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Archiver > APG > 2003-11 > 1068341961


From: "James Brady" <>
Subject: RE: [APG] Race and Blind Spots
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003 20:41:06 -0500
In-Reply-To: <20031108192631.4207.qmail@web13407.mail.yahoo.com>


Ray said:
>I do take Jim's (since he identified
>himself) point that if you note the race is
>listed as 'B' when you expected 'W', it can
>explain why you don't recognise a person with a
>particular surname. But even then, why assume the
>families are unrelated, and that the name comes
>only from a slave adopting the master's name.

Well, actually, in my case, that is part of the reason for my having an
interest in presumed former slaves who adopted surnames of their presumed
former masters. Was it based on paternity, fondness, convenience, accepted
custom (not ruling out the possibilty that the former master wasn't
beloved).... Sadly, the hunt isn't at all easy. However, were I to find
prove of paternity in any such case I would include them in genealogical
charts. Children are children. If not, I would like to be able to give names
to the slaves shown on, say, the 1790 census. I look at compiled genealogies
for some of the families that I'm working on and no mention is made of the
householder being a slave-owner even though the census clearly shows such
ownership. Times have changed since those old genealogies were done. I'd
like to know who the slaves were and what they thought of their former
owners. Would Elizabeth call that "family color?" :) [groan]

Ray also said:
>Although actual racial intermarriage was rare
>before the latter part of twentieth century,
>there were occasional examples, especially of
>blacks who "passed" as white. And many, many
mixed race children were born without benefit of
marriage.

How rare? The baptismal record of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Athens, Greene Co., NY, contains the baptisms of six children of Pieter
Christiaanse, negro, and Elisabeth Brandemoes, from 1716 to 1736. From other
sources I find that Pieter was also called a "Madagascar" slave and that his
wife, Elisabeth, was a recently widowed white Palatine woman. All the
sponsors (godparents) were free whites.

Somebody once told me not to look at ancient things with only modern eyes. I
feel a certain wonderment when I find old records that seem to challenge our
present-day conception of how things used to be.


Jim


=====
Ray Beere Johnson II - Genealogist
279 East Central Street, Suite 259
P. O. Box 95
Franklin, Massachusetts 02038


FAX: 508-541-6788

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