#freedmen lands

[ausetkmt]

Ga. islanders vow to keep fighting change favoring rich buyers

DARIEN, Ga. - Descendants of enslaved people living on a Georgia island vowed to keep fighting after county commissioners voted to double the maximum size of homes allowed in their tiny enclave.

Residents fear the move will accelerate the decline of one of the South’s few surviving Gullah-Geechee communities.

An aspect of the ordinance that residents take issue with is the fact that it erases a clause about protecting the island’s indigenous history.

During public meetings leading up to the vote, the zoning board proposed changes to the ordinance of lowering the newly allowed home size and removing talk of golf courses being added to the island.

Black residents of the Hogg Hummock community on Sapelo Island and their supporters packed a meeting of McIntosh County’s elected commissioners to oppose zoning changes that residents say favor wealthy buyers and will lead to tax increases that could pressure them to sell their land.

ISLAND’S HERITAGE

Gullah-Geechee communities like Hogg Hummock are scattered along the Southeast coast from North Carolina to Florida, where they have endured since their enslaved ancestors were freed by the Civil War. Scholars say these people long separated from the mainland retained much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.

Regardless, commissioners voted 3-2 to weaken zoning restrictions the county adopted nearly three decades ago with the stated intent to help Hogg Hummock’s 30 to 50 residents hold on to their land.

Yolanda Grovner, 54, of Atlanta said she has long planned to retire on land her father, an island native, owns in Hogg Hummock. She left the county courthouse Tuesday night wondering if that will ever happen.

“It’s going to be very, very difficult,” Grovner said. She added: “I think this is their way of pushing residents off the island.”

Hogg Hummock is one of just a few surviving communities in the South of people known as Gullah, or Geechee, in Georgia, whose ancestors worked island slave plantations.

MORE | Mom in Grovetown calls cops on U.S. energy secretary’s staff

Fights with the local government are nothing new to residents and landowners. Dozens successfully appealed staggering property tax hikes in 2012, and residents spent years fighting the county in federal court for basic services such as firefighting equipment and trash collection before county officials settled last year.

“We’re still fighting all the time,” said Maurice Bailey, a Hogg Hummock native whose mother, Cornelia Bailey, was a celebrated storyteller and one of Sapelo Island’s most prominent voices before her death in 2017. “They’re not going to stop. The people moving in don’t respect us as people. They love our food, they love our culture. But they don’t love us.”

Merden Hall, who asked not to be on camera, has lived on Sapelo his whole life. He says he’s worried about the sizes of homes now allowed on the island.

“I’m not comfortable with this. They approved the 3,000 square feet, that’s the only thing I disapprove of, because that’s going to raise property taxes,” he said.

Hogg Hummock’s population has been shrinking in recent decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes. New construction has caused tension over how large those homes can be.

Commissioners on Tuesday raised the maximum size of a home in Hogg Hummock to 3,000 square feet of total enclosed space. The previous limit was 1,400 square feet of heated and air-conditioned space.

Commissioner Davis Poole, who supported loosening the size restriction, said it would allow “a modest home enabling a whole family to stay under one roof.”

“The commissioners are not out to destroy the Gullah-Geechee culture or erase the history of Sapelo,” Poole said. “We’re not out to make more money for the county.”

Commission Chairman David Stevens, who said he’s been visiting Sapelo Island since the 1980s, blamed Hogg Hummock’s changing landscape on native owners who sold their land.

“I don’t need anybody to lecture me on the culture of Sapelo Island,” Stevens said, adding: “If you don’t want these outsiders, if you don’t want these new homes being built ... don’t sell your land.”

County officials have argued that size restrictions based on heated and cooled spaced proved impossible to enforce. County attorney Adam Poppell said more than a dozen homes in Hogg Hummock appeared to violate the limits, and in some cases homeowners refused to open their doors to inspectors.

Hogg Hummock landowner Richard Banks equated that to the county letting lawbreakers make the rules.

“If everybody wants to exceed the speed limit, should we increase the speed limits for all the speeders?” Banks said.

Hogg Hummock residents said they were blindsided when the county unveiled its proposed zoning changes on Aug. 16. Commissioners in July had approved sweeping zoning changes throughout McIntosh County, but had left Hogg Hummock alone.

Commissioner Roger Lotson, the only Black member of the county commission, voted against the changes and warned his colleagues that he fears they will end up back in court for rushing them.

Two attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center sat in the front row. Attorney Anjana Joshi said they had “due process and equal protection concerns” about the way the zoning ordinance was amended.

“In our view, this was not done correctly,” said Joshi, who added: “We’re just getting started.”

Located about 60 miles south of Savannah, Sapelo Island remains separated from the mainland and reachable only by boat. Since 1976, the state of Georgia has owned most of its 30 square miles of largely unspoiled wilderness. Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, sits on less than a square mile.

Hogg Hummock earned a place in 1996 on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the United States’ treasured historic sites. But for protections to preserve the community, residents depend on the local government in McIntosh County, where 65% of the 11,100 residents are white.

[800-dick-pics]

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

Consider helping an Afro Indigenous and reneconnecting Nahua lesbian couple!!!

Things have been really tight for us, my partners mother passed, and I dont have the resources to start working again (outside of selling art).

We have been dipping in and out of the negatives, so if anyone would like to redistribute some funds so we can get out of the negatives and get some groceries that would rock!

$150 goal!

CA: $sleepyhen

VN: wildwotko

[reasoningdaily]

The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862

There is granted to the several States, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned in this subchapter, an amount of public land, to be apportioned to each State a quantity equal to thirty thousand acres for each Senator and Representative in Congress to which the States are respectively entitled by the apportionment under the census of 1860: Provided, That no mineral lands shall be selected or purchased under the provisions of said sections.

(July 2, 1862, ch. 130, § 1, 12 Stat. 503.)

7 U.S. Code Chapter 13 - AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGES

SUBCHAPTER I—COLLEGE-AID LAND APPROPRIATION (§§ 301 – 309)

SUBCHAPTER II—COLLEGE-AID ANNUAL APPROPRIATION (§§ 321 – 329)

SUBCHAPTER III—RETIREMENT OF EMPLOYEES (§ 331)

SUBCHAPTER IV—AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION WORK APPROPRIATION (§§ 341 – 349)

§ 301. Land grant aid of colleges

§ 302. Method of apportionment and selection; issuance of land scrip

§ 303. Management expenses paid by State

§ 304. Investment of proceeds of sale of land or scrip

§ 305. Conditions of grant

§ 306. Repealed. Dec. 16, 1930, ch. 14, § 1, 46 Stat. 1028

§ 307. Fees for locating land scrip

§ 308. Reports by State governors of sale of scrip

§ 309. Land grants in the State of North Dakota

[houghtonlib]

"Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation and Freedom" is a project from Houghton Library to make primary sources on African-American history freely accessible to all.

United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. [Circulars, etc., issued by the commissioner of the bureau of refugees]. Galveston [Texas], 1865-1868.

