The Real Story of Slavery - Part 2

The initial forced labor in the British North American colonies involved indentured servants who served a limited amount of time and were then freed. Many whites volunteered to  serve a period of time in exchange for funds to pay for their trip to North America. Although these indentured servants were only temporary slaves, they were slaves in every sense of the word.   Owners could mistreat them and even choose their sexual partners.  Use of   indentured servants continued through April, 1775, when prominent Virginia planter George Washington     advertised  a reward  for the return of 8 white and 2 black runaways.
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  The Africans and many Irish were forced to travel to the British colonies. Irish were sometimes sentenced to "transportation to America" for illegal acts.  Over 300,000 Irish  were sent to North America and the West Indies as slaves.  .  Thousands of children from London streets were rounded up and sent to the Americas. 

 Most indentured servants were white, particularly Irish, but some were Africans like Anthony Johnson who like white indentured servants was given some land after being freed.  Johnson used indentured servants on his land. 

Later when a decision was made to allow people to be held as permanent slaves, only Africans could be permanent slaves because they were foreigners.  The law didn't allow British subjects to be permanent slaves.  However, initially black children of indentured servants could be treated as permanent slaves because the mother's status as free or nor free determined the  child's status.  If the mother was a slave the child woul be a slave.   This practice differed from the traditional practice of having the father's social status determine the child's status.    A white slave child would be considered an indentured servant.  A black slave child would become  a permanent slave.

By the time permanent slavery began whites and blacks had been having relationships for years and produced children of mixed ancestry.   Some plantation owners forced white female  indentured servants to mate with black men so the children would become permanent slaves.  This practice increased the portion of the slave population that had European [white] genes as well as African [black] genes.   The slave population received additional white DNA from slave owners and overseers.

The relationships among those of mixed ancestry and between those with  mixed ancestry and whites were producing children who could " pass for white " in the 18th Century.   Some with a slightly dark complexion might have claimed to be of North American or Mediterranean ancestry to gain acceptance as whites. 

The relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his sister-in-law and virtual wife  Sally Hemings provides an example of this situation.  Hemings was the daughter of a union between Jefferson's father-in-law  John Wayles. and a slave. Wayles took Hemings' mother as his concubine after his first three wives died.   Hemings was legally classified as  "white" and had  long straight hair, but the social situation and laws governing slavery likely made an actual marriage impossible.   Some of their children later passed for white after being freed and leaving Virginia. 

This situation demonstrates that slavery was no longer about "race" or "color" in 1800.  Even though Hemings was the "white" daughter of a plantation owner, she was still considered a slave who became part of the property of her father's estate when he died in 1774. 

Various accounts in the following years indicate that household servants were often of lighter complexion than field slaves.   Many suggest this situation indicates color prejudice.  The more likely explanation is that the household servants had lighter complexions because they were related to the plantation owner.

By the time of the Civil War there were 5,000 black slave owners and  many slaves who were light complexioned or even white.  

The strange case of Jane / Alexina Morrison demonstrates that slavery wasn't necessarily about color.  According to the slave trader who sold her in Louisiana the blonde haired blue-eyed young woman he called "Jane" was born a slave. The woman who called herself "Alexina" sued him for kidnapping her after she escaped from him. The case bounced around the Louisiana courts just before the Civil War with juries siding with the woman and the courts with the slave trader.  It  apparently is still technically before the courts.   Regardless of which person was telling the truth, the fact that the courts even considered the possibility of Morrison being a slave demonstrates that white slaves were a part of southern slavery by the start of the Civil War.   Some of the escaped slaves whose narratives were published before the Civil War mentioned having seen white slaves.    Harpet's  Weekly in January carried a picture of  slaves recently freed by the Union army who were white.

The Real Story of Slavery - Part 1

Many  Americans believe slavery only involved white people owning black people.  They believe the master race was white and the slave race was black.  North American slavery actually involved relatively rich people,[e.g. land owners]  owning poor people who might or might not be of the same color.  

There were two types of forced laborers brought to North America:  indentured  servants and permanent slaves.   Most of the primarily Irish indentured servants were forced to travel to North America, but some were volunteers.  The first Africans were treated as indentured servants but were eventually treated as permanent slaves.  Members of the two groups worked together and the historical account indicates there was sufficient sexual contact between the two to produce a hybrid group of permanent slaves whose members could be  called "black Irish".

