dark eyes and the most gorgeous golden curly hair, and she told me she thought I might be 'one of our people.'  She went on to explain to me that in the pre-colonial period, European, African and Native American people encountered one another in North America, had families together - and there was plenty for everyone, no fighting, and everyone was very happy that way.  This reminded me of a very similar story my mother had also told me.  Both of them went on to say that when so many colonists, especially the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the British Isles in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries began arriving on the eastern coast, this idyllic situation began to change, and 'our people' were held in diminished repute, and often marginalized or isolated, primarily marrying in to their own communities.  This is why the villains in so many silent films and old-time dime-store literature were portrayed as dark and swarthy white men.  We were a sub-class.

At the time she told me this, however, I thought this woman was not in her right mind - making things up - because at the time, I'd more or less forgotten that my mother had told me the same story! This woman's husband got a job in Kingsport Tennessee and she did not look forward to moving there, because, she said, that area was a center for 'our people.'  Later, I realized that Kingsport is prime 'Melungeon' territory. 

Anyway, in all my subsequent searching and struggling to find out why my mother and grandmother seemed to feel my grandfather was such a special and wonderful guy, but never told me anything about him, and made only disparaging remarks about his mother (she couldn't read or write and did not speak proper English, but some kind of really antiquated dialect), leading me to believe there was some 'secret' involved here, I think I have finally come to the final destination in understanding.

These people were descendents of the Atlantic Creoles.  To me, this makes perfect sense, as my mother definitely had a Creole look and vibe to her, which I passionately loved.  The Atlantic Creoles were basically a product of the very earliest stage of the Atlantic slave trade which involved Native Americans being transported to distant places as slaves (little known fact), Africans who had been Christianized by the Portuguese and who are sometimes called Charter Generation, Free Blacks, and so on - who were often brought over and used as 'indentured servants' much like the poor white European indentured servants of colonial and pre-colonial times.  These individuals often took up housekeeping together - early clerics in America decried the lack of church-going and of legal marriages - had their families and after the massive influx of British, Scottish and (in our area) German immigrants, this group began to take on its own identity and in many regions were marginalized and excluded by the newcomers.

Atlantic Creoles are usually thought of as African-Americans, but of course even the term 'African-American' implies that there's something not African about this group - and in this case it would be the presence of both European and Native American ancestry.  Our family knew they had these connections, as both my mother and father attended something called the 'Moorish Science Temple' in Philadelphia, and had small tokens of this identity around the house: a small Moroccan flag, a crocodile letter-opener, various pieces of Tuareg jewelry and other items, indicating an African identity.  We also had Lenape textile and a basket in our home, indicating some relationship to local Native American identity.

Linda M. Heywood writes in her book, "Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585 - 1660," that on the eastern shore of then Virginia, "Many of these African-Americans came to be known as 'Indians' in the hostile racial climate of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  It was from such groups that the modern-day 'Melungeons' or the 'Nanticokes (or Moors)', 'Lumbees,' and 'Piscataway' emerged, as genealogical research has shown." (p.283)

My ancestors John and Luisa Carney first appear on the Delaware Census in the 1790's, around the time that refugees fleeing from Haiti arrived in New Orleans and the Chesapeake Bay area.  It's not known whether Luisa Carney (mulatto) was native to Delaware, or whether both may have emigrated from Haiti.  I still need to do the research on that.  It's a possibility.  This would give them Taino ancestry, which I see in my great-grandmother's face.

On the term 'Moors': "When a prize ship carrying 130 Africans arrived in Middleburg in the Netherlands in 1596, its cargo was consistently referred to as Mooren ("Moors"), the medieval European term for Africans." (p.314) However, the Dutch traders quickly switched to the term negroes, borrowing the latter term from the Portuguese.  However, our area, New Jersey, eastern Pennysylvania, and Delaware was strongly under the influence of the Dutch, so much so that Dutch ways predominated.  Heywood also talks about the heavy Dutch influence among the Atlantic Creoles of the Ramapo Mountain region in northern New Jersey, whose surnames were usually either Mann or Groot (and our family had a marriage with a Groot of northern New Jersey back in the mid-nineteenth century, and this would fit with the notion that these 'ethnic' groups tended to intermarry). Anyway Dutch influence may have cemented the use of the term 'Moors' for our 'Delaware' ancestors.  (I mark this word 'Delaware' because in fact these people spread out in a sort of diaspora throughout southeastern PA, NJ, and even as far away as Wisconsin and Canada).  Search for www.mitsawokett.com for more information.

