IllmaticDelta
Veteran
the people I was refering to aren't "noted" because they don't identify with a sub ethnicity to bring attention to themselves. Now, the types who might call themselves "Black Indians", "Lumbee" or "Melungeon" are Afram connected and their identity (exclusively indian or dual afram-indian) depends on the region and/or subgroup on how much they're associated to Aframs
North "Black Indian" groups.
What was it like to write the screenplay about the African Burial Ground?
It was a lot of hard work, but I actually enjoyed it because, again, it's the family interest. I had an opportunity to tell the story about how Africans had helped to build New York, which was something that was totally missing from New York history books. The discovery of this burial ground was really proof that Africans had been here, not just a few, but -- you may know the burial ground was about five to six acres in size, and they estimated about 20,000 men, women, and children were buried there. So for me to be able to help correct the history of the city of New York, it was a lot of hard work, but it was very gratifying, one of the most gratifying experiences of my life.
It was difficult for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was finding images of the Africans. I think one of the most difficult aspects of putting this documentary together was collecting the illustrations of enslaved Africans at work. But I found a wonderful artist by the name of Charles Lilley, and his illustrations are used throughout the documentary. I gave him illustrations of Europeans at work, and through those early illustrations we basically were able to indicate the manner in which Africans did their work. And that work, in New York, was clearing the land, clearing the roads. Broadway then was actually a narrow Native American trail that the Africans had to widen. Greenwich Village, in the 17th century, was made up of farms. So getting the illustrations to help people understand the lives of the workers was really the most difficult part.
Did you find any of your family inside the burial ground?
No. I tried to find documentation, and I now maintain that I have a reason to believe, and a belief beyond reason, that I had family in that African Burial Ground. But, no, I do not have documentary evidence of that.
What relationship did the Native Americans have with the African Americans?
You came to the right guy. It's an interesting relationship that Native Americans and African Americans have, because many of the first Africans who were brought here as slaves intermarried with the Native Americans. Many of them ran away. A lot of the slave runaways went to Native American communities throughout the East Coast. That's why today if you meet the Native Americans from Maine -- the Mi'kmaq, the Narragansett, the Pequot, the Ramapough, the Shinnecock, the Powhatan -- and all the way up to the northeastern seaboard, they're usually identified as "black Indians" because they have intermarried with Africans as well as with Europeans.
My family history is the Lenape [Native Americans] who intermarried with the first Africans and some of the first Dutch. My great-great-grandfather was Samuel DeFreese -- my mother's name was DeFreese, that's a Dutch name. Some others in the family were named de Groot and van Dunk, and, basically, they are the descendants of the Lenape who were here for thousands of years. And so when the Africans and the Dutch arrived in the 1600s, in my family they didn't just fight, they also married. And so that's the legacy of this particular family.
Teaching Multicultural Literature . Workshop 6 . Authors and Literary Works . Interview
These areas are historically known for "Black Indians" in the North
We Still Live Here: Black Indians of Wampanoag and African Heritage.
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the South
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edit just checked that link....most are the mayos featured are predominately to pure Anglo and make La Creoles look like Gullah by comparison
Anglo blood vs Franco
2) those Mid to South Atlantic negros aint specialwherever there are AAs you will find a notable but minority ligthskin black populaiton
Mid atlantic down to the Carolinas was unique
3) you still have yet to establish a notable equivalent to Louisiana Creoles
I just explained to you that the random areas of nothing but light skinned aframs isn't the same as La Creoles because they don't identify by a sub label...which is why you never heard of the light skinned Ohio people I posted. A better equivalent because of the sub labels would be the "black indian" groups
For example
PenderROCK > 'PenderROCK'?
first of all ouside of maybe Seminole lands free black people during slavery times in the whole South were few and far between and despised by the cac community(including women) whom most likely were looking for a reason/opportunity to put whom they deemed uppidity negros back in chains but i'm really supposed to believe maybe a few dozen free bedbucks in Antebellum South era NC and VA were able to cream pie harems white women and create a notable populations of admxied North Carolinian and Virginians
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I know my history Opey and so do most AAs which is why i'm not so easy to sway by your whitewashing and Eurocenetric perversion of Afram history..