Unfortunately,the fact that most  slaves were black and most owners were white led to a belief among some whites that this situation meant blacks are inferior to whites.   This belief began during the slave era in part as a way to justify treating some people as slaves in an otherwise free country.

The first  Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619 only 14 years after the founding of the settlement.  During the two centuries of the Atlantic slave trade only about 500,000 additional Africans were imported into North America.   Britain led the way to ending the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 and the United States quickly followed to outlaw the importation of slaves without prohibiting the internal slave trade
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Initially North American forced laborers were white temporary slaves called "indentured servants" who served for a specified term such as 5-10 years.   The first Africans who arrived at Jamestown were treated as indentured servants   . Anthony Johnson arrived in 1620 and received some land from the Virginia colony  after he was freed.   In 1651 he  owned five indentured servants (four white and one black.  man named John Casor, who was  considered a permanent slave).

The term "indentured servant" is deceptive because during their period of indenture "servants"  could be brutally mistreated like regular slaves.  Some owners treated much cheaper Irish indentured servants  worse than ;lifetime slaves.  Africans cost from 20-50 pounds Sterling compared to about 5 pounds Sterling for an Irishman. 

Owners could even choose who  servants would mate with like  they were breeding  horses. Owners might use whites to breed lighter colored  slaves to be  sold.  Raising slaves for sale would become a signaficant part of the plantation economy. Light colored females would eventually be sold as "fancy slaves" to be prostitutes or concubines who might command a higher price than a prime field hand.

Many servants were children  picked up from London   streets.  The exploitation of children in the North American workplace would continue into the 20th Century.

Europe didn't have a large enough population to support large scale agriculture in the Western Hemisphere when colonization began.  The British used the colonies to relocate the Irish, but Ireland only had a population of 1.5 million.  The Spanish use of African slaves had begun before the discovery of land available for settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

Africans had been capturing, enslaving and selling each other for thousands of years  before Christopher Columbus discovered a huge new market for African slave traders.   Africans continued to enslave each other after the end of North American slavery.  There are reports that Africans still practice slavery.

The career of  Englishman John Newton demonstrates not only that whites could be slaves, but that those who engaged in the slave trade could also be slaves.   Newton was a sailor on a slave ship whose shipmates sold him to a West African slave trader because  they didn't get along with him.   A friend of Newton's retired ship captain father arranged to free Newton. Newton evenstually got a position as the captain of a slave ship.  A religious experience convinced Newton to become a Christian minister and become active in the movement to abolish slavery.  He wrote the popular hymn "Amazing Grace" which according to gospel singer Larnelle Harris uses a west African sorrow chant for the melody.

The Truth About Slavery - Part 1

The Truth  About Slavery - Part 1

Many  Americans believe slavery only involved white people owning black people.  They believe the master race was white and the slave race was black.  North American slavery actually involved relatively rich people,[e.g. land owners]  owning poor people who might or might not be of the same color.  

There were two types of forced laborers brought to North America:  indentured  servants and permanent slaves.   Most of the primarily Irish indentured servants were forced to travel to North America, but some were volunteers.  The first Africans were treated as indentured servants but were eventually treated as permanent slaves.  Members of the two groups worked together and the historical account indicates there was sufficient sexual contact between the two to produce a hybrid group of permanent slaves whose members could be  called "black Irish".

Unfortunately,the fact that most  slaves were black and most owners were white led to a belief among some whites that this situation meant blacks are inferior to whites.   This belief began during the slave era in part as a way to justify treating some people as slaves in an otherwise free country.

The first  Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619 only 14 years after the founding of the settlement.  During the two centuries of the Atlantic slave trade only about 500,000 additional Africans were imported into North America.   Britain led the way to ending the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 and the United States quickly followed to outlaw the importation of slaves without prohibiting the internal slave trade
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Initially North American forced laborers were white temporary slaves called "indentured servants" who served for a specified term such as 5-10 years.   The first Africans who arrived at Jamestown were treated as indentured servants   . Anthony Johnson arrived in 1620 and received some land from the Virginia colony  after he was freed.   In 1651 he  owned five indentured servants (four white and one black.  man named John Casor, was  considered a permanent slave).

