Confounding the Color Line: The Indian-Black Experience in North AmericaJames Brooks Confounding the Color Line is an essential, interdisciplinary introduction to the myriad relationships forged for centuries between Indians and Blacks in North America.øSince 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
Intimacy and Empire IndianAfrican Interaction in Spanish Colonial New Mexico15001800 | 21 |
The English Has Now a Mind to Make Slaves of Them All Creeks Seminolesand the Problem of Slavery | 47 |
Colored Seamen in the New England Whaling Industry An AfroIndian Consortium | 76 |
Strategy As Lived Mixed Communities in the Age of New Nations | 108 |
The Legacy of Slavery | 135 |
Uncle Tom Was an Indian Tracing the Red in Black Slavery | 137 |
Born and Raised among These People I Dont Want to Know Any Other Slaves Acculturation in NineteenthCentury Indian Territory | 161 |
African and Cherokee by Choice Race and Resistance under Legalized Segregation | 192 |
Complicating Identities | 259 |
Blood and Culture Negotiating Race in TwentiethCentury Native New England | 261 |
A Most Secret Identity Native American Assimilation and Identity Resistance in African America | 292 |
Making Christianity Sing The Origins and Experience of Lumbee Indian and African American Church Music | 321 |
Estrangements Native American Mascots and IndianBlack Relations | 346 |
Seeing Each Other through the White Mans Eyes | 371 |
Contributors | 387 |
391 | |
Blood Politics Racial Classification and Cherokee National Identity The Trials and Tribulations of the Cherokee Freedmen | 223 |