55-12

Houghton Library, Harvard University

[elwenyere]

Black Americans have been demanding compensation and restitution for their suffering since the end of the Civil War. 40 Acres and a Mule remains the nation’s most famous attempt to provide some form of reparations for American slavery. Today, it is largely remembered as a broken promise and an abandoned step toward multiracial democracy. Less known is that the federal government actually did issue hundreds, perhaps thousands, of titles to specific plots of land between 4 and 40 acres. Freedmen and women built homes, established local governments, and farmed the land. But their utopia didn’t last long. After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his successor, Andrew Johnson, stripped property from formerly enslaved Black residents across the South and returned it to their past enslavers. Over the course of two and a half years, a team of Public Integrity reporters, editors, and researchers identified 1,250 Black men and women who had earned land as reparations after the Civil War. From there, the team conducted genealogical research to locate living descendants of many of those who had received and then lost the land. For the first time, these living Black Americans were made aware of the specific land that had been given to and then taken away from their ancestors. This project is an unprecedented and innovative use of Freedmen’s Bureau records—an impossible task for most of American history, until recent advances in genealogical research and the digitization of thousands of pages of Reconstruction-era documents made it feasible.

"Forty Acres and a Lie": incredible work in investigative journalism from Reveal

[odinsblog]

Special Field Orders, No. 15 (series 1865) were military orders issued during the American Civil War, on January 16, 1865, by General William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi of the United States Army. They provided for the confiscation of 400,000 acres (160,000 ha) of land along the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and the dividing of it into parcels of not more than 40 acres (16 ha), on which were to be settled approximately 18,000 formerly enslaved families and other black people then living in the area.

The orders were issued following Sherman's March to the Sea. They were intended to address the immediate problem of dealing with the tens of thousands of black refugees who had joined Sherman's march in search of protection and sustenance, and “to assure the harmony of action in the area of operations.” Critics allege that his intention was for the order to be a temporary measure to address an immediate problem, and not to grant permanent ownership of the land to the freedmen, although most of the recipients assumed otherwise. General Sherman issued his orders four days after meeting with twenty local black ministers and lay leaders and with U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in Savannah, Georgia. Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton, an abolitionist from Massachusetts who had previously organized the recruitment of black soldiers for the Union Army, was put in charge of implementing the orders. Freedmen were settled in Georgia, particularly along the Savannah River, in the Ogeechee district of Chatham County, and on islands off of the coast of Savannah.

In the end, the orders had little concrete effect because President Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation that returned the lands to southern owners who took a loyalty oath. Johnson granted amnesty to most former Confederates and allowed the rebel states to elect new governments. These governments, which often included ex-Confederate officials, soon enacted black codes, measures designed to control and repress the recently freed slave population. General Saxton and his staff at the Charleston SC Freedmen Bureau's office refused to carry out President Johnson's wishes and denied all applications to have lands returned. In the end, Johnson and his allies removed General Saxton and his staff, but not before Congress was able to provide legislation to assist some families in keeping their lands.

Although mules are not mentioned in the orders, they were a main source for the expression “forty acres and a mule.” A historical marker commemorating the order was erected by the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, near the corner of Harris and Bull streets, in Madison Square. (source)

👉🏿 40 Acres & A Lie (podcast)

[whencyclopedia]

Trade in the Roman World

Regional, inter-regional and international trade was a common feature of the Roman world. A mix of state control and a free market approach ensured goods produced in one location could be exported far and wide. Cereals, wine and olive oil, in particular, were exported in huge quantities whilst in the other direction came significant imports of precious metals, marble, and spices.

Factors Driving Trade

Generally speaking, as with earlier and contemporary civilizations, the Romans gradually developed a more sophisticated economy following the creation of an agricultural surplus, population movement and urban growth, territorial expansion, technology innovation, taxation, the spread of coinage, and not insignificantly, the need to feed the great city of Rome itself and supply its huge army wherever it might be on campaign.

The economy in the Roman world displayed features of both underdevelopment and high achievement. Elements of the former, some historians have argued (notably M.I.Finley), are:

an over-dependence on agriculture

a slow diffusion of technology

the high level of local town consumption rather than regional trade

a low level of investment in industry.

However, there is also evidence that from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE there was a significant rise in the proportion of workers involved in the production and services industries and greater trade between regions in essential commodities and manufactured goods. In the later empire period, although trade in the east increased - stimulated by the founding of Constantinople - trade in the western empire declined.

The Roman attitude to trade was somewhat negative, at least from the higher classes. Land ownership and agriculture were highly regarded as a source of wealth and status but commerce and manufacturing were seen as a less noble pursuit for the well-off. However, those rich enough to invest often overcame their scruples and employed slaves, freedmen, and agents (negotiatores) to manage their business affairs and reap the often vast rewards of commercial activity.

Continue reading...

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Wendell Phillips! (November 29, 1811)

An abolitionist and advocate for Native peoples, Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, Massachusetts as the son of the city's first Mayor. Working for a time as a lawyer, he resigned from his practice to devote himself wholeheartedly to the cause of abolitionism, coming to be known as "abolition's golden trumpet" for his skill in rhetoric. From 1850 to 1865, he was considered among America's leading abolitionists. Following the Civil War, Phillips turned his attention to securing the rights of women, Native people, and freedmen, arguing for land reform and redistribution in the South and for the land claims of Native peoples. He died in 1884.

[thechanelmuse]

How genealogy is used to track Black family histories

Our names are important to us. They tell us who we are and often, who we come from. So imagine suddenly discovering the last name you’ve always carried… might not actually be the name you should have. 

Alex Neason began looking into her family’s history after discovering her great grandfather’s name was different from what she believed for her whole life. In her search to discover the story of that last name, she enlisted genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith.

For Black Americans, genealogy can fill in the blanks left by the legacy of slavery and racism in the U.S. Services like the Freedmen’s Bureau and Slave Voyages provide free access to records and documents to help with that search. We talk about the power of genealogy in fostering knowledge and connection for Black Americans.

Source

If you click on the word “source,” it’ll take you to the article where you’ll see a LISTEN button. It’s a 30-minute audio that discusses the info provided in the article even further. Y’all know I’m big on getting people to trace their lineage. All that “we don’t know where we come from.” Who told you that? Everything in the US is in plain sight. Everything.

Discover your fam. 

I assist others when they reach a roadblock, like getting past the “1870 wall.” But you can’t beat the feeling of you discovering them on your own. Unearthing your history, seeing photos, reading stories that were stored, and saying their names that haven’t been said for centuries. I’ve been tracing mine (scanning, logging) since my family reunion in 2005 through oral family history and obituaries (those are records), and since 2011 through databases of US archived records like ancestry.com (purchased by BlackStone) and familysearch.org (free database owned by the Latter-day Saints Church). There are others, but those are the main two I use for comparative results.  

Archiving Centers, Census Records & Other Records

There are archiving centers in every state and DC that also keep records for those particular states and the federal capital. There’s a footnote on all records that tells you where they are housed. And please...Don’t just do a simple pedigree chart of your family tree. Get to know your great-aunts, great-uncles and cousins. It’s also helpful for seeing who lived around who (fam often lived next door to each other) and puts more of the pieces together of your complete family story. You can see the land and acres they owned or your fam today still owns, as well as if that land was stolen from them.

US census records go back to year 1790. Depending on when or if your ancestors were enslaved or free: you’ll find them attached to slave logs that have been made available online or kept in archiving centers (you go there), or or they’ll be listed on census records as free persons (1790-1710), free colored male/female (1820-1840), Black (1850-1920), Mulatto (1850-1890, 1910-1920) or Negro (1900, 1930-1950). “New” census documents are put on sites, like ancestry.com, every 10 years. As of 2023, you can only trace from 1950 to 1790. The 1960 census will be out in 2030. How to trace from 1950 to today, birth, death and residential records. So again, depending on the census year, you’ll notice your ancestors racial classification change throughout documents for obvious reasons. 

