Posted: Sun 28 Nov 2004 01:44 Post subject: Welcome to History of the Color Line
History of the Color Line
America’s intermarriage barrier, the endogamous color line, is what defines the terms “Black” and “White.” Whether you are seen as a suitable marriage partner by Blacks or by Whites is what defines which side of the color line you are on, which of the two endogamous groups you are a member of. For example, Puerto Ricans average 50-50 Afro-European genetic admixture and most have visible African features (skin tone, hair, etc.). Nevertheless, in recent decades Puerto Ricans have been considered suitable marriage partners for Whites (fifteen percent exogamy rate, according to the 2000 census). But it is inaccurate to say that dark-complexioned Puerto Ricans are suitable marriage partners for Whites because they are not “really Black.” This reverses cause and effect. Puerto Ricans are not seen as members of the U.S. Black community precisely because they are considered suitable marriage partners for Whites, despite their partial African ancestry.
Although the U.S. endogamous color line was invented in the late seventeenth-century Chesapeake to deter servile insurrection, it gradually spread throughout the North and upper South. It reinforced the aggressive ethnic voting blocs of the Jacksonian urban North. It may have stifled a socialist revolution in the 1840s and 1850s.
In the period between the invention of the color line and the Civil War, Americans in the North and the upper South gradually changed how they identified which side of the color line you were on. Throughout the eighteenth century, the primary criterion was your physical appearance. Although some colonies had blood-fraction laws, courts tended to rule that, if you looked European, then you belonged on the White side of the color line. During the nineteenth century, blood fraction as adjusted by association gradually became important additional criteria. By 1890 in the North and the upper South, if you had a Black grandparent and associated with Blacks, you were Black even if you looked European. The lower South was different.
Until Reconstruction, the lower South had very different color-line traditions. Louisiana and Alabama had two color lines separating three mildly endogamous groups: Black, White, and Colored. South Carolina had an extraordinarily permeable color line determined as much by class as by physical appearance. And Spanish Florida had no endogamous barrier at all. After Reconstruction, the nation as a whole adopted the impermeable single color line and the concept of African-American ethnicity that had been born in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.
In order to familiarize yourself with the issues discussed in this section, you may wish to read the following essays:
I just finished scamming/reading a book called "Not of Pure Blood" by Jay Kinsbruner about the history of Puerto Rico. It basically deals with the issues of Puerto Rico's "free coloured" population during slavery. It states that by 1779 Puerto Rico's racial composition was about 27%White, 42% free coloured and 11% slave.
My question to you is how did all these people gain their freedom from the Puerto Rican slave system?
Also the book contradicts some of what you implied about Puerto Ricans 'intermarrying' for centries. This book states -well at least during that time period- that the overwhelming amount of folks identified as Whites married other Whites, Free coloured (who were seperated into 3 categories by color) married each other and slaves married slaves. So when did all these "outmarriage occur"???
Posted: Thu 02 Dec 2004 18:54 Post subject: Introduction to the Color Line
Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico in 1886. I suppose much of this outmarriage occurred between the free colored population and the white population or the free colored population and the population of former slaves.
I'm not sure how accurate it is. After all, they list Albizu Campos as a black Puerto Rican. I was always under the impression that he looked and saw himself as mixed.
Pedro Albizu Campos
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Soon after the Spanish took over Puerto Rico (and the rest of Latin America), they began to sell slaves to rich, Spanish farm or land owners who came over from Spain to all of Latin America. Many of the slaves who came to Puerto Rico were from Congo (Mayombe religions such as "Palo Monte" were an intrinsic part of Puerto Rico's early spiritualist history before Allan Kardec ), others were members of the Ashanti tribe. 31 known African tribes were brought to the island from Central and West Africa. It is believed that many slaves entered Puerto Rico through the island's east side, hence the large population of blacks from San Juan to Vieques. Ponce and Mayaguez have large populations that came from Cuba, Haiti and Colombia. During the years of Indigenous and African slavery, miscenegation was rampant. Tainos were raped by Spaniards and intermarried with the incoming Africans.
