The Impact of Skin Color on Atlantic Ethnic Africans in the Eighteenth Century
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Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 2016 "Favorite of Heaven": The mpI act of Skin Color on Atlantic Ethnic Africans in the Eighteenth Century Kimberly V. Jones Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in History at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Jones, Kimberly V., ""Favorite of Heaven": The mpI act of Skin Color on Atlantic Ethnic Africans in the Eighteenth Century" (2016). Masters Theses. 2500. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2500 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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I have conferred with my graduate faculty advisor. My signature below indicates that I have read and agree with the above statements, and hereby give my permission to allow Booth Library to reproduce and distribute �esis. Mv adviser's sif7natnre indicates concurrence to reproduce and distribute the thesis. Faculty Adviser Signature Printed Name Printed Name sf<.ft(o Graduate Degfet;Qfam Date Please submit in duplicate. "Favorite of Heaven" The Impact of Skin Color on Atlantic Ethnic Africans in the Eighteenth Century (TITLE) BY Kimberly V. Jones THESIS SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master Arts History IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 2016 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE �lrJ./!6 s �-11.. THESIS COMMITTEE Ci4.IR DATE DEPARTMENT/SCHOOL CHAIR DATE OR CHAIR'S DESIGNEE �-&-JG, THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE s[, [I-. THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE Acknowledgments This thesis was based on research conducted on the contingences of black identity in the British Atlantic and Early America. I am deeply indebted to Eastern Illinois University, archives, and mentors in encouraging me through the process. At Eastern Illinois University, I thank the Department of History and Chair Anita Shelton forsuppor t of academic pursuits through departmental awards and funding conferenceenga gements. I also thank Charles Foy forun wavering academic support and guidance. His belief in this project solidified my resolve to tell these stories. I am gratefulto Debra Reid and Edmund Wehrle forfin ding my project as fascinating as I do. As well as Newton Key, Martin Hardeman and Bonnie Laughlin-Shultz forloanin g their books and exploring with me the deep avenues of black Atlantic identities as well as my own identityas a scholar. This authorship owes a debt to the Krystal Appiah at the Library Company of Philadelphia and Cynthia Roman at Walpole Library. The Mellon Scholars Program under Krystal and the RepresentingSlaver y Workshop with Cynthia, allowed me to add a depth to the research otherwise not available. I thank my parents, Bettyand Gregory Martin and siblings Melody Jones, Vivian Martin and Gregory Martin forth eir support and understanding through this process. 1 "Favorite of Heaven": The Impact of Skin color on Atlantic Ethnic Africans in the Eighteenth Century Table of Contents Introduction 3 Chapter 1. AfricanRoot s of Identity. 15 Chapter 2. European Construction of Race: Science and Race in the Eighteenth Century. 30 Chapter 3: Slave Codes and Identity 42 Chapter 4. Development of the Black Community in British America. 70 Chapter 5. Complexion of Community: Divisions based on skin color. 86 Chapter 6: Images of Color 107 Conclusion 126 Bibliography 131 Appendix of Figures 139 2 ,.___ .,.. _______ _ Introduction Historians have long agreed that race is a social construct; that is race and its correlations to identity and culture were created by design.1 To construct a cohesive narrative of identityth at incorporates a multitude of voices is a daunting endeavor. There has never been a singular identityfor th e peoples of ethnic African descent in the Atlantic.2 And although individuals of African heritage adorning a wide variety of skin colors have united under a banner of shared oppression and Africanan cestry, at times these ties of identity have proven shallow with some resenting the confinesof such identityand seeking to escape those strictures. In the eighteenth century binary the severityof the black/white racial identification provided both opportunities and uncertaintyfor et hnic Africans of lighter complexion. 1 The emphasis on social history following the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s shifted the paradigm in historical analysis ofracial groups. Researchers began to study human identityas a process that develops through social and historical events rather than a biological determinant. As a result, historians have subsequently focusedon race as a social manifestation of hierarchical and economic roles in society. For more in the historiography of racial construction see: Noel lgnatiev, How the IrishBec ame White,(London: Routledge, 1995); David Roediger, Wagesof Whiteness:Race and theMaking of the American Working Class, (New York: Verso, 1999); George M. Frederickson, The Black Image in the WhiteMind: Th e Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817- 1914,(Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1987); Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, (New York: Grove Press, 1967); and Barbara J Fields, "Ideology and Race in American History", in Region, Race, and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor ofC. Va nn Woodward. ed. J. Morgan Kousser and James M. McPherson, (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1982). 2 I use the term ethnic Africanto denote individuals of Africandescent across the Atlantic since the category black seemingly encompasses only a portion of the people. I use the term black in conjunction with light skin and dark skin to distinguish between two groups of peoples with different opportunities and expectations in the eighteenth century. 3 People designated as non-whites were categorized as animalistic creatures without souls or humanity.3 Light skinned ethnic Africans could and sometimes did fleeth is category. Individuals who could escape constraining identities leftbe hind friendsand familywh en they discarded an ethnic African identityin favorof white identityand privilege. Light skinned blacks who held onto their African identity were oftendeemed the best and brightest of the group. Even in a group of individuals enduring the persecution caused by their darker skin color, discrimination was not unheard of. Within black and ethnic Africancommunities skin color could divide as well as unite. This was clear fromthe firstEuropean encounters with Africans. It is this question, the extent that skin color divided as well as united the black community in British North America during the eighteenth century that is the subject of this thesis. In the seventeenth century, European naturalists explored foreignco ntinents and encountered people who disrupted their preconceived knowledge of the world. To explain the presence of the non-Christian indigenous peoples, Europeans came into contact with scientificor ganizations such as the Royal