The term "indentured servant" is deceptive because during their period of indenture "servants"  could be brutally mistreated like regular slaves.  Some owners treated much cheaper Irish indentured servants  worse than ;lifetime slaves.  Africans cost from 20-50 pounds Sterling compared to about 5 pounds Sterling for an Irishman. 

Owners could even choose who  servants would mate with like  they were breeding  horses. Owners might use whites to breed lighter colored  slaves to be  sold.  Raising slaves for sale would become a signaficant part of the plantation economy. Light colored females would eventually be sold as "fancy slaves" to be prostitutes or concubines who might command a higher price than a prime field hand.

Many servants were children  picked up from London   streets.  The exploitation of children in the North American workplace would continue into the 20th Century.

Europe didn't have a large enough population to support large scale agriculture in the Western Hemisphere when colonization began.  The British used the colonies to relocate the Irish, but Ireland only had a population of 1.5 million.  The Spanish use of African slaves had begun before the discovery of land available for settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

Africans had been capturing, enslaving and selling each other for thousands of years  before Christopher Columbus discovered a huge new market for African slave traders.   Africans continued to enslave each other after the end of North American slavery.  There are reports that Africans still practice slavery.

The career of  Englishman John Newton demonstrates not only that whites could be slaves, but that those who engaged in the slave trade could also be slaves.   Newton was a sailor on a slave ship whose shipmates sold him to a West African slave trader because  they didn't get along with him.   A friend of Newton's retired ship captain father arranged to free Newton. Newton evenstually got a position as the captain of a slave ship.  A religious experience convinced Newton to become a Christian minister and become active in the movement to abolish slavery.  He wrote the popular hymn "Amazing Grace" which according to gospel singer Larnelle Harris uses a west African sorrow chant for the melody.

The Truth About Slavery

Many of the descendants of North American slaves have a delusion that slavery was only about white people owning black people.   The fact is that Africans were capturing, enslaving and selling each other for centuries before Christopher Columbus discovered a new market for African slave traders.   Africans continued to enslave each other after the end of North American slavery.  There are numerous reports that Africans still practice slavery.

The career of  Englishman John Newton demonstrates not only that whites could be slaves, but that those who engaged in the slave trade could also be slaves.   Newton was a sailor on a slave ship whose shipmates sold him to a West African slave trader because  they didn't get along with him.   A friend of Newton's retired ship captain father arranged to free Newton. Newton eventually got a position as the captain of a slave ship.  A religious experience convinced Newton to become a Christian minister and become active in the movement to abolish slavery.  He wrote the popular hymn "Amazing Grace" which according to gospel singer Larnelle Harris uses a west African sorrow chant for the melody.

The initial forced labor in the British North American colonies involved indentured servants who served a limited amount of time and were then freed. Many whites volunteered to  serve a period of time in exchange for funds to pay for their trip to North America.  The Africans and many Irish were forced to travel to the British colonies. Irish were sometimes sentenced to "transportation to America" for illegal acts.  Most indentured servants were white, particularly Irish, but some were Africans like Anthony Johnson who like white indentured servants was given some land after being freed.  Johnson used indentured servants on his land. 

Later when a decision was made to allow people to be held as permanent slaves, only Africans could be permanent slaves because they were foreigners.  The law didn't allow British subjects to be permanent slaves.  However, initially black children of indentured servants could be treated as permanent slaves because the mother's status as free or nor free determined the  child's status.  By the time permanent slavery began whites and blacks had been having relationships for years and produced children of mixed ancestry.   Some plantation owners forced white indentured servants to mate with black men so the children would become permanent slaves.  This practice increased the portion of the slave population that had European [white] genes as well as African [black] genes.   The slave population received additional white DNA from slave owners and overseers.