Keep in mind that the the largest slave trade for the United States was the domestic slave trade. In house human trafficking and selling (in addition to property insurance of enslaved people and the selling of enslaved people as the building block of Wall Street’s stock exchange) is how US capitalism was built. So just because you know a lot of your people are from Tennessee, for example, it doesn't mean that’s where that line stayed. I’ve found my ancestors throughout 7 states (so far). Another example, people with Louisiana roots damn near always have ancestors who were trafficked from early Virginia. Going beyond year 1790, records were kept in Christian and Catholic churches and old family history books so most of those documents are scanned online and/or still kept in the churches. I’m talking books books. 

If your ancestors walked the Trail of Tears, or were caught as prisoners of war or trafficked to Indian Nations to be enslaved, you’ll find an Oklahoma Indian Territory and Oklahoma Freedmen Rolls section on ancestry.com. You can discover more info on sites, like the Oklahoma Historical Society. (Every state has its own historical society for archived genealogical records.) 

Here’s the National Archives.

Also for Oklahoma, you may also find your ancestors in Indian Census Rolls (1855-1940) as [insert tribe] Freedmen, depending if they weren’t rejected through the “blood quantum” Dawes Rolls for not being the new light to white status. You’ll see their application and the listed questions & answers with or without a big void stamp. And on the census, you’ll even see the letter I (pronounced like eye) changed to the letter B. This is also for those in Louisiana.

Freedmen’s Bureau & Bank Records 

There were Freedmen’s Bureau records and Freedman’s Savings Bank records in other states. To see if your ancestors had their records in those systems, you can search by their name. The state and age will pop up with people having that name. It’ll give you a wealth of other info, like all of the kids and other fam if they were present or mentioned to the person who logged that info in. With the Freedmen Bank records, you can see how much money your ancestors put in there (that was later stolen from them by way of the United States government), which is still there today. It’s the biggest bank heist in US history (that they try to keep hush hush) with the equivalence of more than $80 million in today’s value stored in there today. Back then, it was valued almost close to $4 million. Stolen wealth met with bootstrap lectures. 

Here’s a short video on that heist:

Today the bank is called the Freedman's Bank Building, located right on Pennsylvania Ave. Plain sight. 

Trace your lineage. 

There’s a lot more that I can list. But this is just the basics. Like I said before, it’s a more rewarding feeling when you discover your ancestors by yourself. You may reach roadblocks. Take a break. Try going the “Card Catalog” route on ancestry.com’s search engine. Don’t skip the small details. 

SN: Slave Voyages isn’t a genealogical site, but rather a database for slave ship logs and the estimates of purchased Africans who became human cargo to be enslaved by country like USA, or by colonizers like Spain, Great Britain, etc.

[prolekult]

"Hence, the historical movement which changes the producers into wage-workers, appears, on the one hand, as their emancipation from serfdom and from the fetters of the guilds, and this side alone exists for our bourgeois historians. But, on the other hand, these new freedmen became sellers of themselves only after they had been robbed of all their own means of production, and of all the guarantees of existence afforded by the old feudal arrangements. And the history of this, their expropriation, is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood and fire." - Marx

"Estrangement appears not only in the fact that the means of my life belong to another and that my desire is the inaccessible possession of another, but also in the fact that all things are other than themselves, that my activity is other than itself, and that finally – and this goes for the capitalists too – an inhuman power rules over everything." - Marx

"The only thing that interests us is the secret discovered in the new world by the political economy of the old world, and proclaimed on the housetops: that the capitalist mode of production and accumulation, and therefore capitalist private property, have for their fundamental condition the annihilation of self-earned private property; in other words, the expropriation of the labourer." - Marx

Promo art for our upcoming film "For Land on the capitalist mass extinction".

[peridot-tears]

What are your Connor headcanons? Also if you answer this can you make a spoiler warning for anything past ac3 ?

Ooohhhh, sure! Most of my headcanons are post-AC3, though, so be warned, they're all under the cut.

I think Ratohnhaké:ton did date Dobby for a brief period after AC3, and while it didn't pan out, they parted amicably and continued to work well together over the years.

He was a total mischief-maker in his youth, which is canon, but I think Oía:ner and the others didn't have the heart to punish him very severely after Ziio's death. Luckily, only a couple of his antics were actually heart attack-inducing. Like that time he tried to get a clean shot at the eye of a bear while hanging from a tree and almost fell out in the process.

Despite the debacle when Achilles first gave it to him, he took to Shao Jun's shengbiao faster than most people would, because he understands how to use weapons that aren't just some kind of pointy stick. Despite his preferred method of running headfirst into doors and using brute force, he does have a good sense of bodily control, and knows when he needs to use more gentle force instead. A battering ram isn't necessary where only an arrow will do.

He totally delivered Norris and Miriam's baby. Didn't want to, would've preferred giving Miriam a sense of "decency," since westerners are so strict about separating men and women and covering up (I don't know what Kanien'kehá:ka norms are, but from my limited reading, it wasn't as strict?), but the doctor was picking up medicine in town, and Prudence couldn't do it alone. Norris didn't freak out as much as he could have! He and Ratohnhaké:ton hugged it out after the baby was born.

If I understand correctly, wampum jewel-making is a specialized skillset, but because at the Davenport Homestead, he was separated from his people for a long period of time, he tried it himself with the hard clams he fished out of the bay.

Ratohnhaké:ton is totally arm-wrestling Kassandra in the afterlife.

I subscribe so hard these headcanons about Ratohnhaké:ton's wife and daughter.

He also wove a wampum belt commemorating the life of Achilles and his final days.

He didn't hunt Shay, not because Shay wasn't active in North America, but because Shay was so incredibly subtle in his later work after the events of Rogue, and by the time Ratohnhaké:ton even became an Assassin, most of the Brotherhood had been wiped out. Achilles did mention Shay in passing once, not by name, just a quick mention of, "I drove someone away once, and it made all the difference." Ratohnhaké:ton, while investigating some particularly fishy deaths, had his suspicions that this "someone" was responsible, but he never really encountered Shay. He eventually uncovered more of Shay's backstory, figuring out he's the Assassin traitor, and managed to find out his name. That's as far as he got.

Ratohnhaké:ton would go on to support some of Handsome Lake and Thayandanagea's efforts to reconcile with the colonists, though they quarreled and didn't see eye-to-eye on many things.

Ratohnhaké:ton was a staunch abolitionist, for sure, for sure. The Davenport Homestead was a huge haven for freedmen, and he had to pull teeth to get white slaveowners and bounty collectors to gtfo his land. Although he would "dissolve" the Davenport Homestead before he died, it continued its operations in secret and would become a huge stronghold in the Underground Railroad.

Speaking of. "Dissolving" the Homestead. There was this huge post-AC3 storyline one of the writers was working on where he pretended that the Homestead was dissolved and that his life ended miserably, which would feed into the Abstergo disinformation later on about how his wife left him and took the kids. He did have to set fire to a few precious buildings with the help of the Homesteaders, and make a few fake documents to throw out a false paper trail, and several residents had to scatter for safety reasons, but the Homestead lived on, and stayed a particularly secret base for the Brotherhood.

