Black Dutch
Encyclopedia
Black Dutch is a term with several different meanings in United States dialect and slang. It generally refers to racial, ethnic, or cultural roots. Its meaning has varied in different parts of the nation and at different times. Several varied groups of people have adopted the term "Black Dutch," most often as a reference to their ancestors.
Black Dutch is an American ethnic designation that is not officially used. It often occurs as part of family lore passed down in certain Southeastern families of mixed-race ancestry, especially those of Cherokee
descent. In common usage, it generally did not imply African admixture, although some families who used the term were of tri-racial descent.
soldiers and Dutch women (traditionally with fair hair) during the Spanish occupation of the Low Lands in the 16th century. Some such Dutch descendants came to the North American colonies, where they appear to have been described as Portuguese
in colonial Virginia and Carolina records. This term also came to be used by mixed-race residents of European and African descent, as a way of explaining their variations in physical appearance and being more easily accepted by European-American neighbors.
Sephardic Jewish merchants from Spain and Portugal settled in the Dutch Republic
following their expulsion from the Iberia
n nations and the Netherlands
' gaining independence in the 16th century. They called themselves gente del linaje "People of the (Jewish) lineage", or homens da nação, "Men of the (Jewish-Portuguese) Nation". The Amsterdam
chief rabbi
, Menasseh Ben Israel
, gained approval of Oliver Cromwell
's government to readmit Jews
to England in the mid-17th century. Many Sephardic Jews migrated from the Netherlands to settle in England, where some became prominent businessmen and professionals. Some migrated from there to the North American colonies, settling in such southern cities as Richmond, Virginia
and Charleston, South Carolina
, as well as Newport, Rhode Island
; Boston
, New York
and Philadelphia.
Like other English and European men in the American South, some Sephardic (and German) Jews had liaisons with enslaved
African or free women of color
, with resulting mixed-race children. In some cases, the men had extended common-law marriages and provided support and education for their children, as did David Isaacs in Charlottesville, Virginia
in his long life with Nancy West. In other cases, they abandoned the women and children before going on to marry officially, often to Jewish women. This was the case with Baron Judah, the grandfather of the abolitionist Robert Purvis
.
” are the descendants of German immigrants who came to Pennsylvania
prior to 1800, and not from the Republic of the United Provinces.
The term "Dutch" also acquired a wider meaning. According to researcher James Pylant, based on his extensive survey of American families claiming "Black Dutch" as part of their heritage:
Historically, mixed-race European-American Indian and sometimes full blood
Indian families of the South adopted the terms "Black Dutch", and to a lesser extent, Black Irish
, first in Virginia
, North Carolina
, and Tennessee
. The practice of Cherokees' identifying as "Black Dutch" originated during and after the 1830s Indian Removal
era. They used this term to explain their dark looks and to avoid being removed to Indian Territory
or stigmatized by Anglo-American society.
One of the earliest Cherokee recorded as having been called "Dutch" was Tah-Chee, who died in 1848. He was known both as "Dutch," and "Captain William Dutch" -- and noted as such when his portrait was published in the 1837 book Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney (1785–1859) and James Hall (1793–1868). Dutch was a revered Cherokee chief
and talented hunter. Trying to escape the forced removal to Indian Territory
, he led his people to Texas
. There he acquired a significant amount of land for his tribe along the Canadian River
in Texas after fighting against the Osage
and Comanche
tribes of the territory. After he and his warriors were defeated by U.S. government forces, Tah-Chee was forced to move to the Indian Territory
, later known as the state of Oklahoma
.
Some Native Americans, mainly Cherokee
, but also Choctaw
, Chickasaw
, Creek, and other tribal people, sometimes claimed "Black Dutch" or "Black Irish" heritage to purchase land in areas which United States treaties and other laws had reserved for people of European descent. Once they owned the land, such families who had escaped forced removal during the Trail of Tears era would not admit to their heritage, for fear the property would be taken away from them.
