Hair talk and other practical things

Jessica Lewis, vlogger, MahoganyCurls

If anyone has been following my recent Facebook posts, they'll notice my new obsession with making organic hair products for natural hair. Based on the quick responses from family, I realize it's an important discussion for minorities -- particularly women.

Hair is our crown and glory. The glow of our skins light up rooms when we enter. Yet, being immersed in a world where European sensibilities and images are all we see, the beauty of our own God-given assets are obscured. It's a particularly sensitive subject for African-American women.

So, Mi Familia, what do you think about me posting a section of this blog dedicated to practical health and beauty tips? After all, I discovered a whole new world in the burgeoning natural hair movement that we all could learn from.

If anyone wonders what this has to do with family history/genealogy, I have to say ... EVERYTHING. We're genetically connected. Why not learn how to take care of the peculiar assets we've all inherited?

So, since my demanding writing schedule has slowed my family history reporting for this blog, I can immediately write about practical thins we all could use. After all, I once had a cosmetology license in three states. I can still put it to use.

Recipes for posterity

Think about it. Aunt Lucy lived to age 108 employing a lifetime of old fashioned folk wisdom until her dying breath. I've recently read others who use apple cider vinegar (ACV) in their diets much like she did. One young Asian vlogger demonstrated her daily ACV and water cocktail and I immediately got a tall glass of vinegar and water. As I sipped, I thought Aunt Lucy was, once again, vindicated.

Also, we've got a plethora of family recipes -- pickled watermelon rind, for instance -- that need to be preserved for posterity. Our elders are getting older and many recipes and centuries-old know-how may be out of our reach soon if we don't act. How many of us know how to plant a garden according to the almanac? I sure don't. But, Aunt Henrietta and my mother do. How many of us know how to can fresh produce or make damson plumb jelly? Again, only a few are left who know how.

We have a folk-wisdom cookbook already written in our history. We just have to put it on paper.

Black Indians of New England

Crispus Attucks

Few eyewitnesses to the March 1770 Boston Massacre knew much about Crispus Attucks. However, historians now know he was not the coffee-colored slave on 19^th century posters promoting abolitionists’ cause for emancipation. 

Some called him ‘mulatto.’ Others said he was a Nantucket Indian. But the key to his identity is in his name, said Judy Kertesz, a Lumbee Indian and assistant professor at North Carolina State University. In 2009, she spoke as co-curator for Smithsonian Institute’s IndiVisible: African-Native Lives in the Americas National Museum of the American Indian Symposium.

Attucks is the English version of the Wampanoag name, Ahtugees (ahtu-gees), meaning “little deer.” While Europeans assigned family identity through the father’s line, Native Americans did not, explained Kertesz.

“According to matrilineal Wampanoag and some West African peoples who were oftentimes matrilineal as well, identity was, and continues to be, reckoned according to who one’s mother is. As I like to put it, ‘it’s not who’s yo daddy, it’s who’s yo mama!”

Attucks’ father was Ashanti and his mother was Wampanoag, according to  symposium presenters. In early 18^th century New England, an African-Native love-child wasn’t that rare.

17^th century Northeastern Indians faced extinction 

No one disputes that early encounters with Europeans proved disastrous for Native peoples. 

Between 1617 and 1619, nearly 90-percent of the Wampanoag tribes, living on the Massachusetts and western Rhode Island borders, died of an epidemic. Modern researchers suspect it spread through rodents from European fishing and trading ships, according to a 2010 study published by the Centers for Disease Control. In 1633, just 14 years later, small pox nearly decimated all the region’s tribes including the Narragansett, Mohegan and Niantic.

Only 3,000 Pequot were left when English settlers and their Narragansett and Mohegan allies ambushed them in 1636. The survivors of the Mystic River attack were either enslaved or escaped among other groups.

Thirty years later, after the Pequot resettled in Connecticut, surviving Wampanoag, Narragansett and Nipmuck tribes attacked the colonists. Known as King Philip’s War, it was a desperate attempt to prevent further European encroachment on their land because they outnumbered Native peoples.

By the mid-1700s, remaining Natives joined with colonists in the French and Indian War, and later, the American Revolution. Indian men were dying out because of war and disease, according to Vicki S. Welch, a New England Native American genealogist.