Girls aren't supposed to hunt in his wife's clan, but I headcanon that he taught all his kids to defend themselves and hunt in the same manner he did Ionhiote. His own mother, after all, did things unconventionally and probably taught him a thing or two.

He eventually reunited with Oía:ner when he found them in their new home. She felt incredibly apologetic for what she did, even though she knew it was the right decision, nearly dissolving into tears, but he was just happy to see her. She lived long enough to hold her grandchildren in her arms and see her family happy at last, even in the face of losing their ancestral home.

[ausetkmt]

https://x.com/GRE8TBLACKSHARK/status/1701210980087136399?s=20

[militantinremission]

The Freedman's Bank Forum: The Art of Disenfranchisement

Kamala Harris has hit the Campaign Trail & named Gov. Tim Walz as her Running Mate, but she has yet to give a Press Conference or Mainstream Media Interview. She STILL hasn't offered any Policy Initiatives on her Campaign Website. This has lead some in The New Black Media to look at her Policy Offerings as VP. Sabrina Salvati of Sabby Sabs & Phil Scott of The Afrikan Diaspora Channel both looked at Kamala Harris' 2023 Speech at the Freedman's Bank Forum- for ideas of what a 'Harris- Walz Administration' may look like. In her Speech, Kamala gave a history of The Freedman's Bureau 'Freedman's Bank', Created in 1865. She spoke on why a Specific Bank for the Formerly Enslaved was necessary. She also talked about the Farms, Homes, & Businesses that Freedmen were able to purchase & build through Loans from Freedmen's Bank.

Unfortunately, 9Yrs after its inception, Freedman's Bank was Closed; due to mismanagement, & outright theft of Funds by Congressmen overseeing Bank Operations. Over 61,000 Depositors lost their Funds- estimated at over $3M (over $50M in today's Economy). Kamala sounded like she understood the plight of American Descendants Of Chattel Slavery & Our specific need for resources, but she shifted her narrative fairly quickly. She started by shifting a Black Specific Issue, to an 'All Lives Matter' Issue. Kamala transformed the necessity of a Freedman's Bank to jumpstart Reconstruction, into a need for EVERYONE to have access to (Freedmen) Resources. She starts by mentioning 'Minorities' & 'Marginalized Communities', but goes on to include Latinx, Native American, Asian, & Rural Communities in the Freedman's Bank Story.

Kamala went on to describe one of her Final Acts as a U.S. Senator. This was an Initiative that she helped to set up w/ the help of [Secretary of The Treasury] Janet Yellen, [Senators] Mark Warner, Chuck Schumer, & Corey Booker, plus Rep. Maxine Waters. The Initiative, was a plan to invest $12B in Community Institutions for 'Overlooked & Underserved Communities'... My 1st question is: How many of THOSE INSTITUTIONS are Owned & Operated by Indigenous Black Americans? I only know of ONE in My Community, & David Rockefeller has been invested in them for nearly 30Yrs... Harris says that currently, $8B has been disbursed to 162 'Community Lenders' Nationwide, & gave examples of how the Funds are being disbursed:

Native American Bank lent a Tribe $10M to fund an Opioid Addiction Treatment Facility on Tribal Lands in N. Dakota

Carver Bank, in Ga. loaned $500K to 'Black Owned Companies' to help them develop Low Income Housing

Hope Credit Union, in Ms. gave a $10K Loan to a 'Black & Woman Owned' Coffee Business to expand

Aid to Immigrant Communities, including some Asian Communities

Aid to 'Rural Communities'

Maybe it's just Me, but I find it curious how the Freedman's Bank Legacy is being 'repackaged'. Under Kamala Harris, a SPECIFIC INSTITUTION meant for American Descendants Of Chattel Slavery, is being usurped to advance EVERYONE; except the Blackfolk it was designed to help. The numbers don't lie. Native American Tribes get Billions a Year in 'Set Asides' & they don't pay Taxes, but Kamala thinks they should also collect $10M meant for Black American interests? Then she brags about Black Businesses that only received 5% of what Native Americans collected from a measure that was supposed to be for Blackfolk. Apparently, Kamala wasn't lying when she said that she wasn't going to do ANYTHING that would only benefit Black Americans.

Like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris talks to Black Audiences about Equity, but only offers Black Americans a small share of what Everyone Else gets. In 2022, The Biden-Harris Administration & Janet Yellen launched the Economic Opportunity Coalition, along w/ 20 Private Sector Leaders. The Goal was to provide & invest Billions in Capital to Community Lenders for 'Minority Owned Businesses'. To date, this Coalition has currently committed over $1.2B to Community Lenders in 'Minority & World Communities'. From what I saw, Puerto Rico & Guam represented 9 of the 13 Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) awarded Funding. Of the 218 Organizations receiving Technical Awards, 56 were 'MDIs' & 38 were Organizations based in Puerto Rico. True to Form, the Biden- Harris Administration blurs the lines on what a 'Black Owned' Business is; Indigenous Blackfolk, Afro Caribbeans, & Afrikan Immigrants have been lumped into the 'Afrikan American' demographic. Is this Coalition keeping track of how many Freedmen (Male & Female) are receiving Awards?

Kamala's Speech at the 'Freedmen's Bank Forum' completely ignored the Descendants of the Freedmen Community, & Our History of adversity. Despite her disregard of Us, she says this Initiative was created to 'Realize the Vision of Freedmen's Bank'. I see This as a blatant Disenfranchisement of the Black Community that Freedmen's Bank was Chartered to serve. On top of her disingenuous empathy for Black Americans, She has the audacity to call this act of Economic Racism- 'Economic Justice'; & she does it w/ a straight face. I thank Sabrina Salvati & Phil Scott for uncovering this particular Policy Measure. Kamala Harris' lack of Policy on her Campaign Website tells Me that she doesn't want Us to know her Plan for the next 4Yrs. She has been called a Leftist & 'the most Progressive Senator in Congress', but her Policies are as Moderate as Joe Biden's.

I fully understand that the Economic Opportunity Coalition (EOC) isn't Freedmen's Bank. If it was presented as a Measure that stood on its own merit, I probably wouldn't have much to say about it. If we're being honest, it falls in line w/ many other Policies of the Biden-Harris Administration. The Fact that Kamala Harris used the Freedmen's Bank Forum to push this Measure, is mean spirited & an insult to Our Ancestors. There's a Legion of Blackfolk & Afrikan Americans trying to certify Kamala's 'Blackness', but she has yet to affirm their claim. She had a chance to refute Donald Trump's assertion, but only offered more rhetoric. The Truth is, SHE'S NOT BLACK! Kamala's Record shows that she spent her Professional Career disenfranchising Us. As District Attorney, she targeted Blackfolk for Arrest on petty Quality of Life Crimes. As Attorney General & as a U.S. Senator, Kamala supported decriminalization of Illegal Border Crossings & the surge of Illegal Immigrants into Black Communities throughout California.

