Full Description
Confounding the Color Line is an essential, interdisciplinary introduction to the myriad relationships forged for centuries between Indians and Blacks in North America. Since the days of slavery, the lives and destinies of Indians and Blacks have been entwined-thrown together through circumstance, institutional design, or personal choice. Cultural sharing and intermarriage have resulted in complex identities for some members of Indian and Black communities today. The contributors to this volume examine the origins, history, various manifestations, and long-term consequences of the different connections that have been established between Indians and Blacks. Stimulating examples of a range of relations are offered, including the challenges faced by Cherokee freedmen, the lives of Afro-Indian whalers in New England, and the ways in which Indians and Africans interacted in Spanish colonial New Mexico. Special attention is given to slavery and its continuing legacy, both in the Old South and in Indian Territory. The intricate nature of modern Indian-Black relations is showcased through discussions of the ties between Black athletes and Indian mascots, the complex identities of Indians in southern New England, the problem of Indian identity within the African American community, and the way in which today's Lumbee Indians have creatively engaged with African American church music.
At once informative and provocative, Confounding the Color Line sheds valuable light on a pivotal and not well understood relationship between these communities of color, which together and separately have affected, sometimes profoundly, the course of American history.
Contents
List of Illustrations Introduction James F. Brooks Part 1. Forging Relations 1. Intimacy and Empire: Indian-African Interaction in Spanish Colonial New Mexico, 1500-1800 - Dedra S. McDonald 2. "The English Has Now a Mind to Make Slaves of Them All": Creeks, Seminoles, and the Problem of Slavery - Claudio Saunt 3. "Colored" Seamen in the New England Whaling Industry: An Afro-Indian Consortium - Russel Lawrence Barsh 4. Strategy As Lived: Mixed Communities in the Age of New Nations - Daniel H. Calhoun Part 2. The Legacy of Slavery 5. Uncle Tom Was an Indian: Tracing the Red in Black Slavery - Tiya Miles 6. "Born and Raised among These People, I Don't Want to Know Any Other": Slaves' Acculturation in Nineteenth-Century Indian Territory - Celia E. Naylor-Ojurongbe 7. "African and Cherokee by Choice": Race and Resistance under Legalized Segregation - Laura L. Lovett 8. Blood Politics, Racial Classification, and Cherokee National Identity: The Trials and Tribulations of the Cherokee Freedmen - Circe Sturm Part 3. Complicating Identities 9. Blood and Culture: Negotiating Race in Twentieth-Century Native New England - Ann McMullen 10. A Most Secret Identity: Native American Assimilation and Identity Resistance in African America -Ron Welburn 11. Making Christianity Sing: The Origins and Experience of Lumbee Indian and African American Church Music - Malinda Maynor 12. Estrangements: Native American Mascots and Indian-Black Relations - C. Richard KingEpilogue: Seeing Each Other through the White Man's Eyes - Valerie J. Phillips Contributors; Index
