the "Black Dutch"

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

The term “Black Dutch” is something sometimes seen in genealogy research.  But what does it mean, exactly? Who were the Black Dutch?

 

The Black Dutch were not one particular race.  It's a term that is used in historical documents to refer to several different groups. 

 

 

The Dark-Skinned Dutch Immigrants

 

The most common designation of “Black Dutch” refers to Dutch immigrants to New York who had swarthier complexions than most other Dutch. The darker complexions were usually due to intermarriage or out of wedlock births with Spanish soldiers during the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands. Many of these so-called “Black Dutch” are still in New York today, while other families migrated south and west to other states. DNA studies have shown that these people are of mainly European descent, with little, if any, African or Native American DNA in them.

 

The Sephardic Jewish Immigrants

 

Sephardic Jewish merchants came to the Netherlands from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century after being expelled from those nations. Some of them were admitted to England during Oliver Cromwell’s occupation of it in the 17th century during the English Civil War. Many of these eventually came to the American colonies and settled in New England and in the south.

The Sephardic Jewish immigrants often mixed with free or enslaved Africans and bore children with them. Sometimes, the men stayed with their mixed-race families, especially if the woman was free, while other times, they abandoned them for Jewish wives. The descendants of these Sephardic Jewish immigrants and the Africans in America with whom they bore children were also historically referred to as “Black Dutch.”

 

Native Americans

 

Some Native Americans, particularly the Cherokees of the Carolinas, identified themselves as Black Dutch in order to avoid being sent west to reservations. Giving themselves this designation also allowed them to buy and own land in the east, something that was only permitted to those of European descent at the time. These Natives denied their ancestry, sometimes for generations, because they were concerned their land would be taken from them and they would be sent west. Today, though, most Natives who identified as Black Dutch have become open about their ancestry. If you have a Native in your family who identified as Black Dutch in order to stay in the east and buy land, you will probably know it through family records and strong oral tradition.

 

The Germans

 

The term “Dutch” has long been used for German immigrants, as the Germans called themselves the Deutsche people. This easily Anglicized into “Dutch,” and both German and Dutch immigrants became known by the same designation. The Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of Swiss and German immigrants, and many groups of them, particularly the Amish, still speak various versions of German today. Like the dark-skinned immigrants from the Netherlands who settled in New York, German immigrants to Pennsylvania and other areas were also referred to as “Black Dutch” if they had darker than usual complexions. The surnames of these Black Dutch have remained decidedly German even to the present day, making it easier to identify a Black Dutch ancestor who was really a German immigrant than possibly for any other group of people referred to as Black Dutch.

 

The Black Dutch in the South

 

As many northern families who were referred to as Black Dutch immigrated south, the original meaning of the term became lost through the generations. Many southern people today claim to have Black Dutch ancestry, usually believing they have an ancestor who bore children with a Native American. In most cases, this is incorrect. However, it was not uncommon for people in the south to have children with Africans during the 18th and 18th centuries, and these mixed-race families gradually integrated into their communities. Most of the southern Black Dutch do not have German or Dutch ancestry at all, but are of English or Irish descent, with some African mixed in.

[aka]

As for the Black Dutch, wow, that made my eyes go wide!  I never heard of them.

 

The article was causing me a brain tsunami just thinking about how complicated any ancestry ties are.        Animal or human.

 

There is so much mish-match of intermarrying that I figure we couldn’t find a pedigree purity of a human race group anywhere.

 

Especially not in the melting kettle of USA. However, I believe that race is categorized in Caucasian, Asian, African, Hispanic, Latino. Is Hebraic Jewry a race?

 

Adolf H. really had his phobia of citizens in his land being blood related to anyone Jewish.

He had this thing about whom he considered to be bastards living in Germany acting as a danger in polluting the super-race. Of course, we see that now as just a whole lot of cocky-pop. He decreed a law that every family father had to get the ancestry genealogy chart of family tree going back to the roots a few hundred years. It was hung on the living room wall. When gestapo came for checking they just had to view the chart on the wall and be satisfied that the family was race-pure.

My father-in-law had a very impressive full German ancestry chart. I have a copy of it.

 He boasted of being pedigreed in blood line. It doesn't bother me because I accept and understand it was the tone of his day to be patriotic and proud of his heritage. He died ten years ago at the age of 85.

 

I rather like seeing pedigree dogs or cats when I go to their public shows. To qualify for pedigree the animal must be of the same breed and have written proof of parental lineage.

 

We have a stud farm not far from us. From Saudi-Arabia are flown in lady horses to get impregnated by male horses of great reputation. They are arabian racing horses and the process is watched closely by experts. The male is too valuable (upwards in astronomical worth) to be allowed to fly to S.-Arabia. The risk of broken leg or some illness hinders that way of making marriage. Horse racing has to do with finding the horse with the most wins to then buy his seed in order to produce fresh new winners. Money makes the world go 'round.

 

I don’t know for sure but I believe genetically, in a human fashion, we are world-wide blood connected in the same way.

 

But my blood type is O-positive, and whoever they are must donate the same blood type when I am in need at the hospital otherwise a big conflict will arise. 

[TruthSeeker123]

This is a very interesting article, Rudywoofs. It's the first time I hear of the "Black Dutch". *thumbs up*