The following explanation of the terms "Black Dutch" and "Black Irish" is displayed on the wall of the Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum
in Lawrence County
, Alabama
:
(also spelled “Melungin”) in U.S. records occurs in the minutes of the Primitive Baptist Church of Stony Creek, eastern Tennessee
, in 1813. It was used to describe certain “irregular” members with the surnames Minor, Gibson, and Collins. (These have come to be considered core Melungeon surnames.) The meaning and origin of the term Melungeon have been debated. Years later, these and other families who clustered around Newmans Ridge in Hancock County, Tennessee were labeled as Melungeon by a Nashville journalist
named Drumgoole in 1890. The term was widely used.
She was a descendant of Alexander Drumgoole (d. 1837), a Scots-Irish trader among the Cherokee. He had a Cherokee wife. Their mixed-race daughter Nannie the Pain married Cherokee chief
Doublehead (d. Aug. 9, 1807). The journalist Drumgoole is credited with popularizing many elements of the Melungeon legend at a time when her cohorts among New York travel writers were inventing “hillbillies.”
Recent DNA analysis, as documented in the Melungeon DNA Project
whose coordinator is Jack Goins, has shown most individuals are of European and African descent. This is a confirmation of historic documentation compiled, analyzed and summarized in Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware. Late 20th century research by Paul Heinegg and Dr. Virginia DeMarce found that eighty percent of people listed as free people of color in censuses from 1790-1810 in North Carolina, could be traced back to African Americans free in Virginia in colonial times. Most of these families were descended from unions between white women (whose status made their children free) and African men of the working classes: free, indentured servants and slaves. As noted above, they more often have English or Scots-Irish surnames than those of German or Dutch origin.
, Arkansas
, Mississippi
, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma, where its original meaning became lost. Many people born in the 20th century have claimed Black Dutch heritage, sometimes in addition to Native heritage, without having any idea who their "Black Dutch" ancestors were. Most of the mixed-race "Black Dutch" families of the South have English or Scots-Irish surnames, and have no German or Dutch ancestry in their families.
Black Dutch is an American ethnic designation that is not officially used. It often occurs as part of family lore passed down in certain Southeastern families of mixed-race ancestry, especially those of Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
descent. In common usage, it generally did not imply African admixture, although some families who used the term were of tri-racial descent.
Dutch and Sephardic Jewish colonists
The term "Black Dutch" first appears in U.S. colonial history as a reference to people from the Netherlands of dark black appearance. In the Netherlands, the term Black Dutch was used for the descendants (usually illegitimate) of SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
soldiers and Dutch women (traditionally with fair hair) during the Spanish occupation of the Low Lands in the 16th century. Some such Dutch descendants came to the North American colonies, where they appear to have been described as Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
in colonial Virginia and Carolina records. This term also came to be used by mixed-race residents of European and African descent, as a way of explaining their variations in physical appearance and being more easily accepted by European-American neighbors.
Sephardic Jewish merchants from Spain and Portugal settled in the Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
following their expulsion from the Iberia
Iberia
The name Iberia refers to three historical regions of the old world:* Iberian Peninsula, in Southwest Europe, location of modern-day Portugal and Spain** Prehistoric Iberia...
n nations and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
' gaining independence in the 16th century. They called themselves gente del linaje "People of the (Jewish) lineage", or homens da nação, "Men of the (Jewish-Portuguese) Nation". The Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
chief rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, Menasseh Ben Israel
Menasseh Ben Israel
Manoel Dias Soeiro , better known by his Hebrew name Menasseh Ben Israel , was a Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, scholar, writer, diplomat, printer and publisher, founder of the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam in...
, gained approval of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's government to readmit Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
to England in the mid-17th century. Many Sephardic Jews migrated from the Netherlands to settle in England, where some became prominent businessmen and professionals. Some migrated from there to the North American colonies, settling in such southern cities as Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
and Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, as well as Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
; Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Philadelphia.
