Brass ankles
The Brass Ankles (also Redbones ) in South Carolina were an ethnic group ( Melungeon ) of the colonial times who had European, African and Indian ancestors. They lived as free colored people first in the area of Charleston County and successively in Berkeley County , Colleton County and Orangeburg County . They gradually moved their settlement areas from the South Carolina Lowcountry to the Piedmont and Frontier Areas, where racial discrimination was less of an impact. The group was not referred to by the name until the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.
history
Although the members of the group before the American Civil War "multiracial" and were free, they were after the Reconstruction of racial segregation subjected after white Democrats in the South came to power and white supremacy under the Jim Crow Laws prevailed. Until 1930 there was the category " Mulatto " in the United States Census . But then the powerful Southern Bloc pushed through a law in Congress that determined that people could only be classified as "black" or "white". Most of the southern states had also passed laws that would classify all individuals with known black ancestry as black, regardless of actual skin color. The binary classification forced people to refer to themselves as “white” or “black”, even if they had referred to themselves as “Indian” or “multiracial” for generations.
Family names used within the group were Jackson , Chavis , Bunch , Driggers , Sweat (Sweatt), Williams , Russell, and Goins . Some of these also dive with other multiracial groups such as the Melungeon in Tennessee and Lumbee in North Carolina . In the course of time, the members identified with other ethnic groups and married into them, making them "white", "black" or members of the Beaver Creek Indians .
In a section of Orangeburg County near Holly Hill (Crane Pond) there was a particularly large group of multiracial people. The term "Brass Ankles" was seen there as derogatory and was used for those who were accused of wanting to pass as "whites". However, the majority of these people had white ancestors and would have been referred to as "white" in the 19th century. The Crane Pond Community, on the other hand, retained its cultural continuity. There are many stories of their origins in their local lore.
Some of the "Brass Ankles" even belonged to the ancestors of the five "Native American Tribes" that were only recognized by the state of South Carolina in 2005, such as the Wassamassaw of the Varnertown Indians . Due to the "multiracial" -origin, including African ancestors, they were often of Census enumerator arbitrarily as mulatto classified. After 1930, when the US Census dropped the "Mulatto" classification, they were then mostly classified as "black".
Although there was always the Indian category in the US Census in the 19th century, regardless of statements to the contrary, especially towards the end of the 19th century the category was only applied to people who lived in Indian reservations or culturally in the thought schemes of the Cesus Enumerators for "Indian culture". People who were externally assimilated were generally categorized as “white”, “black” or “mulatto” depending on their appearance.
Several Brass Ankles in the Summerville, South Carolina community identified themselves as Summerville Indians . In the early 20th century, when schools were being prepared for racial segregation, the Summerville Indians and other brass ankle groups obtained government permits to set up their own schools. Because of their origins, which go back to times before the Civil War, they avoided sending their children to school with descendants of the freedmen . The Eureka "Ricka" School in Charleston County was one of those Indian schools .
religion
The Brass Ankles were mostly Baptists .
In the literature
Dubose Heyward , the author of Porgy and Bess , wrote a play about the Brass Ankles , a play about the time after the Civil War .
literature
- Celeste Ray: Ethnicity . Volume 6 by Charles Reagan Wilson: The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture , University of North Carolina, 2007, pp. 102-104
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Bo Petersen: Local tribe reclaims its roots, heritage , April 17, 2005.
Web links
- Brass Ankles of Summerville South Carolina , redbonenation.com