In Puerto Rico, like in many other countries, slave-owners would insult black workers and make them work under poor working conditions and for little money. They would abuse them physically too, sometimes injuring them or killing them. Some slave owners also would rape black women and girls, including wifes of the slaves. These types of abuses, of which most Puerto Ricans born during the 20th century had little knowledge about, were exposed in many of Abelardo Diaz Alfaro's books written during the 1940s. Diaz Alfaro opposed racism.
Just like in most countries where slaves were brought over from Africa, in Puerto Rico, slaves were assigned new last names, in Spanish. Slaves usually got their owner's last names, passing the adopted last names to their children and so on. Many slaves worked in sugarcane fields, others in manufacturers or other types of jobs.
In the mid 1800's there were many Spanish creoles, mestizos and freed "people of color" who developed a social consience in regard to slavery. They were called Abolitionists. Among them were, Ramon Emeterio Betances, Segundo Ruiz Belvis, Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and Lola RodrÃguez de Tió. Betances even formed a secret society which helped many slaves gain their freedom. On September 23, 1868, many slaves participated in the failed uprising against Spain, headed by Manuel Rojas known as "El Grito de Lares, with the promise that they would be freed.
On March 22, 1873, a law proclaiming the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico was passed.
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Modern society
The term Negro(a) or Negrito(a), which means small black person, originated during the African slave trade and was used to describe a person of visible African descent (ie. Negro Jose or Negra Maria). Today the word has lost its negative connotations and is often applied to another as a term of endearment regardless of their background. In 2003, several major DNA studies done at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez discovered that 61%, 27% and 12% of Puerto Ricans have Taino, African, and European ancestry through matrilineal lines respectively. This was due to the fact that the Spanish Conquest was mostly male and the Spaniard and Moorish men who accompanied Christopher Columbus came into the Caribbean's "New World" to take their share of gold and "exotic" native women. The Spaniards also abused the enslaved African women. While some had consented marriages, the majority did not. "Race" could no longer be defined clearly as the various populations became blended to the point of social obscurity. The Spanish culture dominated all aspects of island life. Taino culture disappeared into the conquering culture as did the African one. They were overshadowed and relegated to the backburners of Puerto Rican society until today. As Puerto Rican culture moves towards a better understanding of itself and what it means to be Puerto Rican, confidence and pride is shown towards its original roots than ever before.
Today, racism has not really taken a foothold amongst the populace as it had in the U.S. though the American influence has brought a greater awareness of skin tones. Given the historical awareness Puerto Ricans have had of their own nation, the "cultural guards" will always remain up. Children in Puerto Rican schools are taught about by Puerto Rican teachers the three main "races" that they are composed of from the time they first enter kindergarten, and most public residential areas feature famous statues and murals of Taino, African and Spanish celebrities. Neighborhoods in Puerto Rico are often populated by groups of people who become united as they get to know each other, and it is not uncommon to see blacks, brown-skinned, mestizos, and even Chinese sharing together in neighborhood parties or talking.
Most Puerto Ricans enjoy Salsa music, a musical blend of African and Caribbean rhythms developed by Cubans and Puerto Ricans who came up together in the streets of New York. Salsa was imported back into Puerto Rico and Cuba as "popular"' music in the 30's, 40's and 50's. On the island of Puerto Rico, Bomba (from Loiza, Mayaguez and Ponce), which has origins in Ghana, West Africa, had always been one of the major forms of music enjoyed by all Puerto Ricans. The Taino-Spanish influence (also included in Salsa and evidenced by the use of the "clave" and the "maracas" as integral musical instruments) comes from the mountain regions where the last vestiges of Taino culture stood out the longest. Plena (which many say came from Barrio San Anton in Ponce) is another major form which probably came from the English-speaking African immigrants who arrived from the British Caribbean islands through the island's Southern ports at the beginning of the 20th Century. "Reggaeton", a form of music which blends Puerto Rican Bomba with Jamaican Reggae rhythms, has also entered the popular Puerto Rican musical arena.
Although many black Puerto Ricans live in poor residential areas, many others have progressed and are able to live comfortably. Still, at least 2/3rds of all Puerto Ricans live on public assistance.