Like other English and European men in the American South, some Sephardic (and German) Jews had liaisons with enslaved
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
African or free women of color
Free people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
, with resulting mixed-race children. In some cases, the men had extended common-law marriages and provided support and education for their children, as did David Isaacs in Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
in his long life with Nancy West. In other cases, they abandoned the women and children before going on to marry officially, often to Jewish women. This was the case with Baron Judah, the grandfather of the abolitionist Robert Purvis
Robert Purvis
Robert Purvis was an African-American abolitionist in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, educated at Amherst College, and lived most of his life in Philadelphia. Purvis and his brothers were three-quarters European by ancestry and inherited considerable wealth from...
.
Swarthy Germans
As English-speaking colonists were not used to saying the word Deutsche (German), they anglicized it to “Dutch.” For example, the people called “Pennsylvania DutchPennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
” are the descendants of German immigrants who came to Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
prior to 1800, and not from the Republic of the United Provinces.
The term "Dutch" also acquired a wider meaning. According to researcher James Pylant, based on his extensive survey of American families claiming "Black Dutch" as part of their heritage:
- "There are strong indications that the original "Black Dutch" were swarthy-complexioned Germans. Anglo-Americans loosely applied the term to any dark-complexioned American of European descent. The term was adopted [by some people] as an attempt to disguise IndianIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
or infrequently, tri-racial descent. By the mid-1800s the term had become an American colloquialismColloquialismA colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
; a derogative term for anything denoting one's small stature, dark coloring, working-class status, political sentiments, or anyone of foreign extract. In contrast to the Anglo-surnamed MelungeonMelungeonMelungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...
s, nearly 60% of American families reporting Black Dutch tradition bear surnames that are either decidedly German or possibly Americanized from Germanic origin."
Native Americans "passing" for white
Blood quantum laws
Blood Quantum Laws or Indian Blood Laws is an umbrella term that describes legislation enacted in the United States to define membership in Native American tribes or nations...
Indian families of the South adopted the terms "Black Dutch", and to a lesser extent, Black Irish
Black Irish
Black Irish is an ambiguous term used mainly outside of Ireland. Over the course of history, it has been subject to several distinctive ascriptions, including religious affiliation and poverty. Modern traditionalists, however, maintain the term to be synonymous with a dark-haired phenotype...
, first in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. The practice of Cherokees' identifying as "Black Dutch" originated during and after the 1830s Indian Removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
era. They used this term to explain their dark looks and to avoid being removed to Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
or stigmatized by Anglo-American society.
One of the earliest Cherokee recorded as having been called "Dutch" was Tah-Chee, who died in 1848. He was known both as "Dutch," and "Captain William Dutch" -- and noted as such when his portrait was published in the 1837 book Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney (1785–1859) and James Hall (1793–1868). Dutch was a revered Cherokee chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
and talented hunter. Trying to escape the forced removal to Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, he led his people to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. There he acquired a significant amount of land for his tribe along the Canadian River
Canadian River
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and most of Oklahoma....
in Texas after fighting against the Osage
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
and Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
tribes of the territory. After he and his warriors were defeated by U.S. government forces, Tah-Chee was forced to move to the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, later known as the state of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Some Native Americans, mainly Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
, but also Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
, Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
, Creek, and other tribal people, sometimes claimed "Black Dutch" or "Black Irish" heritage to purchase land in areas which United States treaties and other laws had reserved for people of European descent. Once they owned the land, such families who had escaped forced removal during the Trail of Tears era would not admit to their heritage, for fear the property would be taken away from them.