The Black Population in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, & Berkeley has dropped by 50% on her Watch. Kamala vacated over 1,000 Criminal Charges against OneWest Bank, George Soros, & Steve Mnuchin- for 'Foreclosure Violations' that cost Hundreds of Black Californians their Homes. Her action allowed Soros to sell OneWest for Billions, while Mnuchin moved on to become Secretary of The Treasury. At the Same Time, she kept Black Inmates imprisoned past their Release Date & denied others Parole; citing the need to maintain a Prison Labor Force (i.e. Convict Leasing). Black Women are siding w/ her, but Harris abandoned the Mitrice Richardson Case after winning her Senate Seat. Kamala also had a hand in stripping the Estate of Nina Simone away from her Surviving Family & awarding All Rights to Sony Music Entertainment. We're supposed to certify this Woman as 'Black', but she has a Legacy of Anti-Black (Aryan) behavior. Her latest act of disenfranchisement is actually Par for The Course.

Some question why Kamala Harris is getting so much heat from Black America. The Short Answer is- She rides on the Coattail of The Black Experience, but does NOTHING for Us Culturally, Socially, or Politically. What's her Black Agenda again? At This Point, We really can't blame her for being consistent. We need to look at the Blackfolk & Afrikan Americans trying to shame us into Falling in Line w/ her Agenda; whatever THAT is... We have House Cleaning to do.

[kemetic-dreams]

Researching African American Ancestors

Due to the long history of slavery in the United States, family history research can be challenging for many African Americans.

Census takers rarely recorded the names of enslaved people and seldom listed family members together. Enslaved people were often subjected to forced name changes, family separation, and other injustices that continue to cause challenges when finding people from the past.

But some strategies can help. 

Getting started

Download our guide to African American family history.

Gather information:

Family Bibles

Journals, diaries, and letters

Photographs

Obituaries and newspaper clippings

Birth, marriage, and death certificates

Family group sheets, pedigree charts, and books of remembrance

Interview your family members and ask whether they have any records. Take note of names, dates, and places. 

Start a family tree and add anything you've discovered. 

Search family trees by clicking the Search tab and selecting Public Member Trees. To narrow your search results, add information one field at a time until you get results you can use. 

Follow the strategies below. 

Tracing your family backward

In the United States, federal censuses are taken every 10 years. Trace your ancestors backward in censuses starting with your immediate family, recording each detail you find.

Enslaved people were not usually named in censuses. Slavery was abolished in 1865, so the first census that included the names of most African Americans was the 1870 U.S. Federal Census.

If you can trace your ancestor back to the 1870 census, you've got a good start. The next step is to find out whether they appeared in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census.

In 1860, about 10% of African Americans were free. If your ancestor was free in 1860, they should be listed in the census. If you can't find them in the 1860 census, they were likely among the 90% of African Americans still enslaved.

Look too for your ancestor in the Mortality Schedules. These are indexes of people who died during the 12 months before the census date. Mortality schedules are available for the 1850–1880 censuses. These schedules often included the names of both freedmen and enslaved people, but sometimes the names of enslaved people were excluded from the index.

Trace your ancestors backward until you can't find them anymore. At that point, it's time to find the name of the last enslaver.

Finding the last enslaver

To find pre-1870 records that include your African American ancestor, you may need to find records for the enslaver.

If your ancestor has an uncommon last name, search censuses for white people with the same surname as your ancestor in the same area. When you find them, make a list; these are possible enslavers. Only about 15% of formerly enslaved people took the enslaver's surname. Start with the 1860 U.S. Federal Census. 

Search the Freedmen's Bureau for your ancestor's name. The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in 1865 to help newly freed African Americans transition to life outside slavery. The names of former enslavers were often included in labor contracts, sharecropping agreements, and marriage records. Read more about the Freedmen's Bureau Records & Freedman's Bank Records.

Search the U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records and the Civil War Pension Index. First, identify an ancestor in the Colored Troops Military Service Records, then use the information you find to locate the same person in the Civil War Pension Index, which often lists the names of enslavers.

Search the Freedman’s Bank Records. The Freedman's Savings and Trust was an institution chartered by Congress to benefit of newly-emancipated people. This publication reproduces fifty-five volumes of signatures and personal identification data of thousands of depositors who maintained accounts with the bank. These records usually show account numbers, dates of application, and the depositor's name, age, complexion, place of birth, place raised, occupation, spouse, children, family members' names, remarks, and signature. These registers of deposits sometimes included the name of a formerly enslaved person, their family members, and the former enslaver.

Search the Wills and probate records. Enslavers’ wills and probate records often list enslaved people by name.

Search U.S. Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1939. This database contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of people who were formerly enslaved. It’s searchable by any word, so references to specific names can be found easily. Enslavers were often named in these narratives.

Searching slave schedules

If you know the enslaver's name and your ancestor's likely year of birth, try searching for the enslaver in the 1850 slave schedules and 1860 slave schedules. For help searching or understanding slave schedules, see Searching Slave Schedules.

More resources

The African American history page on Ancestry contains information about our DNA test and links to search databases.

The African American Historical Record Collection features interviews with people who were formerly enslaved, slave manifests, slave emancipation records, and more.

AfriGeneas provides resources for African-related genealogy with a vision of finding and documenting the last slaveholder and the first African in each family.

Cyndi's List has an index of genealogy sites about African American research.

The National Archives contain both African American research and links to resources.

The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research is a Harvard research center that supports research on the history and culture of people of African descent and provides a forum for collaboration.

[reasoningdaily]

Black Seminoles | African-Native American History & Culture

Also called: Seminole Maroons or Seminole Freedmen

Black Seminoles, a group of free blacks and runaway slaves (maroons) that joined forces with the Seminole Indians in Florida from approximately 1700 through the 1850s. The Black Seminoles were celebrated for their bravery and tenacity during the three Seminole Wars.

The Native American Seminoles living in Florida were not one tribe but many. They spoke a variety of Muskogean languages and had formed an alliance to prevent European settlers from expanding into their homelands. The word they used to describe themselves—Seminole—is derived from a Creek word meaning “separatist” or “runaway.” Because slavery had been abolished in 1693 in Spanish Florida, that territory became a safe haven for runaway slaves. Throughout the 18th century, many free blacks and runaway slaves went to Florida and lived in harmony with the Seminoles. Their proximity to and resulting collaboration with the Seminoles led students of the group to refer to them as Black Indians, Black Seminoles, and eventually—especially among scholars—Seminole Maroons, or Seminole Freedmen.

Most Black Seminoles lived separately from the Indians in their own villages, although the two groups intermarried to some extent, and some Black Seminoles adopted Indian customs. Both groups wore similar dress, ate similar foods, and lived in similar houses. Both groups worked the land communally and shared the harvest. The Black Seminoles, however, practiced a religion that was a blend of African and Christian rituals, to which traditional Seminole Indian dances were added, and their language was an English Creole similar to Gullah and sometimes called Afro-Seminole Creole. Some of their leaders who were fluent speakers of Creek were readily admitted to Seminole society, but most remained separate.

There are a number of references, beginning in the late 18th century, to Seminole “slaves.” However, slavery among the Seminole Indians was quite different from what was practiced in the slave states to the north of Florida. It had nothing to do with ownership or free labour. The only real consequence of the status of Black Seminoles as “slaves” was that they paid an annual tribute to the Seminole Indians in the form of a percentage of their harvest.

The Black Seminoles were relatively prosperous and content. They farmed, hunted wild game, and amassed significant wealth. Many black men joined the Seminole Indians as warriors when their land or freedom was threatened. Others served as translators, helping the Seminoles understand not only the language but also the culture of Euro-Americans.