Among the towns with the largest black populations in Puerto Rico, apart from San Juan and Vieques, are LoÃza, Canovanas, Carolina, Fajardo, Ponce and Mayaguez. Other cities, such as Caguas and Bayamon also have significant numbers of black residents.
It is interesting to note that, for Puerto Ricans, a person is not considered black because his/her ancestors were black, like in the United States but by the color of the skin. So, for example if someone has a grandparent or other ancestor who was black, if the person looks white he/she is considered white for a Puerto Rican.
My question to you is how did all these people gain their freedom from the Puerto Rican slave system?
As Gordon answered, slavery ended in PR in 1873 (it ended in 1888 in Brazil). But if you are talking about how they were individually manumitted during slavery, it often happened upon the master's death, in accordance with the last will and testament (freeing your slaves improved your chances of entering the pearly gates). It was also routine for slaves to buy their own freedom in installments. Manumission rates were much, much higher in Latin America than in the United States.
girlfromthenc wrote:
Also [Jay Kinsbruner's Not of Pure Blood contradicts some of what you implied about Puerto Ricans 'intermarrying' for centries. This book states -well at least during that time period- that the overwhelming amount of folks identified as Whites married other Whites, Free coloured (who were seperated into 3 categories by color) married each other and slaves married slaves. So when did all these "outmarriage occur"?
Kinsbruner is a respected history professor (I think that he is semi-retired at City University of New York). Kinsbruner looked only at 19th-century residents of the port city of San Juan (not the the majority of people in the country) and only at free citizens (not slaves). He drew from two sources to measure "racism" among those people at that place and time.
He examined property ownership records to measure residential property segregation between those whom he (Kinsbruner) saw as "White" (those with the lightest Spanish skin-tone designations and those whom he considered "Black" (those with the darkest skin-tone labels). He also examined marriage licenses between the same two groups. He found that light-skinned free Puerto Ricans in the big city considered themselves above, and looked down on, dark-skinned Puerto Ricans in the big city.
In my essay, The Heredity of “Racial” Traits (which is what I think you were talking about), I was looking only at the genetic admixture in modern Puerto Ricans, which displays a normal (Poisson) distribution characteristic of totally admixed populations with random mating. I was not looking at "racism," nor did I consider how a professor might classify PR's continuum-admixed population into the two "races" unique to the United States.
I think we are talking about apples and oranges. On the one hand, I am saying that Puerto Ricans actually have the distribution of Afro-European DNA that one would predict from random mating. On the other, Kinsbruner is saying that the light-skinned Afro-European admixed Puerto Ricans living in 19th century San Juan looked down on (and segregated themselves from) the dark-skinned Afro-European admixed Puerto Ricans living in 19th century San Juan.
You asked, when did intermarriage between Afro-European admixed Puerto Ricans and other Afro-European admixed Puerto Ricans take place? In every generation. My parents were married. Their parents were married. It is a devoutly Catholic country. People marry before raising families.
The mismatch between measurable genetic reality and Kinsbruner's study of "racism" is not because Puerto Ricans are not mixed. They are. And it is not because the light ones did not look down on the dark ones. They did. It is because you are trying to see Puerto Ricans as divided into two endogamous groups separated by a color line. Kinsbruner may well be right, that 19th-century San Juan residents tried to segregate themselves by skin tone. But if their goal was to keep European blood from mixing with African blood in their descendants, they failed utterly.
I like the article on the modern situation in PR and I think it is very accurate.
I strongly disagree. The stuff about social attitudes is reasonably accurate. But the implication that Pedro Albizu Campos was some sort of Puerto Rican patriot is a grotesque ultraliberal travesty of the truth. The man was a vicious terrorist who tried and failed to assassinate the governor of PR in 1950 by launching an armed commando strike against the governor's mansion. He tried and failed to assassinate the president ot the United States in 1950 by launching an armed commando strike against Blair House (where the president was living while the White House was being renovated). He tried to assassinate the members of the U.S. Congress in 1954 by launching an armed commando strike against the House of Representatives. His men succeeded in breaking into the building and in shooting down several congressmen before being taken down by the police.