“The number of men from given villages, often who served, included many between the ages of 16 and 60. They were scouts and experienced very high death rates, up to 80% in a given village,” according to Welch.

African man, Native woman 

However, African men were available.

Rhode Island was the hub of the New England slave trade by the beginning of the 18^th century. By the end of the century, the African population – both slave and free – grew from 1,000 in 1700 to roughly 16,000.

Slavery wasn’t as restrictive as it later became. Slaves were allowed to grow and sell from their small allotments at market once a week. Also, in many cases, slaves weren’t necessarily bound for life. Owners often chose to release them after, say, a decade of service.

For Indian women, African men brought a lot to the table. “The slaves worked one day a week for themselves and a lot of them bought their freedom and preferred to marry Native women for free offspring,” Welch said in an interview.

Hiding out in the open 

The descendants of these unions aren’t easy to detect. While some live on reservations, others live hidden within the African American community.

The Northeastern Black Indian story is different from the turbulent relationship between Africans and the five “civilized” tribes – Cherokee, Chocktaw, Chicasaw, Creek and Seminole. In those cases, African-Native families formed when tribesmen harbored runaway slaves or became slave owners. Also, free Blacks assimilated into tribes after forming trade relationships with them. 

In recent years, historians and genealogists have studied Black Indians of the five tribes more than ever before. But, precious little has been documented about the mixed-race tribes of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. 

One reason is many African-Americans with Indian heritage have identified with the Black community for generations. Family stories about Indian ancestors may have survived, but cultural affinity with them has been forgotten. Moreover, they don’t always look Indian. 

Secondly, many African American families claim to be part Indian, but, in fact, they’re not. Only 4-percent of African Americans can actually prove they have “measurable Native American ancestry” – that is, 12.5-percent or the equivalent of one great-grandparent, according to Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in a recent article posted on The Root. 

“That means there's probably another explanation for your great-great grandmother's high cheekbones and straight black hair that swung all the way down her back!”

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

[i]

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IndiVisible:African-Native American Lives in the Americas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id_iMjRJUJ0

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/smallpox/9241561106_chp5.pdf

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe http://mwtribe.exstream.tv/timeline

“New Hypothesis for Cause of Epidemic among Native Americans, New England, 1616–1619”Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 2, 2010, http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/2/09-0276_article.htm

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/smallpox/9241561106_chp5.pdf

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe http://mwtribe.exstream.tv/timeline

“New Hypothesis for Cause of Epidemic among Native Americans, New England, 1616–1619”Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 2, 2010, http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/2/09-0276_article.htm

Mystic Voices: The Story of the Pequot War http://pequotwar.com/history.html

“Native American Genealogy in Connecticut,” by Vicki S. Welch, CSG #7856 S, Connecticut Genealogy News, Fall, 2009, www.csginc.org.

“Chronicling Black Lives in Colonial New England: Historians and archaeologists piece together a revealing look at free and slave life in the North,”The Christian Science monitor, Ocotber 29, 1997. http://www.csmonitor.com/1997/1029/102997.feat.feat.1.html

“Seeking Proof of Native American Roots? Tracing Your Roots: A reader hopes a fire that destroyed family records won’t halt his search,” By Henry Louis Gates, Jr. posted March 29, 2013 at 12:47 AM  http://www.theroot.com/views/seeking-proof-native-american-roots

The Hunt for Anderson Marrow's Father

Early this month, I started digging into the slave and mixed-race origins of the Anderson Marrow family line and ended up knee-deep in confusion. As with most slave histories, the main obstacle is poor record-keeping.

In our case, the relationship between our relatives who were former slave owners and slaves endured after Emancipation. So we have the advantage of recent first-hand oral history.

We know that Drury Smith Marrow regularly visited Rebecca (Grandma Beck) and acknowledged their kinship well into the 20^th century. He was Thomas Field Marrow’s son. Thomas is among those suspected to be Rebecca’s grandfather. Then again, maybe not.

Our Marrow ancestors  

The earliest known record of our Marrows goes back to a fellow named Daniel Marrow, born about 1722, who died 1749 in Goochland Virginia.[i] His wife, Arabella Smith was born in 1728 in Henrico County, Virginia.