The relationships among those of mixed ancestry and between those with  mixed ancestry and whites were producing children who could " pass for white " in the 18th Century.   Some with a slightly dark complexion might have claimed to be of North American or Mediterranean ancestry to gain acceptance as whites.  The relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his sister-in-law and virtual wife  Sally Hemings provides an example of this situation.  Hemings was the daughter of a union between Jefferson's father-in-law  John Wayles. and a slave. Wayles took Hemings' mother as his concubine after his first three wives died.   Hemings was legally classified as  "white" and had  long straight hair, but the social situation and laws governing slavery likely made an actual marriage impossible.   Some of their children later passed for white after being freed and leaving Virginia. 

This situation demonstrates that slavery was no longer about "race" or "color" in 1800.  Even though Hemings was the "white" daughter of a plantation owner, she was still considered a slave who became part of the property of her father's estate when he died in 1774. 

Various accounts in the following years indicate that household servants were often of lighter complexion than field slaves.   Many suggest this situation indicates color prejudice.  The more likely explanation is that the household servants had lighter complexions because they were related to the plantation owner.

By the time of the Civil War there were a relatively small number of black slave owners and  many slaves who were light complexioned or even white.   The strange case of Jane / Alexina Morrison demonstrates that slavery wasn't necessarily about color.  According to the slave trader who sold her in Louisiana the blonde haired blue-eyed young woman he called "Jane" was born a slave. The woman who called herself "Alexina" sued him for kidnapping her after she escaped from him. The case bounced around the Louisiana courts just before the Civil War with juries siding with the woman and the courts with the slave trader.  It  apparently is still technically before the courts.   Regardless of which person was telling the truth, the fact that the courts even considered the possibility of Morrison being a slave demonstrates that white slaves were a part of southern slavery by the start of the Civil War.   Some of the escaped slaves whose narratives were published before the Civil War mentioned having seen white slaves.   

Black Americans Should Thank Confederate Leaders for Their Rights

It is unlikely that the Civil War amendments would have been proposed and ratified if Confederate leaders hadn't precipitated the Civil War.   The fact that the civil rights amendments were an inadvertent result of the Civil War doesn't detract from the fact that the war resulted in ratification of constitutional amendments that outlawed slavery and would eventually guarantee all black Americans equal protection of the laws and  the right to vote.   Blacks should embrace the Confederate flag to show their gratitude for the benefits blacks received from the Civil War.   Incidentally I'm the great grandson of a Union army veteran and have on special feelings for the Confederate Flag". 

People should stop using the Confederate states and the Confederate flag as scapegoats for American racism.  At the time of the Civil War northern whites appear to have been far more racist than southern whites.  Slavery at the time of the Civil War was not just about color.  Although most slave owners were white, there were black slave owners.  Although most slaves were black, there were some white slaves.

The white children of female slaves also became slaves.  For example, President Thomas Jefferson's slave concubine Sally Hemings was also his sister-in-law.  Hemings, who was legally classified as white, was the daughter of a union between Jefferson's father-in-law and a slave.  Several of their children subsequently passed for white after being freed and leaving Virginia.

The strange case of Jane / Alexina Morrison demonstrates that slavery wasn't necessarily about color.  According to the slave trader who sold her in Louisiana the blonde haired blue-eyed young woman he called "Jane" was born a slave. The woman who called herself "Alexina" sued him for kidnapping her. The case bounced around the Louisiana courts just before the Civil War with juries siding with Alexina and the courts with the slave trader.  It  apparently is still technically before the courts.   Regardless of which person was telling the truth, the fact that the courts even considered the possibility of Morrison being a slave demonstrates that white slaves were a part of southern slavery.

The fact northern states prohibited slavery didn't mean they treated blacks fairly.   One of the reasons they didn't want slaves was because many northern whites were bigots.  They  hated blacks whom they considered inferior and didn't want them around regardless of whether they were free or slaves.   A northerner would have been far less likely to have had the type of relationship Jefferson had with Hemings.

"[R]ace prejudice seems stronger in those states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists, and nowhere is it more intolerant than in those states where slavery was never known." --Alexis De Tocqueville, �Democracy in America� 1835

At the start of the Civil War black Americans had few rights even in the states that didn't allow slavery.   Most northern states, including recently admitted Kansas, prohibited blacks from voting.  Many limited blacks to performing the least desirable jobs and living in the least desirable locations.   Indiana wouldn't allow blacks to attend school.  Illinois tried to keep them out entirely.

