Inspired by Cecil, here. I ask this question in the same spirit as Cecil’s reply.
Just wondering, so I tried a little research. Couldn’t find much, really, so I thought I’d toss the question to the SDMB.
While racial mixing (aka rape) probably wasn’t universal in the days of legal slavery, I understand it was pretty common. Adopting, for the moment, jim crow’s “one drop” idea, wouldn’t it be likely that many of us who’s ancestry in the US goes back to those days would qualify? Even (especially?) many of those neo-nazi folks?
One of my relatives attempted to do a family tree a few years back, and I’ve wondered ever since how we could possibly know, for sure, who sired whom way back then.
Peace,
mangeorge
snerk
facetious answer - we all come from the cradle of civilization which apparently is Africa, so the answer is yes.
facetious religious answer - we are all descended from Adam and Eve [jewish, christian and possibly muslim answer, of course] and that includes blacks, so yes, the answer is still yes because we all come from the same originating couple.
spurious historical answer - Roman legions frequently hired auxilliaries from various colonies to fill in the skill gaps, such as scythian horsemen, mauritanian slingmen and nubian spearmen…if you come from a country where the auxilliaries were from africa and could be considered black…well - dating the locals and pregancy happen, as did settling down near the fort the legion was stationed at in the later years of the empire.
Additional spurious historical answer - Rome was more or less colorblind, what mattered was your citizenship and people from the african colonies were perfectly free to move to Gaul if they chose. Both white and black romans had slaves from africa, and moved all over the empire, and where you have people, they fuck, pregnancies occur.
Overall, yes Virginia…even the most rednecked inbred Klan member has a black in the woodpile if you go back far enough.
aruvqan
I thought I was clear that my question referred to much later in our common histories. I asked if we might have some black slave ancestry. You know, in the USA.
We all know about Lucy.
Now that’s interesting. I assume that the researchers limited their sample to those who’s ancestors were in America at the time of slavery. Of course they would.
Also, the so-called one drop could have entered their tree more recently. Like maybe Grampa Bruce wasn’t grampa. That’s pretty hard to measure, though.
I’ll look at the linked site tomorrow eve. I’m sleepy.
Thanks.
I remember seeing a documentary about a genealogical investigation of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings - what struck me about it was that, along with the self-identifying black Americans who were happy to concede that they were Hemming’s and Jefferson’s descendants, there were some self-identified white Americans who had great difficulty coming to terms with the fact that this meant they had (at least one) black ancestor.
Also, maybe I’m misremembering something I read, but weren’t there several court-cases from the 1970s dealing with challenges to a State’s racial classification of the plaintiffs (i.e. they id’d as “white”, but their 1/32 of African American ancestry meant they were classified as “black”)?
:eek: When processing the news “You are a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings” the informed reacts “OMG! I’m part black???” Can you think of a more screwed up reaction?
Sally Hemings is a good example of just how race is, in so many ways, a social construct. She had three, count 'em, three white grandparents! and just one black grandparent. The kids she had with TJ had seven white great-grandparents and yet they still had to be freed by their owner. Once freed they had to leave Virginia because of State law that said “blacks” couldn’t live in that state as free residents. Seven White Great-Grandparents and they were still legally considered black!
How likely is it that someone who has seven French great-grandparents and one Dutch great-grandparent would accept being told that he is Dutch?
And yet, still today when processing the news “You are a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings” the informed reacts “OMG! I’m part black???”
Probably everyone has an ancester that was conceived “on the wrong side of the blanket” so who knows?
It looks like Colibri’s data are based on DNA analysis of some sort, and would therefore not care about whose kids were legitimate and who knew if they weren’t. And even if Grampa wasn’t actually Gramma’s husband, he was likely someone of the same race as Grampa.
I’d say the same thing, but after it I’d probably say something like:
“That is so COOL!”
But then again, I’m inordinately proud to be 1/32 Cherokee, and I think it’s fascinating that that means I could theoretically have been classified as “colored” in some southern states under the one-drop rule. Maybe I’m just easily amused.