Their only son, Daniel Marrow, Jr. – born 1744 in Lunenburg County, VA and died 1817 in Granville, North Carolina –- had eight children. Five of them were boys. One of them may have been Anderson Marrow’s father. [ii] But, which one? 

Doing the math  

Now it’s a matter of elimination.

Anderson Marrow, Rebecca’s father, was born in Granville in 1823. Daniel Marrow Jr. died six years earlier so obviously he’s out of the running. Who among his sons was old enough or lived long enough to have fathered Anderson?

Daniel Marrow, III (Birthday unknown, died 1812). Actually, I’m not sure he’s a third, but it’s a way to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, both named Daniel. Rootsweb reports his marriage to Fannie H. Smith in 1808. He died 11 years before Anderson was born.[iii] Next?

William Marrow (Birthday unknown, died in 1816). So, it’s not him. He died seven years before Anderson.[iv] Next? 

Drury Smith Marrow (1786-1860). The records are weird. Rootsweb reports he died in Abrams Plains, Granville, NC in both 1860 and 1870 which could mean there are two death certificates on file. Moreover, there are multiple Drury Smith Marrows. Drury’s younger brother, Thomas, named his fourth son after him. See what I mean by confusion?

Anyway, he was 37 years-old the year Anderson was born. He married Susan P. Glover six years later.[v] Perfect time to have an “outside” child. So, he’s a candidate.

Alexander F. Marrow (1798-1865). Again, his death is recorded in 1865, then in 1870 in Granville. Rootsweb reports he married his first of two wives between 1820 and 1825.

He had seven children – five were boys. But, three of the boys’ names are recorded as unknown, including the oldest two. The first was born between 1820 and 1825, followed by the second son, born 1825 or 1830.[vi] 

No sense in assuming the firstborn on record could be Anderson. It was, after all, slavery. Unless we find a record of Anderson’s illegitimate paternity, we can best assume his father wouldn’t put it in writing. There are stories of slave owners having sex with their slaves while they were married, although we really don’t know how common the practice was. In any case, Alexander was 25-years old the year Anderson was born – whether he was married or not – making him a viable candidate.

Thomas Field Marrow (1805-1846). Records show Anderson belonged to one of Thomas’ children at emancipation.[vii] 

Thomas was barely 31 years-old when he died, leaving his older brother, Drury Smith Marrow, as executor of his estate. According to his property assessment, Thomas had roughly 50 slaves. Anderson was among them. Thomas’ son, Drury, was his uncle Drury Smith’s namesake. At six years-old, he inherited Anderson when his father,Thomas, died.[viii] 

He is probably the same relative of family lore that often visited Grandma Beck. He was born in 1840,[ix] so he’s a little older than she.

Altogether, Thomas had six children from his 16-year marriage to Parthena Kittrell. However, he was 18 years-old the year Anderson was born. So, while he would have been a little young, he wasn’t too young to have sex with one of the slaves. He’s another possible candidate.

Okay, so we have a shortlist of possible baby daddies: Drury Smith Marrow, Alexander F. Marrow and Thomas Field Marrow. But, the paper trail is vague and ambiguous.  So, buckle up, Kinfolk, this one’s gonna be bumpy.

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[i] Data furnished to Rootsweb by Peggy Chapman, in 1990.

[ii] Daniel Marrow II. Rootsweb: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=draper1&id=I3298 

[iii] Daniel Marrow III. Rootsweb: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=draper1&id=I49843 

[iv] William Marrow. Rootsweb: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=draper1&id=I49844

[v] Drury Smith Marrow I,. Rootsweb: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=draper1&id=I49845

[vi] Alexander F. Marrow. Rootsweb: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=draper1&id=I49849

[vii] Allotment of slaves as determined in the “Report from Court,  September term, 1857 – Daniel I. Marrow against Drury S, Marrow, executor of Thomas F,. Marrow.” North Carolina State Archives. Research by Eleanor Shelton.

[viii] “An inventory of the property of Thomas F. Marrow (deceased) which is in the hands of D.S. Marrow, his executor.” ABT 1852. Granville County, North Carolina. Research by Eleanor Shelton.