Revisionists claim that his terrorism was "in a good cause" because he wanted Puerto Rican independence from the United States. This pseudo-justification denies every principle of democracy, indeed every principle of Western civilization. Puerto Ricans have the opportunity to vote for indpendence at every election. The independence party has never received even ten percent of the vote. The vast majority of Puerto Ricans (by which I mean people who actually make their homes there) hold his memory in the contempt that it deserves precisely because he was willing to murder and terrorize in order to deny the will of the voters of the island.
I find this subject fascinating. Most of the really left-identified people I've met revere Pedro Albizu Campos and the Puerto Ricans who shot up Congress in 1954. There was a long campaign to get the their sentences commuted. The viewpoint promoted by U.S. Marxist and semi-Marxist publications is that Puerto Rico is a captive colony of the U.S. The opinions of the majority of Puerto Ricans do not figure into their equations.
Compare this to the glorification of the Black Panthers and other black thugs. The more violent and ignorant an American black was, the more "authenic" he was supposed to be.
___________________________________________
fwsweet wrote:
Liana wrote:
I like the article on the modern situation in PR and I think it is very accurate.
I strongly disagree. The stuff about social attitudes is reasonably accurate. But the implication that Pedro Albizu Campos was some sort of Puerto Rican patriot is a grotesque ultraliberal travesty of the truth. The man was a vicious terrorist who tried and failed to assassinate the governor of PR in 1950 by launching an armed commando strike against the governor's mansion. He tried and failed to assassinate the president ot the United States in 1950 by launching an armed commando strike against Blair House (where the president was living while the White House was being renovated). He tried to assassinate the members of the U.S. Congress in 1954 by launching an armed commando strike against the House of Representatives. His men succeeded in breaking into the building and in shooting down several congressmen before being taken down by the police.
Revisionists claim that his terrorism was "in a good cause" because he wanted Puerto Rican independence from the United States. This pseudo-justification denies every principle of democracy, indeed every principle of Western civilization. Puerto Ricans have the opportunity to vote for indpendence at every election. The independence party has never received even ten percent of the vote. The vast majority of Puerto Ricans (by which I mean people who actually make their homes there) hold his memory in the contempt that it deserves precisely because he was willing to murder and terrorize in order to deny the will of the voters of the island.
I find this subject fascinating. Most of the really left-identified people I've met revere Pedro Albizu Campos and the Puerto Ricans who shot up Congress in 1954. There was a long campaign to get the their sentences commuted. The viewpoint promoted by U.S. Marxist and semi-Marxist publications is that Puerto Rico is a captive colony of the U.S. The opinions of the majority of Puerto Ricans do not figure into their equations.
Compare this to the glorification of the Black Panthers and other black thugs. The more violent and ignorant an American black was, the more "authenic" he was supposed to be.
___________________________________________
fwsweet wrote:
Liana wrote:
I like the article on the modern situation in PR and I think it is very accurate.
I strongly disagree. The stuff about social attitudes is reasonably accurate. But the implication that Pedro Albizu Campos was some sort of Puerto Rican patriot is a grotesque ultraliberal travesty of the truth. The man was a vicious terrorist who tried and failed to assassinate the governor of PR in 1950 by launching an armed commando strike against the governor's mansion. He tried and failed to assassinate the president ot the United States in 1950 by launching an armed commando strike against Blair House (where the president was living while the White House was being renovated). He tried to assassinate the members of the U.S. Congress in 1954 by launching an armed commando strike against the House of Representatives. His men succeeded in breaking into the building and in shooting down several congressmen before being taken down by the police.
Revisionists claim that his terrorism was "in a good cause" because he wanted Puerto Rican independence from the United States. This pseudo-justification denies every principle of democracy, indeed every principle of Western civilization. Puerto Ricans have the opportunity to vote for indpendence at every election. The independence party has never received even ten percent of the vote. The vast majority of Puerto Ricans (by which I mean people who actually make their homes there) hold his memory in the contempt that it deserves precisely because he was willing to murder and terrorize in order to deny the will of the voters of the island.
'
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