In her book, Heywood differentiates between slavery and indentured servitude, but remarks that even the word 'slavery' in the sixteenth and seventeenth century eastern seaboard did not mean what it came to mean during the later period of plantation-slavery.  Apparently, from what I've read, there has been a rift even in the African-American community between those who identified as descendents of the 'free people of color' 'charter generation' Africans versus the later mass agricultural slave population.  But that is someone else's story.

Heywood writes, "Atlantic Creoles seem to have attained freedom remarkably easily, considering the later history of American servitude." (327)  Scholars believe that the fact that they were already Christian and already familiar with European culture facilitated their frequent manumission and subsequent success as free people.  "Both English and Dutch popular wisdom, if not law, maintained that a Christian could not hold another Christian as a slave." (p.328)

"Occasionally, mixed-raced individuals petitioned for their freedom on the basis of their upbringing among Christians.  Doll Allen, a mixed-race woman of Bermuda, claiming freedom from being a 'perpetuall slave' in 1652, asked to be set apart as 'God set a distinction between her and heathen Negroes, by providentially allotting her birth among Christians.'  Elizabeth Key lodged a similar complaint in 1656, also counting her baptism as grounds for obtaining freedom and, like Allen, Key was born of an English father."  (p.329)

I'm thinking this may be the case with my ancestors, as John Carney is listed as 'white' on the Delaware Census in the 1790's while his wife, Luisa, is listed as 'mulatto.'  I'm sorry to say I have no surname for Luisa, so cannot research her any further back.  I have heard that 'Luisa' is considered to be a popular Portuguese name in 'the new world,' and so may indicate an Atlantic Creole origin.

My DNA test showed a high percentage of African DNA, mostly North and East African, which would indicate to me sea-faring Africans, such as pirates, more than the Central and West Africans who apparently made up the original Portuguese Catholic slaves and indentured servants of the precolonial period.  And the Delaware Moors used to subscribe to a pirate origin, although now the group still living in Delaware don't want to be called Moors, and regard themselves as Indians.

Dorothea and me 1986

Thank you for reading, please address any comments to me in an email at [email protected]

jack d. forbes, red blood

I'm finally getting around to reading jack d. forbes, university of california, davis, professor of native american studies.  I'm starting with one of his scholarly books, "The American Discovery of Europe" and also his only novel, "Red Blood."  I am really impressed by the novel.  It is written in the peripatetic motif popularized in the English tradition by Smolett, but found also in that sperm-seed of western literature, Don Quixote. So, nothing much happens, there is no suspensful 'plot,' but the protagonist, Jesse, travels around and meets different people of various native american backgrounds, reflects on what he sees, and gains insight into what it means to be native american, or part-native american, at this particular juncture in time. 

It seems to me he covers every possible permutation.

It's a great loss that Jack Forbes has recently died, in February 2011, because he was clearly a man of great insight with a basically gentle attitude toward differences, a lot of love, compassion and intelligence.  A jewel.  He was of Powhatan-Renape and Lenape background, which may mean he looked more brown or more white than the popular conception of what 'Native American' looks like.  He writes a LOT about all the various shades of color and subtleties of feature found in our population.  Young white readers, in particular, (from what I've seen in the comments on blogs that deal with these issues) often find this kind of writing 'racist,' but really, it's just revealing the racism that is already there in our society, but goes unacknowledged.  There's been a fairly large acknowledgement of the racism heir to the plantation-slavery of Africans prior to the Civil War, but there is less awareness of the widespread slavery prior to the rise of the South's cotton industry.  Slavery or indentured servitude were very common throughout the thirteen colonies and early states and involved white, black and red persons, who often united in bands of community and through marriage.  Their descendents, along with the descendants of many later immigrants, form the 'unentitled' masses of America. 

For people who fall into that latter category, 'Red Blood' is a helpful book.  For people like myself, with perhaps only a smidgen of native blood but a fairly wide streak of influence from the native forbears, it is comforting to see just where these influences come from, and that we have a sort of 'right' to our beliefs and our lifestyle.  We are not simply somehow defective white people or 'anti-social' or whatever label might have been applied to us in our difference.  We are not simply 'black' Americans, either, but that is someone else's story to tell, not mine. 