That cooperation endured only through the Seminole Wars of the first half of the 19th century. Euro-American settlers wanted the rich land occupied by the Seminoles, and Southern slaveholders were unnerved by free blacks who were armed and ready to fight and living just over the border from slave states. Between 1812 and 1858, U.S. forces fought several skirmishes and three wars against the Seminoles and the maroon communities.

The Black Seminoles were recognized for their aggressive military prowess during the First Seminole War (1817–18). That conflict began when General Andrew Jackson and U.S. troops invaded Florida, destroying African American and Indian towns and villages. Jackson ultimately captured the Spanish settlement of Pensacola, and the Spanish ceded Florida to the United States in 1821. About that time, some Black Seminoles chose to leave Florida for Andros Island, in the Bahamas, where a remnant of the Black Seminoles still remains, although they no longer identify themselves as such.

In 1830 the federal government enacted the Indian Removal Act, which stated the government’s intent to move the Seminoles from the southeast portion of the United States to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. That event led to renewed conflict.

In the Second Seminole War (1835–42), Black Seminoles took the lead in stirring up resistance. Although some bands of Seminoles had signed a treaty agreeing to the move, they did not represent the whole body of Seminoles. When the time came to leave, they resisted and fought an impassioned guerrilla war against the U.S. Army. Once again, during that conflict, Black Seminoles proved to be both leaders and courageous fighters. Often cited as the fiercest conflict ever fought between the United States and Indians, the Second Seminole War dragged on for seven years and cost the U.S. government more than $20 million. By 1845, however, most Seminoles and Black Seminoles had been resettled in Oklahoma, where they came under the rule of the Creek Indians.

Although both groups were subjugated by the Creeks, life was much worse for the Black Seminoles, and many left the reservation for Coahuila, Mexico, in 1849, led by John Horse, also known as Juan Caballo. In Mexico the Black Seminoles (known there as Mascogos) worked as border guards protecting their adopted country from attacks by slave raiders. The Third Seminole War erupted in Florida in 1855 as a result of land disputes between whites and the few remaining Seminoles there. At the end of that war, in 1858, fewer than 200 Seminoles remained in Florida.

When slavery finally ended in the United States, Black Seminoles were tempted to leave Mexico. In 1870 the U.S. government offered them money and land to return to the United States and work as scouts for the army. Many did return and serve as scouts, but the government never made good on its promise of land. Small communities of descendants of the Black Seminoles continue to live in Texas, Oklahoma, and Mexico.

How Black Seminoles Found Freedom From Enslavement in Florida

Black Seminoles were enslaved Africans and Black Americans who, beginning in the late 17th century, fled plantations in the Southern American colonies and joined with the newly-formed Seminole tribe in Spanish-owned Florida. From the late 1690s until Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, thousands of Indigenous peoples and freedom seekers fled areas of what is now the southeastern United States to the relatively open promise of the Florida peninsula.

Seminoles and Black Seminoles

African people who escaped enslavement were called Maroons in the American colonies, a word derived from the Spanish word "cimarrón" meaning runaway or wild one. The Maroons who arrived in Florida and settled with the Seminoles were called a variety of names, including Black Seminoles, Seminole Maroons, and Seminole Freedmen. The Seminoles gave them the tribal name of Estelusti, a Muskogee word for black.

The word Seminole is also a corruption of the Spanish word cimarrón. The Spanish themselves used cimarrón to refer to Indigenous refugees in Florida who were deliberately avoiding Spanish contact. Seminoles in Florida were a new tribe, made up mostly of Muskogee or Creek people fleeing the decimation of their own groups by European-brought violence and disease. In Florida, the Seminoles could live beyond the boundaries of established political control (although they maintained ties with the Creek Confederacy) and free from political alliances with the Spanish or British.

The Attractions of Florida

In 1693, a royal Spanish decree promised freedom and sanctuary to all enslaved persons who reached Florida, if they were willing to adopt the Catholic religion. Enslaved Africans fleeing Carolina and Georgia flooded in. The Spanish granted plots of land to the refugees north of St. Augustine, where the Maroons established the first legally sanctioned free Black community in North America, called Fort Mose or Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose.

The Spanish embraced freedom seekers because they needed them for both their defensive efforts against American invasions, and for their expertise in tropical environments. During the 18th century, a large number of the Maroons in Florida had been born and raised in the tropical regions of Kongo-Angola in Africa. Many of the incoming enslaved Africans did not trust the Spanish, and so they allied with the Seminoles.

Black Alliance

The Seminoles were an aggregate of linguistically and culturally diverse Indigenous nations, and they included a large contingent of the former members of the Muscogee Polity also known as the Creek Confederacy. These were refugees from Alabama and Georgia who had separated from the Muscogee, in part, as a result of internal disputes. They moved to Florida where they absorbed members of other groups already there, and the new collective named themselves Seminole.

In some respects, incorporating African refugees into the Seminole band would have been simply adding in another tribe. The new Estelusti tribe had many useful attributes: many of the Africans had guerilla warfare experience, were able to speak several European languages, and knew about tropical agricultures.

That mutual interest—Seminole fighting to keep a purchase in Florida and Africans fighting to keep their freedom—created a new identity for the Africans as Black Seminoles. The biggest push for Africans to join the Seminoles came after the two decades when Britain owned Florida. The Spanish lost Florida between 1763 and 1783, and during that time, the British established the same harsh enslavement policies as in the rest of European North America. When Spain regained Florida under the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the Spanish encouraged their earlier Black allies to go to Seminole villages.

Being Seminole

The sociopolitical relations between the Black Seminole and Indigenous Seminole groups were multi-faceted, shaped by economics, procreation, desire, and combat. Some Black Seminoles were fully brought into the tribe by marriage or adoption. Seminole marriage rules said that a child's ethnicity was based on that of the mother: if the mother was Seminole, so were her children. Other Black Seminole groups formed independent communities and acted as allies who paid tribute to participate in mutual protection. Still, others were re-enslaved by the Seminole: some reports say that for formerly enslaved people, bondage to the Seminole was far less harsh than that of enslavement under the Europeans.

Black Seminoles may have been referred to as "slaves" by the other Seminoles, but their bondage was closer to tenant farming. They were required to pay a portion of their harvests to the Seminole leaders but enjoyed substantial autonomy in their own separate communities. By the 1820s, an estimated 400 Africans were associated with the Seminoles and appeared to be wholly independent "slaves in name only," and holding roles such as war leaders, negotiators, and interpreters.

However, the amount of freedom that Black Seminoles experienced is somewhat debated. Further, the U.S. military sought the support of Indigenous groups to "claim" the land in Florida and help them "reclaim" the human "property" of Southern enslavers. This effort ultimately had limited success but is historically significant nonetheless.

Removal Period

The opportunity for Seminoles, Black or otherwise, to stay in Florida disappeared after the U.S. took possession of the peninsula in 1821. A series of clashes between the Seminoles and the U.S. government, known as the Seminole wars, took place in Florida beginning in 1817. This was an explicit attempt to force Seminoles and their Black allies out of the state and clear it for white colonization. The most serious and effective effort was known as the Second Seminole War, between 1835 and 1842. Despite this tragic history, approximately 3,000 Seminoles live in Florida today.