"When the Civil War ended, 19 of 24 Northern states did not allow blacks to vote. Nowhere did they serve on juries before 1860. They could not give testimony in 10 states, and were prevented from assembling in two. Several western states had prohibited free blacks from entering the state. Blacks who entered Illinois and stayed more than 10 days were guilty of "high misdemeanor." Even those that didn't exclude blacks debated doing so and had discriminatory ordinances on the local level."

Two Civil War era incidents demonstrate the racism of northerners and the United States government. 

On November 29, 1864, a unit of the Colorado Territorial Militia murdered peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne women and children at Sand Creek.    Almost exactly four years later on November 27, 1868, George Armstrong Custer led a unit of the United States cavalry to murder peaceful Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and his people on the Cheyenne reservation on the Washita River in Oklahoma territory.

The Civil War allowed Abolitionists  to gain power and push their agenda which included rights for blacks.   It is unlikely they could have gained approval for amendments guaranteeing blacks equal rights, especially the right to vote, without the Civil War.   States that didn't allow blacks to vote would have been unlikely to ratify a constitutional amendment approving that right  except as a means of punishing the southern states for the Civil War.

The southern states didn't have slavery because the white residents were racist.  Slavery developed in the early colonial period because of the difficulty of attracting farm labor.  Land owners initially used "indentured servants"  who served for a period of time before being given their freedom.  Initially most indentured servants were white, especially Irish who were forced to come to America so the English could take their land.  The first Africans arrived at Jamestown in 1619.  They were treated just like white indentured servants with some landowners giving them land after they finished their period of indenture.

Later landowners decided they would rather have permanent slaves even though that hadn't been the British practice. The fact that Africans were considered foreigners provided a loophole to treat them as permanent slaves. The color difference was a bonus that made it easier to slave from non-slave.  The idea that they might be inferior developed as a rationalization for treating them differently. 

The southern region slipped into the trap of slavery during the colonial period and no one at the time of the Civil War could figure a way to change to a different labor system.   Slaves had become a significant financial asset and abruptly freeing slaves without compensating the owners, at least in the form of some type of loans, would have been the equivalent of burning up money.   Without compensation the owners would have lacked money to rehire the former slaves as employees.  Without money the former slaves would have been unable to buy food.

Jim Downs in his book "Sick from Freedom" indicates that the abruptly freed slaves suffered "the largest biological crisis of the 19th century".  Mass starvation and rampant disease affected as many as 1 million of the 4 million slaves.   The racism of northerners likely contributed to this crisis because many of them didn't care what happened to the former slaves..

A growth in immigration capable of  creating a labor surplus conceivably could have eventually caused a shift to paid workers by giving companies with paid workers a competitive advantage.   If a slave died the business had to purchase a new one. If a paid employee died, the company just hired someone else.  A slave owner had to continue to provide food, clothing and shelter to slaves during economic downturns to protect his investment.  Paid workers could be laid off.
 
The Confederate states decision to leave the Union wasn't just directly about the slavery issue.   The southern agricultural economy needed different economic policies, particularly on tariffs, than the northern economy.  People in the region, including some of the more knowledgeable slaves, may have developed a common identity of being victimized by the northern states because they lived in the south. They may have agreed with leaders that their states no longer had a stake in the union.   Such an attitude could explain why some blacks, both slave and free, decided to fight for the confederacy.  Slaves might have been worried that the war would replace one master with another.  They didn't know President Abraham Lincoln intended to free them until after the war.  White soldiers who didn't own slaves [only 33% of families owned slaves] may have held such an attitude in addition to being worried about how an invading army might treat them and their property.  Some white soldiers had only limited incomes and the military service was an improvement.  Northern soldiers may have been fighting to end slavery, but southern soldiers had more complex attitudes. 

American racism has nothing to do with the Confederate Flag or the Confederate States of America.  The real racists are just trying to use the Confederate Flag as a scapegoat for their own efforts to divide Americans into phony racial categories.   Censoring the Confederate Flag or removing the statues of  Confederate leaders will do nothing to reduce racism because these symbols are not responsible for perpetuating the outright lie that black Americans and white Americans belong to different "races"

The Confederate Flag is no more inherently racist then the crosses that the Ku Klux Klan liked to desecrate by burning.  The best way to discourage the use of the Confederate Flag by racists is to convert it into a symbol of racial unity.   This action should be part of a process in which those people who had ancestors living in the south prior to World War II recognize they likely have cousins whose skin is of a different color than theirs.

