Chapter 1 How it started
It all started about 20 years ago during a Sunday afternoon visit with my mother and sister in Bridgeport, WV.
And the subject turned to family history and genealogy which they had been working on for a few years with some success. But what they had was bits and pieces of paper with names and dates and related pieces of information. What they shared with me caught my attention but the lack of organization made it difficult to follow.
So, like a dutiful son with elementary computer skills, I offered to get it all organized in a way that we and others in the family could make sense of it. I was hooked in a project that I've added to in subsequent years. Unfortunately she died shortly after this conversation but my sister, Marsha, and I have been a good team in moving things along including the dramatic discoveries that I will record here.
We have been diligent about using internet resources, library, visits at court houses, cemeteries and churches and talked with loads of people all over. I even visited England and Wales with my son, CT, to check out ancestral sites.
We have tried to take great care in our research to assure credible results.
Discovery
Eventually, I came across a digital copy of Census reports for Tipton County, IN, 1870 and 1880, where a distant grandmother, Adeline Goens (sp?) and her family lived. What caught my eye was that they included a category for Race in this years and in the column for Adeline was entered the letters, "Mu" and "M". I was not accustomed to that designation and learned upon investigation that it referred to "Mulatto" and what it meant.
Believe, me, I've learned a whole lot more about Mulatto since then, the historical context and current situation. It will all eventually be reported at this website.
If you'd like to check out that Census report. Click here.
Mulatto definition. Most simply, "A person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially one having one white and one black parent."
To give a brief introduction to the controversial topic of Mulattoes and some context for the designation of the Goens family in the 1870-80 period, it's important to note that Mulatto was created as a racial category for the 1850 Census and was phased out in 1930.
The following comments are relevant in this regard indicating that the designation was of political, scientific and social interest:
". . . mulatto” arrived on the census as the stalking horse for polygenist racial science, as a way for opponents of slavery to learn more about blacks, as one piece of the statisticians’ omnivorous quest for knowledge, as the lesser of many evils to southern politicians, as an acknowledgement of increasing racial mixture and the distinctive economic and social position of many mulattoes,[60] as a chip in the battle over Congressional control of executive agencies, and as an element of partisan contestation. Politics, science, and ideology were inextricably mixed, and the process of racial reorganization was underway—arguably not exactly as anyone intended.
By 1880 and 1890, the expansion of census categories included more detail on racial mixture. With regard to “color or race,” enumerators’ instructions specified:
"Be particularly careful to distinguish between blacks, mulattoes, quadroons, and octoroons. The word “black” should be used to describe those persons who have three-fourths or more black blood; “mulatto,” those persons who have from three-eighths to five-eighths black blood; “quadroon,” those persons who have one-fourth black blood; and “octoroon,” those persons who have one-eighth or any trace of black blood."
No instruction explained how to determine fractions of black blood."
Source: Hochschild JL, Powell BM. Racial Reorganization and the United States Census 1850-1930: Mulattoes, Half-Breeds, Mixed Parentage, Hindoos, and the Mexican Race.
The term, "mulatto' has been generally regarded as derogatory for many years.
Questions
Obviously this initial information posed a number of additional questions which will be reported in later chapters.
You are invited to submit your own questions and I'll include them in subsequent reports.
And the subject turned to family history and genealogy which they had been working on for a few years with some success. But what they had was bits and pieces of paper with names and dates and related pieces of information. What they shared with me caught my attention but the lack of organization made it difficult to follow.
So, like a dutiful son with elementary computer skills, I offered to get it all organized in a way that we and others in the family could make sense of it. I was hooked in a project that I've added to in subsequent years. Unfortunately she died shortly after this conversation but my sister, Marsha, and I have been a good team in moving things along including the dramatic discoveries that I will record here.
We have been diligent about using internet resources, library, visits at court houses, cemeteries and churches and talked with loads of people all over. I even visited England and Wales with my son, CT, to check out ancestral sites.
We have tried to take great care in our research to assure credible results.
Discovery
Eventually, I came across a digital copy of Census reports for Tipton County, IN, 1870 and 1880, where a distant grandmother, Adeline Goens (sp?) and her family lived. What caught my eye was that they included a category for Race in this years and in the column for Adeline was entered the letters, "Mu" and "M". I was not accustomed to that designation and learned upon investigation that it referred to "Mulatto" and what it meant.
Believe, me, I've learned a whole lot more about Mulatto since then, the historical context and current situation. It will all eventually be reported at this website.
If you'd like to check out that Census report. Click here.
Mulatto definition. Most simply, "A person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially one having one white and one black parent."
To give a brief introduction to the controversial topic of Mulattoes and some context for the designation of the Goens family in the 1870-80 period, it's important to note that Mulatto was created as a racial category for the 1850 Census and was phased out in 1930.
The following comments are relevant in this regard indicating that the designation was of political, scientific and social interest:
". . . mulatto” arrived on the census as the stalking horse for polygenist racial science, as a way for opponents of slavery to learn more about blacks, as one piece of the statisticians’ omnivorous quest for knowledge, as the lesser of many evils to southern politicians, as an acknowledgement of increasing racial mixture and the distinctive economic and social position of many mulattoes,[60] as a chip in the battle over Congressional control of executive agencies, and as an element of partisan contestation. Politics, science, and ideology were inextricably mixed, and the process of racial reorganization was underway—arguably not exactly as anyone intended.
By 1880 and 1890, the expansion of census categories included more detail on racial mixture. With regard to “color or race,” enumerators’ instructions specified:
"Be particularly careful to distinguish between blacks, mulattoes, quadroons, and octoroons. The word “black” should be used to describe those persons who have three-fourths or more black blood; “mulatto,” those persons who have from three-eighths to five-eighths black blood; “quadroon,” those persons who have one-fourth black blood; and “octoroon,” those persons who have one-eighth or any trace of black blood."
No instruction explained how to determine fractions of black blood."
Source: Hochschild JL, Powell BM. Racial Reorganization and the United States Census 1850-1930: Mulattoes, Half-Breeds, Mixed Parentage, Hindoos, and the Mexican Race.
The term, "mulatto' has been generally regarded as derogatory for many years.
Questions
Obviously this initial information posed a number of additional questions which will be reported in later chapters.
You are invited to submit your own questions and I'll include them in subsequent reports.