By the 1830s, treaties were brokered by the U.S. government to move the Seminoles westward to Oklahoma, a journey that took place along the infamous Trail of Tears. Those treaties, like most of those made by the United States government to Indigenous groups in the 19th century, were broken.

One Drop Rule

The Black Seminoles had an uncertain status in the greater Seminole tribe, in part because of their ethnicity and the fact that they had been enslaved people. Black Seminoles defied the racial categories set up by the European governments to establish white supremacy. The white European contingent in the Americas found it convenient to maintain a white superiority by keeping non-whites in artificially constructed racial boxes. The "One Drop Rule" stated that if one had any African blood at all, they were African and, therefore, less entitled to the same rights and freedoms as Whites in the new United States.

Eighteenth-century African, Indigenous, and Spanish communities did not use the same "One Drop Rule" to identify Black people. In the early days of the European settlement of the Americas, neither Africans nor Indigenous peoples fostered such ideological beliefs or created regulatory practices about social and sexual interactions.

As the United States grew and prospered, a string of public policies and even scientific studies worked to erase the Black Seminoles from the national consciousness and official histories. Today in Florida and elsewhere, it has become increasingly difficult for the U.S. government to differentiate between African and Indigenous affiliations among the Seminole by any standards.

Mixed Messages

The Seminole nation's views of the Black Seminoles were not consistent throughout time or across the different Seminole communities. Some viewed the Black Seminoles as enslaved people and nothing else. There were also coalitions and symbiotic relationships between the two groups in Florida—the Black Seminoles lived in independent villages as essentially tenant farmers to the larger Seminole group. The Black Seminoles were given an official tribal name: the Estelusti. It could be said that the Seminoles established separate villages for the Estelusti to discourage Whites from trying to re-enslave the Maroons.

Many Seminoles resettled in Oklahoma and took several steps to separate themselves from their previous Black allies. The Seminoles adopted a more Eurocentric view of Black people and began to practice enslavement. Many Seminoles fought on the Confederate side in the Civil War; the last Confederate general killed in the Civil War was a Cherokee leader, Stand Watie, whose command was mostly made up of Seminole, Cherokee, and Muskogee soldiers. At the end of that war, the U.S. government had to force the Southern faction of the Seminoles in Oklahoma to give up their enslaved people. It wasn't until 1866 that Black Seminoles were accepted as full members of the Seminole Nation.

The Dawes Rolls

In 1893, the U.S. sponsored Dawes Commission was designed to create a membership roster of Seminoles and non-Seminoles based on whether an individual had African heritage. Two rosters were assembled: the Blood Roll for Seminoles and the Freedman Roll for Black Seminoles. The Dawes Rolls, as the document came to be known, stated that if your mother was Seminole, you were on the blood roll. If she was African, you were placed on the Freedmen roll. Those who were demonstrably half-Seminole and half-African would be placed on the Freedmen roll. Those who were three-quarters Seminole were place on the blood roll.

The status of the Black Seminoles became a keenly felt issue when compensation for their lost lands in Florida was finally offered in 1976. The total U.S. compensation to the Seminole nation for their lands in Florida came to $56 million. That deal, written by the U.S. government and signed by the Seminole nation, was written explicitly to exclude the Black Seminoles, as it was to be paid to the "Seminole nation as it existed in 1823." In 1823, the Black Seminoles were not yet official members of the Seminole nation. In fact, they could not be property owners because the U.S. government classed them as "property." Seventy-five percent of the total judgment went to relocated Seminoles in Oklahoma, 25% went to those who remained in Florida, and none went to the Black Seminoles.

Court Cases and Settling the Dispute

In 1990, the U.S. Congress finally passed the Distribution Act detailing the use of the judgment fund. The next year, the usage plan passed by the Seminole nation excluded the Black Seminoles again from participation. In 2000, the Seminoles expelled the Black Seminoles from their group entirely. A court case was opened (Davis v. U.S. Government) by Seminoles who were either Black Seminole or of both African and Seminole heritage. They argued that their exclusion from the judgment constituted racial discrimination. That suit was brought against the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs: the Seminole Nation, as a sovereign nation, could not be joined as a defendant. The case failed in U.S. District Court because the Seminole nation was not part of the case.

In 2003, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a memorandum welcoming Black Seminoles back into the larger group. Attempts to patch the broken bonds that had existed between Black Seminoles and the rest of the Seminole population have seen varied success.

In the Bahamas and Elsewhere

Not every Black Seminole stayed in Florida or migrated to Oklahoma. A small band eventually established themselves in the Bahamas. There are several Black Seminole communities on North Andros and South Andros Island, established after a struggle against hurricanes and British interference.

Today there are Black Seminole communities in Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Black Seminole groups along the border of Texas/Mexico are still struggling for recognition as full citizens of the United States.

Sources

Gil R. 2014. The Mascogo/Black Seminole Diaspora: The Intertwining Borders of Citizenship, Race, and Ethnicity. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 9(1):23-43.

Howard R. 2006. The "Wild Indians" of Andros Island: Black Seminole Legacy in the Bahamas. Journal of Black Studies 37(2):275-298.

Melaku M. 2002. Seeking Acceptance: Are the Black Seminoles Native Americans? Sylvia Davis v. the United States of America. American Indian Law Review 27(2):539-552.

Robertson RV. 2011. A Pan-African analysis of Black Seminole perceptions of racism, discrimination, and exclusion The Journal of Pan African Studies 4(5):102-121.

Sanchez MA. 2015. The Historical Context of Anti-Black Violence in Antebellum Florida: A Comparison of Middle and Peninsular Florida. ProQuest: Florida Gulf Coast University.

Weik T. 1997. The Archaeology of Maroon Societies in the Americas: Resistance, Cultural Continuity, and Transformation in the African Diaspora. Historical Archaeology 31(2):81-92.

[frithwontdie]

Do white Americans owe reperations to blacks? NO!

In America, Reparations have already been paid. To the point that it’s beyond ridiculous. Whites have gone out of their way to artificially boost Nonwhites at every turn. Trillions of tax dollars and donations have been spent over decades trying to boost non-white achievements and social status. Also dept relief, Crt, affirmative action, first step act, donations for past wrong doings, school degrees, food stamps, welfare programs, etc.

Alot of whites and some jews through out American history tried to help blacks become a separate & self-reliant people (the pursuit of Booker T. Washington) through education.

The Freedman's Bureau (1865 to 1872) :

The Freedman’s Bureau (officially known as ‘The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands’) was created by Americans to feed and provide other life necessities to the Negro population of the South after the Civil War ended in 1865. However, well before the end of the Civil War, Americans organized all over the North various organizations to feed, clothe, educate and provide other needed necessities for the newly freed Negro people Note: according to W.E.B Du Bios, more than 50 organizations were active in relief capacity for the southern Negro by 1866.

"The First white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and 'Stonewall Jackson'. ...Where Robert E. Lee and 'Stonewall' Jackson have led in the redemption of the Negro through the Sunday-school, the rest of us can afford to follow. " - Booker T. Washington 1910

The Tuskegee Institute:

This icon of Black education was founded by the great Booker T Washington and was also the brainchild of an Alabama prominent banker by the name of George W. Campbell (White man). Another White man, an Alabama state senator named W.F. Foster, spearheaded the necessary funding for the Institute through the state legislature. The result was a yearly appropriation of $2000.