The following explanation of the terms "Black Dutch" and "Black Irish" is displayed on the wall of the Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum
Oakville, Alabama
Oakville is a small community located in the southeast corner of Lawrence County, Alabama. The community is unincorporated. The community has two parks, one dedicated to 20th-century African-American athlete Jesse Owens and the other to Middle Woodland period and Cherokee Native Americans.The...
in Lawrence County
Lawrence County, Alabama
Lawrence County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is included in the Decatur Metropolitan Area, as well as the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. It was named after James Lawrence, a captain in the United States Navy from New Jersey. As of the 2010 census, the population was...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
:
Before the Indian Removal Act in 1830, many of Lawrence County's Cherokee people were already mixed with white settlers and stayed in the country of the Warrior Mountains. They denied their ancestry and basically lived much of their lives in fear of being sent West. Full bloods claimed to be Black Irish or Black Dutch, thus denying their rightful Indian blood. After being fully assimilated into the general population years later, these Irish Cherokee mixed-blood descendants, began reclaiming their Indian heritage in the land of the Warrior Mountains, Lawrence County, Alabama. During the 1900 U.S. Census only 78 people claimed their Indian heritage. In 1990, more than 2000 individuals claimed Indian descent. Today more than 4000 citizens are proud to claim their Indian heritage and are members of the Echota Cherokee tribe.
Melungeon
The first known appearance of the word MelungeonMelungeon
Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...
(also spelled “Melungin”) in U.S. records occurs in the minutes of the Primitive Baptist Church of Stony Creek, eastern Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, in 1813. It was used to describe certain “irregular” members with the surnames Minor, Gibson, and Collins. (These have come to be considered core Melungeon surnames.) The meaning and origin of the term Melungeon have been debated. Years later, these and other families who clustered around Newmans Ridge in Hancock County, Tennessee were labeled as Melungeon by a Nashville journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
named Drumgoole in 1890. The term was widely used.
She was a descendant of Alexander Drumgoole (d. 1837), a Scots-Irish trader among the Cherokee. He had a Cherokee wife. Their mixed-race daughter Nannie the Pain married Cherokee chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
Doublehead (d. Aug. 9, 1807). The journalist Drumgoole is credited with popularizing many elements of the Melungeon legend at a time when her cohorts among New York travel writers were inventing “hillbillies.”
Recent DNA analysis, as documented in the Melungeon DNA Project
Melungeon DNA Project
The Melungeon DNA Project is a genetic study of people who have Melungeon ancestors mostly in Hancock County, Tennessee and nearby areas of Kentucky according to historic records. Participants' genealogical suitability for inclusion is determined by a group of Melungeon researchers. The study was...
whose coordinator is Jack Goins, has shown most individuals are of European and African descent. This is a confirmation of historic documentation compiled, analyzed and summarized in Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware. Late 20th century research by Paul Heinegg and Dr. Virginia DeMarce found that eighty percent of people listed as free people of color in censuses from 1790-1810 in North Carolina, could be traced back to African Americans free in Virginia in colonial times. Most of these families were descended from unions between white women (whose status made their children free) and African men of the working classes: free, indentured servants and slaves. As noted above, they more often have English or Scots-Irish surnames than those of German or Dutch origin.
Black Dutch in the Midwest and Deep South
Over time, the term "Black Dutch" migrated with certain families of mixed ancestry from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee to MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma, where its original meaning became lost. Many people born in the 20th century have claimed Black Dutch heritage, sometimes in addition to Native heritage, without having any idea who their "Black Dutch" ancestors were. Most of the mixed-race "Black Dutch" families of the South have English or Scots-Irish surnames, and have no German or Dutch ancestry in their families.
German Gypsies
German Gypsies (Roma people) are also known as Black Dutch. There is some overlap in surnames between present-day Gypsies and United States families with a "Black Dutch" tradition.Ramapo Mountain People
Black Dutch has also been used for a community living in the highlands of northern New Jersey. The term Ramapo Mountain People is often encountered although they may prefer to be referred to by the ethnonym Ramapo Mountain Indians.External links
- Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G., "In Search of the Black Dutch", Ancestry.com
- "Gypsies" in the United States", Migrations, Smithsonian Institution
- Linda D. Griggs, "Wayfaring Stranger"
- Linda D. Griggs, "Wayfaring Strangers: The Black Dutch, German Gypsies, or Chicanere, and their relation to the Melungeon", Part 1
- Linda Griggs, "Wayfaring Strangers", Part 2
- Black Dutch
- Black Dutch Group