Sex across the color line in the south likely began even before an African named John Punch married a white woman who was probably an indentured servant in about 1835. Barack Obama's mother was one of the descendents of this union.   In early Virginia young people often had to marry across the color lines because the number of man in a color group didn't always equal the number of women.  Later when Virginians decided to have blacks be permanent slaves, rather than indentured servants, many planters required their African male slaves to marry their white (primarily Irish) female indentured servants so the resulting children could be kept as permanent slaves.  A change in laws made a child's status as slave or free determined by the mother's status.  It was only free white women who were prohibited from having sex with black men because they children would have been free.  Some of the descendents of these mixed marriages would eventually be able to pass for white and become part of the white population.

Slavery typically includes sexual relations between men in the master class and women in the slave class.  Some of the descendents of these relationships might eventually pass for white as was the case with children of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.   After slavery sex between white men and black women was allowed. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had an Irish ancestor.  Sen. Strom Thurman had a black daughter by the daughter of his family's housekeeper.   These type relationships mean  many southerners have cousins of a different color.
 
Those who talk about southern racism ignore the north's own racism.  The Roberts Case which provided the "separate but equal" doctrine  for the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision allowing racial segregation  was a Massachusetts court case.  Lawrence, Kansas, which was a center for anti-slavery sentiment had segregated schools. 

Southern racism didn't become a serious problem until long after the Civil War.  For a brief period in the late 19th Century blacks and whites were working together politically.  Then southern white leaders began encouraging racism to keep themselves in power.  These racists received major assistance from the Supreme Court when it condoned racial segregation in the Plessy v. Ferguson case.   They later received assistance from Hollywood with the extremely racist movie "Birth of a Nation"

The Chicago race riot in 1919 in which 34 people died demonstrates northern racism in the early 20th Century.  The riot was one of many Red Summer race riots in northern and southern cities which included a lynching of a black prisoner in Omaha, Nebraska.  In 1992 the acquittal of white officers who beat a black taxi driver named Rodney King triggered a race riot.

The use of demonstrations to deal with racial discrimination began in northern cities in the 1930's with the "don't shop where you can't work" department store boycotts.  Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., led a bus boycott to force the hiring of black bus drivers in New York City.

The Board of Education in the Brown v. Board of Education case which outlawed school segregation was in Topeka, Kansas.  Wichita, Kansas, high school students conducted a sit-in to force a drug store to integrate its lunch counter in 1958.    Housing segregation remains a reality in many northern cities.  Recent controversial incidents of police killings of black men have occurred in cities that were in the Union during the Civil War. 

Northern states allow the operation of "Jane Crow" health facilities.   A "Jane Crow" health facility is a facility that primarily treats minority women but isn't as strictly regulated as facilities treating white men.  Such facilities violate federal civil rights law.  Tonya Reaves died as a result of a botched abortion in one such facility, which lacks a license to operate,  in President Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago.

Journalists Share Blame for Charleston Tragedy

American journalists are partly to blame for the recent racist shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, because they continue to perpetuate the old southern racist myth that black Americans are a separate "race" from white Americans.   Journalists seem to support the "one drop rule" or "part black all black". For example, they continue to refer to Asian ancestry golfer  Tiger Woods as "African American" even though his mother has Asian and Dutch ancestry and his father has Asian, European and North American ancestry as well as African ancestry.  These racist journalists even refer to a child who has a black parent and a white parent as "biracial" even though the black parent might have more recent ancestors from Europe and North America than from Africa.

The extremely racist term "African-American" implies that blacks are Africans living in America rather than Americans with some African ancestors.  The only African ancestors most descendents of American slaves had left  Africa over two centuries ago.  The number of Africans arriving in the United States dropped substantially after the government banned the importation of slaves in 1808.  Some  African ancestors of black Americans left Africa four centuries ago.  Twenty Africans arrived at Jamestown in August, 1619.  Others had been living in the Spanish controlled areas of what became Florida, Georgia and South Carolina before the English established Jamestown or landed at Plymouth Rock.  It was the Spanish who gave the Africans the name "Negro" which is Spanish for "black". 
 