The following white Americans, all self-made millionaires, gave small fortunes - their own hard earned money - to this Negro self-sufficiency school over their lifetime:

--Andrew Carnegie

--John D. Rockefeller

--Henry Rodgers

--Collis Huntington

And,

--Julius Rosenwald*

--Anna T. Jeanes*

* Julius Rosenwald was an immigrant Jew and self-made millionaire.

* Anna T. Jeanes, a white woman, was not a self-made millionaire, but inherited her money from her husband.

Howard University

Howard University was chartered in 1867. It was championed by an American Civil War General, Oliver Otis Howard (November 8, 1830 – October 26, 1909), and the school hence bears his name. Howard University is also the ONLY higher education school ever to be directly funded by the US taxpayers (it still is).

Lincoln University

Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) was an exclusive college for Negroes and was created in 1854 by a white man named John Miller Dickey, who also became its first president. Lincoln University was originally named Ashmun Institute. The first Black president of the university was not elected until 1945.

Fisk University

Fisk University was an all-Negro college that was established by three whites, Erastus Milo Cravath, John Ogden and Edward Parmelee Smith in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1866.

Wilberforce University

Wilberforce University, located near Xenia, in Ohio, was an all-Negro college created by whites from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1856. It was named after a white man, William Wilberforce, who was an 18th century abolitionist.

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was an all-Negro school established in 1837. A white man named Richard Humphreys had bequeathed $10,000 in his will (10% of his estate) in 1832 for the sole purpose of creating a place of education for the Negro race.

Atlanta University

Atlanta University was founded by whites associated with the American Missionary Association, in 1865. Around 1866, its survival then shifted to, and depended upon, the Americans associated with the Freedman’s Bureau.

In 1922, the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Memorial gave $25,000 each to create the Journal Of Negro History.

In 1924, George Eastman (Kodack Co.) gave Tuskegee Institute $1 million dollars.

John D. Rockefeller

Mr. Rockefeller donated almost $180 million dollars to the General Education Board, which was chartered by Act of Congress in 1903. Much of this money was spent supplying educational aid to the Negro people, specifically in the southern states (Mr. Rockefeller‘s $180 million translates to almost 2 billion dollars in today's dollars!)

George Peabody Education Fund for poor Southerners

George Peabody Education Fund was established by a white man named George Peabody, and was designed to help Negro colleges in the South at the turn of the century.

The Slater Fund

The Slater Fund was established by white, James Fox Slater, in 1882. Its primary purpose was to support southern Negro schools. Around 1915, this fund was worth about $1.75 million.

The Jeanes Fund (Jeanes Foundation)

A white woman named Miss Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker, created 'The Fund for Rudimentary Schools for Southern Negroes’ in 1907 from the monies left to her by her late husband. The purpose of the fund was to help Negroes create teachers for their people. It was endowed at one million dollars (a staggering sum at the time).

The Southern Education Board: In or around 1900, whites created the The Southern Education Board. It's funding was initially provided by the Slater Fund and the Jeans Funds. Americans, trained in the area of farming, would go to rural farms (Negro and American) and educate them on better farming techniques. The Southern Education Board was also very concerned with the high southern Negro illiteracy, which was, in 1900, almost 50% (for southern Americans, around 11%).

Phelps-Stokes Fund

Established in 1911, a white philanthropist and self-made millionaire Anson Phelps Stokes created this fund for the purpose of improving Negro life through education. Its endowment was approximately $900,000.

Minor Fund

This fund was established by a white female, Miss Myrtilla Minor, in 1851. Its purpose was to provide aid to schools who would teach Negro girls to be teachers for their people.

In 1910, according to the US census, 50% of Negroes (about 4.8 million) lived in urban centers (all created by white males). That means there would be approximately 2.4 million Negro males living in the urban centers of America. About 1/3rd would be too young to work, so that means there were about 1.6 million Negro males of working age living in American-built cities in 1910. Of those 1.8 million Negro males, 350,000 (almost 20%!) worked in a factory job (all factory jobs for the Negro were supplied by White men i.e. not ONE factory job in America was created by a Negro male --so, concomitantly, no white man was employed by a Negro male in a factory job. Note: At this time in American history, you worked or you starved. (source: Chronological History of The Negro pg. 358)

Naturally, with whites, being so generous supplying jobs to black men, naturally, more black men were encouraged to come to the American-built urban areas.

Julius Rosenwald

Without question one of the most generous of the Euro race toward the black people was Julius Rosenwald (Jewish). Most of his charity was gifted through the Rosenwald Fund (depleted in 1948)

Cushing Fund

A white woman, Miss Emeline Cushing, established this fund in 1895 for the purpose of financially assisting colored schools.

Whites Create Special School - In Mississippi. - For Negro Boys To Own Land

Daniel Hand Fund

A white self-made millionaire, Daniel Hand, established the Daniel Hand Fund in 1888. It was endowed at $1 million dollars (two-thirds of Mr. Hand’s entire personal wealth!). Mr. Hand stipulated that all of the Fund would be directed toward Negro education in the former slave states. When Mr. Hand died in 1893, he bequeathed the rest of his remaining wealth to this fund.

Andrew Carnegie

Mr. Carnegie, when he retired, was considered the richest man in the world. He also became the biggest philanthropist in America and gave generously to Negro educational causes, which included giving $600,000 to the Tuskegee Institute in 1903.

Harmon Foundation

The New York City Harmon Foundation was established in 1922 by an white man named William Harmon (1862-1928). Its purpose was to aid and assist Negro art, artists, businesses, education for Negroes, farming needs, music, and other causes for the Negro.

Garland Fund

This White-male-established fund was used to help the NAACP through the Great Depression.

John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Mr. Rockefeller, Jr. built the Dunbar Apartments in New York City, a mammoth complex consisting of six buildings - 511 apartments - specifically to house low-income Negroes in Harlem. He also built and funded a bank in NYC solely for Negroes.

Katharine Drexel

Katherine Drexel was born November 26, 1858 and died March 3, 1955. She was an American female, a nun, philanthropist, educator and later canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.

"She became a nun, and took the name Sister Katharine, dedicating herself and her inheritance to the needs of [non-occupational ranking] Native Americans and African-Americans in the western and southwestern United States, and was a vocal advocate of racial tolerance. She established a religious order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. She also financed more than 60 missions and schools around the United States, and founded Xavier University of Louisiana[1] - the only historically Black, Roman Catholic university in the United States to date."

The United Negro College Fund

In 1944 the United Negro College Fund was created. Almost all of the funding for its initial operation was provided by the General Education Fund and the Rosenwald Fund.

Mr. William Trent, a black man, in the course of his 20-year tenure as its first executive director, raised over $78 million for this fund, almost all of it coming from generous white liberal Americans (Senator John F. Kennedy gave all of the profits from his book ‘Profiles in Courage' to this fund).

Also American Jews also gave money to black people. Before 1950, it was mostly coming from the Rosenwald fund.

Minority scholarships:

Low income:

It’s open to illegal immigrants, too, but white people? Forget it. And when we learn that “800 Compton residents to get guaranteed income in two-year pilot program,” since Compton is only 2 percent white – yes, just 2 percent – white people won’t get that money.

Having to change the requirements of mental retardation, because too many blacks IQ's were that low.

https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels2/pdf/90s/99/99-MRI-MLW.pdf