For myself, to look at me, I understand why no one would credit that I am part-native american, or part African, even though my dna tests show that, and my family (barely) acknowledged it, regarding it as something too precious to share abroad, only eliciting criticism, ridicule or negativity.  Rather, our truth was like a precious pearl kept secret in a special container deep inside our home.  Anyway, I'm not going to try to convince anybody - about myself, I mean.  It will be a fairly private thing for me, and an online post doesn't really change that.

I look forward to reading more Jack Forbes and I encourage you to read him too.

familiar american story

i decided to include a rather lengthy excerpt from the preface of a book called "Native American Wives of San Juan Settlers," by Karen Jones-Lamb.  i resonated with many of the passages in this book, and i have long believed that stories very similar to these were common throughout the 'american' continent, especially in the areas of chesapeake and delaware bays where my mother's people were from.  in my opinion, this is the story of the earliest american pioneers who lived near the great bodies of water, the oceans and to a lesser extent the peripheral rivers and streams of the continent.  please, read and enjoy.

"my interest in Native American wives of the settlers of the San Juan Islands goes back to my childhood at Decatur Island.

"my father, William Jones, was 1/4 Tlingit and was fond of his mother's family; she and her siblings being 1/2 Indian as substantiated in all census records.  They resided most of their lives in this county.  Dad always talked of his 'Grandma Reed' with warmth and personal pride.

"unfortunately, I only have known those people through letters and photos and Dad's remembrances for they had all died prior to my birth.  I did know Uncle Joe Reed's wife, Auntie Ella Moore Reed, whose ancestry on her mother's side was Native American as well.  Knowing her and having me Mrs. Lemaister, a descendant of Mary Brown, a full blooded Native Americn from Lopez, gave me a real admiration for these special women.

"the most fulfilling part of my research has been visiting old friends and meeting descendants of the well-loved friends of my parents and grandparents.  Many were people I have always known of.  Some have helped identify old photos of my families and have brought to life information in old letters and autograph books by their recollections of the past.  I will never forget nor be able to repay all they have done to help me sort out my memorabilia.

"Many Native American families were connected with one another in friendship and marriage from the 1850's on into the early 1900's.  In the earliest part of the pioneer era from 1855-1885 most wives were Native American.  Many descendents of these families are still in touch with one antoher whether they reside here, on on private mainland properties or on the reservations.

"Some families were raised more in the white ways and others in the Native American traditions.  The women I have chosen to write about in Volume I have come from various islands from Waldron to Guemas and have contributed to the unique historical development of The San Juan Islands.

Native wives blended aspects of their original culture with that of the man they chose as their lifemates.  That in itself represents a markedly adaptable personality.  Most marriage survived which is a testament to the good personalities of the women.  They were beloved in their communities by their neighbors, children and grandchildren.  In my own childhood I always knew of Auntie Chadwick, who was not my aunt and Mtoher Brown who was no relation to me.  On Decatur, no one spoke of Mrs. John P. Reed or Mary Reed or Tacee Reed, (her Tlingit name) but of 'Grandmother Reed.'   By this, she was always lovingly referred to by all of the island residents.

Respect was indeed due them.  Their relationships and marriages were long lasting.  One settler whose Indian wife died decided to marry a proper and prim English girl only to quit that marriage and to look for another Native American wife.

In such difficult times, isolated from the mainland these women could make do without luxuries and could preserve and use the foods of the land and the sea and the beach.  Many of their food preparations in the realm of seafood are still used in the islands today.  Some made baskets and some could sew and others did fancy embroidery and lovely crochet work.  Many could draw.  Most could hunt with rifles and did, to help feed their families.  Many taught their daughters.  Indeed, when I think of my great aunts it amazes me that those ladies whose crocheted doilies are at my home and whose beautiful velvet autograph books and photo albums the height of femininity, grace my bedroom are also the stern rustic women in the photos standing beside a nicely hunted 2 point buck.  They were indeed unique women in a rapidly changing world.