[ix] Thomas Field Marrow. Rootsweb: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=draper1&id=I49850

Rethinking Ourselves

Researchers have identified many tribes, ancient cultures and flavors tossed into this salad we call African-American.  In recent decades, geneticists, genealogists, anthropologists and historians have discovered (and confirmed) what have been my suspicions about who we really are.

This is the first of several installments of non-sequential posts I call “Rethinking Ourselves” wherein I’ll explore how the sciences and social sciences communities may be redefining what we know about ourselves.

Tribal Origins of African Americans

Fulani Woman

One thing I know: there’s no cookie-cutter Black person in this country … or anywhere. 

It’s not like living in Ghana, Benin, Togo or Nigeria where everyone’s pretty clear which tribe they belong to. There they live with as much certainty of their ancestry as, say, an Irishman knows he’s Celtic.

For us, four centuries of cultural suppression and identity assassination robbed us of what our African-born cousins take for granted. They see themselves according to tribes, not race.

Turns out, African Americans descend from 46 tribes, say Boston University Professors of History and African-American Studies, Linda Heywood and John Thornton, in an article published in The Root.[i] 

Historians have compiled tribal lists over the years. Here’s their version:

Country/Location	Tribe/Ethnic Group
Angola/Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Angola Zambia/Angola Benin Cameroon Gambia/Guinea Ghana/Togo/Benin Ghana Ivory Coast/Ghana Guinea-Bissau Liberia Nigeria/Cameroon Nigeria/Benin Nigeria Senegal Senegal/Gambia Senegal/Sierra Leone, Guinea, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Niger, Liberia Guinea-Bissau Senegal/Sierra Leone, Guinea, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Niger, Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau	Yaka, Chokwe, Lunda, Kongo, Luba Mbundu, Oyimbundu Luchaze Fon, Mahi, Bariba Duala, Tikar, Bamun, Bamileke Jola Ewe Ga, Gurma, Dagomba Akan, Asanti, Fanti Blanata, Biafara, Temne Kru, Kpele Ibibio Yoruba Hausa, Ibo/Igbo, Ijaw/(Ijo), Efik, Igala, Kalab ari, Itsekiri, Edo Wolof Serer Mandinka Fulbe/Fulani/Peulh/Fula Sierra Leone: Balanta, Falupo, Mende, Susu, Nalu, Bran[ii]

             
In his book, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census, the late, known expert and John’s Hopkins historian Philip D. Curtin figured 3.5 million Africans were exported to North America and the Caribbean between 1711 and 1810. (Importing Africans to the U.S. officially ended in 1808). Curtin arrived at that figure after investigating shipping records and port data, according to a New York Times obituary. He died in 2009 at 87.[iii]

Below is a table illustrating the regions Curtin said were probably the ancestral homes of African Americans:

Senegambia (Senegal-Gambia): 5.8%

Sierra Leone: 3.4%

Windward Coast (Ivory Coast): 12.1%

Gold Coast (Ghana): 14.4%

Bight of Benin (Nigeria): 14.5

Bight of Biafra (Nigeria): 25.1%

Central and Southeast Africa (Cameroon-N. Angola): 24.7%[iv] 

Here is another list of tribes in those regions that were likely affected. You’ll find some tribes here not included in Heywood and Thornton’s list.

SENEGAMBIA: Wolof, Mandingo, Malinke, Bambara, Papel, Limba, Bola, Balante, Serer, Fula, Tucolor

SIERRA LEONE: Temne, Mende, Kisi, Goree, Kru.

WINDWARD COAST (including Liberia): Baoule, Vai, De, Gola (Gullah), Bassa, Grebo.

GOLD COAST: Ewe, Ga, Fante, Ashante, Twi, Brong

BIGHT OF BENIN & BIGHT OF BIAFRA combined: Yoruba, Nupe, Benin, Dahomean (Fon), Edo-Bini, Allada, Efik, Lbibio, Ljaw, Lbani, Lgbo (Calabar)

CENTRAL & SOUTHEAST AFRICA: BaKongo, MaLimbo, Ndungo, BaMbo, BaLimbe, BaDongo, Luba, Loanga, Ovimbundu, Cabinda, Pembe, Imbangala, Mbundu, BaNdulunda

Other possible groups that maybe should be included as a "Ancestral group" of African Americans:

Fulani, Tuareg, Dialonke, Massina, Dogon, Songhay, Jekri, Jukun, Domaa, Tallensi, Mossi, Nzima, Akwamu, Egba, Fang, and Ge.
[v]

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Further Reading

The Atlantic Slave Trade: a Census, Philip D, Curtin, (1969), pg. 221.Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin press.