The dark skinned peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa might be  of a different race  from the light skinned peoples of northern Africa and Europe,  but Americans have had too much sex across the color line over the last 400 years to be of different races. 

Sex across the color line in North America has been documented as far back as the 1630's when African John Punch married a white woman believed to be an indentured servant.    Punch is believed to be the first permanent slave in Virginia.  Previously "slaves" were called indentured servants and they served for a specific number of years.   His descendents were called "Bunch" and are believed to include diplomat Ralph Bunche and Stanley Ann Dunham, the mother of President Barack Obama.   The small population of early Virginia meant that people often had to find mates across the color line.

In the mid 17th Century slave owners  decided to turn the dark skinned slaves into permanent slaves with white slaves continuing to be indentured  servants.  To increase the number of permanent slaves some  slaves owners required white female slaves  to mate with African male slaves so that the resulting dark skinned babies could be kept as permanent slaves.  The white male slaves would then be left to mate with African female slaves.

The early Africans began a long association with the various North American peoples.  The first association of an African with North Americans occurred in 1526.   In the English colonies some villages would accept escaped slaves into the village and others would not.   In the early 19th century the Cherokee and some others held black slaves.

Virtually all the  African ancestors of slaves arrived before importation of Africans was outlawed in 1808.  Only about  500,000  Africans were imported into North America during the period of the North American slave trade.   This number is significant considering that the total U.S. population in 1790 was only about 4 million with  about 20% or  757,000 blacks.  

The only inherent difference between black and white Americans is a half dozen genes that control skin color.  A person can have a dark complexion even though a majority of skin color genes come from European ancestors because the genes that code for dark complexion are dominant and only a couple are needed for a relatively dark complexion.  One of the genes that codes for a dark complexion is common among peoples of North America and Asia as well as Africa.

The slave genome continued to receive new DNA from plantation owners and overseers until slavery was ended.  The most prominent example of this practice in the United States was the relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and his concubine Sally Hemings.

Southern laws prohibiting sex across the color line were ignored if the female was black such as in the case of the  mother of  Sen. Strom Thurmond's black daughter. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is known to have had a white male ancestor who provided his "Y" chromosome. In the South white men could rape black women without fear of prosecution until the 1960's.  

It's likely that some children of mixed ancestry were passing for white by the early 18th Century.  Many whites who researched their ancestry after the "Roots" television series were surprised to find ancestors whose military records included the letter "C" after the name for "Colored".  President Warren G. Harding acknowledged he had some black ancestors. Some believe that  four other white presidents  may have had African ancestors.   It is particularly likely that President Abraham Lincoln got his dark curly hair from a black ancestor.  Many of his contemporaries believed he had slave ancestors.   Most white people who have African ancestors probably don't know it because that type of information usually was kept secret when a person passed for white.

It's time we Americans recognize that America is not the home of a black race and a white race, but instead is the home of a single race  whose ancestors were red and yellow, black and white.
Those who are serious about eliminating racism need to begin by eliminating racist terms like "African-American" and racist myths like the idea colors separate us into different races. They need to concentrate on how we are the same rather than how we are different.  We need to recognize the wisdom of the Lakota phrase Aho Mitakuye Oyasin (We Are All Related) .

Black leaders along with politicians and journalists should forget the spurious issue of the Confederate flag.  As the great grandson of a Union army veteran, I don't really understand why southerners have a fascination with the flag, but it is not inherently a symbol of racism. I've always understood it has a defiance of authority.   Eliminating the flag will do absolutely nothing to eliminate racism.  The action might actually encourage violent racists.  With one violent act a coward terrorized the black population of the south.  Racists may think that all they will have to do is wave a confederate flag and black people will hide under their beds.  Normal people don't understand that some people, especially some men, would rather be a pariah then a nobody.

Eliminating the flag will make the little coward who committed murder in God's House a major hero among his kind and a major historical figure.  He will be mentioned in history books as the man who caused southern states to change their flags.  To borrow a quote from the late Paul Harvey: "he [the killer] would want me to mention his name."