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Redbone (ethnicity)
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A term historically used in much of the southern United States, "Redbone" had various meanings according to locality, all implying race mixture or miscegenation. The term's origin is unknown. This article pertains to the distinctive Louisiana Redbones.
The term "Redbone" became disfavored in the late 1960's, whereas it was a pejorative nickname applied by others to the geographically and socially isolated dark-complexioned populations in most western Louisiana parishes, from Sabine Parish in the northwest and Rapides Parish near the center of the state down to Calcasieu Parish in the southwest.
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A term historically used in much of the southern United States, "Redbone" had various meanings according to locality, all implying race mixture or miscegenation. The term's origin is unknown. This article pertains to the distinctive Louisiana Redbones.
The term "Redbone" became disfavored in the late 1960's, whereas it was a pejorative nickname applied by others to the geographically and socially isolated dark-complexioned populations in most western Louisiana parishes, from Sabine Parish in the northwest and Rapides Parish near the center of the state down to Calcasieu Parish in the southwest. This area is roughly coextensive with what was once known as the Neutral Ground or Sabine Free State, when no U.S. state exercised jursidiction over the area from the Calcasieu River on the east to the Sabine River on the west. Families ancestral to the Louisiana Redbones came primarily from South Carolina (where they faced legal classification as "other free persons" i.e., non-white ) to the hills and prairies of western Louisiana, following the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1803. In this area the settlers successfully resisted categorization as non-white, though discrimination existed such that they typically established their own communities with churches, stores, and even schools. Though their descendants now number over 20,000 individuals and are dispersed to other states, especially eastern Texas, academically the group has been termed "largely unstudied."
In recent years some who belong to or identify with this group have embraced the name and have established family name, genetic, and historical websites to collect and trace their common heritage. The DNA results thus far show that while most of the families have Native American markers in varying degrees and some of them have sub-Saharan African markers, others lack the latter, and markers associated with the Romani people and other South Asian peoples have turned up, indicating that in some cases the dark complexions came as such along with Protestantism and English surnames via the British Isles rather than being wholly acquired in America.
Redbones in literature
- Will D. Campbell, The Glad River
See also
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