That the Blood Stay Pure: African Americans, Native Americans, and the Predicament of Race and Identity in Virginia

326 Pages·2013·3 MB·English

by  Arica L. Coleman

that the blood stay pure
BLACKS IN THE DIASPORA
Editors
Herman L. Bennett
Kim D. Butler
Judith A. Byfield
Tracy Sharpley-Whiting
that
the blood
stay pure
AFRICAN AMERICANS, NATIVE AMERICANS, AND
THE PREDICAMENT OF RACE AND IDENTITY IN VIRGINIA
arica l. coleman
Indiana University Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Indiana University Press
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iupress.indiana.edu
Coleman, Arica L.
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 That the blood stay pure : African
Fax orders 812-855-7931 Americans, Native Americans, and the
predicament of race and identity in Vir-
© 2013 by Arica L. Coleman ginia / Arica L. Coleman.
All rights reserved pages cm. — (Blacks in the diaspora)
Includes bibliographical references
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or utilized in any form or by any means, ISBN 978-0-253-01043-8 (cl : alk. paper)
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photocopying and recording, or by 1. African Americans—Virginia—
any information storage and retrieval History. 2. Indians of North America—
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In memory of Lillian, Leighton, and Jack
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I found that to tell the truth is the hardest thing on earth, harder
than fighting in a war, harder than taking part in a revolution. If you
try it you will find at times sweat will break upon you. You will find
that even if you succeed in discounting the attitudes of others to you
and your life, you will wrestle with yourself most of all, fight with
yourself, for there will surge up in you a strong desire to alter facts,
to dress up your feelings. You’ll find that there are many things you
don’t want to admit about yourself and others. As your record shapes
itself, an awed wonder haunts you. And yet there is no more exciting
adventure than trying to be honest in this way. The clean, strong
feeling that sweeps you when you’ve done it makes you know that.
—Richard Wright
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CONTENTS
Foreword by Joseph F. Jordan xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction 1
Part 1. Historicizing Black–Indian
Relations in Virginia
P rologue. Lingering at the Crossroads: African–
Native American History and Kinship Lineage in
Armstrong Archer’s A Compendium on Slavery 21
1 Notes on the State of Virginia: Jeffersonian Thought and the
Rise of Racial Purity Ideology in the Eighteenth Century 42
2 Redefining Race and Identity: The Indian–Negro
Confusion and the Changing State of Black–Indian
Relations in the Nineteenth Century 64
3 Race Purity and the Law: The Racial Integrity Act and Policing
Black–Indian Identity in the Twentieth Century 89
4 Denying Blackness: Anthropological Advocacy and the
Remaking of the Virginia Indians 122
Part 2. Black–Indian Relations in
the Present State of Virginia
5 Beyond Black and White: Afro-Indian Identity
in the Case of Loving v. Virginia 151