National Geographic News
“Gullah Culture in Danger of Fading Away,” Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune

June 8, 2001

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0607_wiregullah.html

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[i] African Ethnicities and Their Origins

 By: Linda Heywood and John Thornton  | Posted: October 1, 2011 at 12:26 AM

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/african-ethnicities-and-their-origins

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] New York Times, June 16, 2009, by William Grimes. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/us/16curtin.html?_r=0

[iv]The Atlantic Slave Trade: a Census, Philip D, Curtin, (1969), pg. 221.Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin press.
[v] Compiled by Kwame Bandele based on a student email exchanged on the University of Chicago bulletin board. 

Following the oral trail

My mother was recently rummaging through an old box of my great Aunt Lucy’s memorabilia when she found two pieces of paper, stapled together, with Aunt Lucy’s recognizable scribbling.

It reads: “Anderson Marrow, my great-grandfather, was half-white … the founder of Philadelphia Church … and his daughter, Rebecca married Sam Cross, who was part Indian from Connecticut, Hartford, Connecticut … and by him, she had four children – Anderson, Weldon, Lucy and Edith.”

“… He (Anderson) also gave the land and timber for the church to be built. My great-grandmother told me during slavery, a group of slaves would meet in the woods to sing praises to God. After that, the church was built.”

Many of us can say we grew up hearing these stories. I certainly did. But our elders didn’t seem to give historical meaning or context, so I couldn’t grasp their relevance. Instead, they dropped clues in such a lackluster way, I all but dismissed them as fantasy folklore.

Not anymore.

In recent years, I’ve discovered our Cross-Marrow elders left a trail of breadcrumbs that’s more like gold dust. They spoke in snippets -- torn bits of paper from the family book.  We have to listen carefully to sift the nuggets.

For instance, Aunt Henrietta (“Hen-retta”) Cross Hatton Clark once told me she suspected our ancestors were Pequots.  Our research into the Crosses has led us to a possible  connection with three New England Native American tribes: the Narragansett, Pequot and, maybe, the Wampanoag.

A Connecticut-based genealogist told us she found our family name while researching New England African-Native American families. She said she’s certain Abraham Cross came from a Narragansett family. She also suspects Amos Cross’ wife, Eliza, could be Pequot.

While we’re a little ways from definitively proving it, we’re close.

Where do we fit?

Historians and genealogists look to DNA to map human genetic origins and migration patterns. Well-known Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is helping to piece together African-Americans’ true composition. In his 2009 article, he suggests that DNA paints a different picture of our genetic origins than our oral traditions lead us to believe.

“Here are the facts: Only 5 percent of all black Americans have at least 12.5 percent Native American ancestry, the equivalent of at least one great-grandparent. Those “high cheek bones and “straight black hair” your relatives brag about at every family reunion and holiday meal since you were 2 years old? Where did they come from? To paraphrase a well-known French saying, “Seek the white man.”[1]

Besides our obvious African ancestry, we already know some streams of our bloodline lead to Europe. Like so many African-Americans families, we accept our elders’ beliefs that our range of skin and eye color comes from an elusive “Indian” relative. But, as Gates has proven, saying so doesn’t make it so.

Now, we’ve come across clues that may substantiate what our elders have been telling us all along. If that’s true, we’re among that tiny 5 percent of African Americans with Native American ancestry. Proving it could cast our family in a unique place in American, African American and Native American history.

That’s what I mean by context.

-- SDSC

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[1] The Root, “Michelle’s Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours

In defiance of law, social convention and what some “believe,” an enormous amount of “race mixing” has long been occurring in the U.S.”

 By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.  |  Posted: October 8, 2009 at 11:50 AM http://www.theroot.com/views/michelle-s-great-great-great-granddaddy-and-yours