"Most importantly, in what the great Chief Sealth called the 'change of worlds' these played vital roles in the development of The San Juan Islands.  Because despite sweeping changes in their lives they seem to have remained friends with other Native wives throughout their lives.  Some became good friends to early white wives that lived near them but even after the influx of white women after 1880 there was a cohesiveness among the Native families who had known each other for so long.

"It must have been odd for them to have lived in the natural and spiritual world of their tribes and to see th coming of the steamers and the industry, high fashion, formal homes and gardens now supplanting their canoes and longhouses and entire way of life.  In these islands especially it must have been a source of pride that their people were often times still the most reliable navigators and fishermen and fisherwomen.  Self-sufficiency belonged to them.

"It is fitting now to honor these women with one foot in each world who are so responsible for the survival of many early island husbands and children.  It is fitting to honor the love they and their husbands and children bore for each toher and the lasting contributions they have made here.

"This book will not be perfect.  It will just be an attempt to honor that love and will hopefully lead the readers to even more interest in pioneer San Juan Islanders."  (pages 1 and 2)

red cedar basket

 

I received this red cedar basket in the mail yesterday from my friend, artist Mary Snowden of Anacortes, Washington, ceremonial weaver and sculptor.  I had commissioned the basket and requested a dragonfly theme, because of a very early dragonfly experience i had myself at about age five that has stayed with me.  i was standing back in the marshes, where i was not supposed to go alone, of course, and was visited by a very large, camoflage-colored dragonfly with heavily netted wings.  He perched on my upper arm, covering almost the entire length of it, and I had no idea what it was.  It was a sort of alien-encounter for me, and I was terrified. We stood that way together for what seemed forever.  I finally closed my eyes and prayed that it would go away, and when I opened my eyes it was gone.  I felt relieved, but kind of missed it too.  It was a sort of heightened experience of the marshes and of nature in that environment, and of the deep mysteriousness and terror of life.  my mother felt a deep reverence for the marshes, which i feel is a value handed down from our native ancestress.

Here is what Mary wrote to me about the basket: 

"Dragonfly and the Four Directions" basket 2010

(Red Cedar Bark, Raffia, Dentailium shells (a symbol of wealth and memory, precontact, on the NW Coast here it was First Peoples trade 'money'), Green Wooden Beads, Fire polished Glass, Carnelian Beads, Mother of Pearl Beads, Glass Beads, Trade Beads.) 

"The Dragonfly is an ally through mysterious times and will show us the way through illusion, and lead us ultimately to our own inner truths.  Dragonfly medicine is very important. Dragonfly's can be found on every continent of our Mother Earth.  They are a precious part of our Mother Earth's gift to us as one of our winged significant teachers and helpers.  Thank you Dragonfly.

"Red Cedar Bark is sacred and essentially priceless.  Not every cedar tree can be gathered from, making it rarer.  Then after the bark is gathered traditionally ( a good hike in the forest), it sets for one year.  Then the process of slowly paring it both horizontally, and vertically begins.

"The cedar is very powerful when gathered from a living tree, which continues to live, and essentially, your basket is alive.  There is a saying here on the Northwest Coast in Indian Country, "Be good to your cedar, and your cedar will be good to you" It is the considered the most sacred 'powe/healing' element here in the NW, and cedar storage boxes are used to house ceremonial items.  It is also is the symbol of Red face Paint (the healers). The inner bark of the red tree can only be separated from the tree, only a few weeks of the year.  Any other time, it is solid wood, with no divisions in its tree Cambrian.  During this special time, it separates itself for the people.  It is highly revered."

I found what Mary wrote about the dragonfly to be very meaningful.  i've read quite a few 'takes' on the dragonfly's medicine, but this one certainly rings true to me, and has been proved out in my life as I approach sixty.  An interesting age for this basket to come to my home.

 

into the wilderness, by sara donati

Just want to note a series of historical novels by sara donati that chronicle (fictionally) the many people of early new york state, including native americans and white 'adopted' natives, and part-native 'myxt' people that parallel the people of our area who used to be called (possibly pejoratively) 'delaware moors.'

The first novel is titled 'Into the Wilderness' and is set in the late 18th century, and features British, Scottish, German, French, Mahican and Mohawk peoples.

Her story-telling is engaging, her settings beautiful - it's a book to lose yourself in, making for great winter reading.