Redbone Ethnic Group

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Overview

Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States to denote a multi-racial individual or culture. In Louisiana and Texas, it also refers to a geographically and ethnically distinct group. Other linked names include the Category: Redbone and the Category:Texas Neutral Ground and Louisiana Neutral Ground.

The Redbone cultural group in Louisiana and Texas consists mainly of the families of migrants to those states in the early 1800s. These individuals may have ancestral ties to the Melungeons. The term "Redbone" became disfavored as it was a nickname applied by others. However, in more recent years, the term has begun to be used as the preferred description for some Creole groups, including the Louisiana Redbones.

The Louisiana Redbones historically lived in geographically and socially isolated communities in the southwestern Louisiana parishes, ranging from Sabine Parish in the northwest and Rapides Parish near the center of the state down to Calcasieu Parish in the southwest, including parts of Orange County, Texas and Newton County, Texas. This area is roughly coextensive with what was once known as the Neutral Ground or Sabine Free State. Most families ancestral to the Louisiana Redbones came from South Carolina, although some families came from other Southeastern states. A review of newspaper articles, land grants, census records and other documents referring to the Redbones indicates that the main settlements of Redbones to southwestern and south central Louisiana and southeastern Texas took place over the course of many years, though some members of Redbone families are noted as settling in the Neutral Ground before 1818 when the land was finally and officially considered part of the United States.

The ambiguity of the origins of the members of the Redbone community and the cultural attitudes held by those living in the same region as the Redbone community but who were not part of it is shown in a letter written in 1893 by Albert Rigmaiden, Calcasieu parish treasurer, to McDonald Furman, a South Carolinian who conducted private ethnological research. Rigmaiden wrote that he was unable to explain how the name Redbone originated and stated that: "...they are neither white nor black and as well as I can find out, the oldest ones came from South Carolina many years ago. " Historically, members of the Redbone ethnic group lived in three areas.

• One community lived along Ten Mile Creek in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, and Allen Parish, Louisiana. Members of this community were referred to as "Ten Milers" or as "Red Bones."
• In the 19th century, a second community settled along Bearhead Creek in what is now Beauregard Parish, Louisiana.
• A third community was established east Texas counties such as Newton County, Texas, and Orange County, Texas. Nineteenth-century newspapers tended to refer to members of this community simply as "mulattos," and members of this Texas community were not able to vote.

These included east Texans from these counties:

Cass County, Texas

Red River County, Texas

Marion County, Texas

Shelby County, Texas

Harrison County, Texas

Panola County, Texas

San Augustine County, Texas

Orange County, Texas

Newton County, Texas

Upshur County, Texas

In the frontier of Southwestern Louisiana, the settlers successfully resisted classification as non-white. In 1837 and 1849, several of the members of the Redbone community were indicted for illegal voting on the charge that they were of color rather than white. The state court found them all not guilty, thus establishing that the Redbone community would be legally considered white in the state of Louisiana. However, references to the Redbone community and its members in 19th-century newspapers tended refer to members of unspecified mixed races.

During the days of the Jim Crow laws, schools in the location of the Redbones accepted Redbone students as white and a review of United States Census records in the late 19th and early 20th century shows that families traditionally considered as members of the Redbone community were mainly (although not always) recorded as white. Additionally, according to the marriage and census records, individuals who were from these families married either other members of the Redbone community or individuals who were listed in the census records as white and not members of the Redbone community.^[1]

Resources

• Redbone Nation website
• Redbones of Louisiana : for 200 years Redbones have been Louisiana's mystery people, a book by Don C. Marler (Available for free online reading or download as a PDF file.)
• Louisiana Redbones, an article by Don C. Marler
• Redbones in the Neutral Strip or No Man's Land Between the Calcasieu and Sabine Rivers in Louisiana and Texas, Respectfully, and the Westport Fight Between Whites and Redbones for Possession of This Strip on Christmas Eve, 1882 by Webster Talma Crawford, courtesy of Dr. J. A. Crawford
• Who Are the Redbones?
• "Western Louisiana's Neutral Strip: Its History, People, And Legends", a scholarly article by Keagan LeJeune with information on the Redbone people and their relationship to Louisiana's historic Neutral Ground
• Redbone Redbone blog
• Tx Redbones website
• Early Texas Redbone Families presentation
• Redbone - DNACommunities
• The Melungeons - A Mixed-Race People (Mentions the Redbone ethnic group.)
• No Mans land - Documentary
• America's Forgotten Mixed Race Ethnic Groups. European, African, and American Indian - Youtube Video Channel Masaman

Sources

1. ↑ “Redbone (Ethnicity).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Aug. 2017.

• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcs02
• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hgs01
• http://genealogytrails.com/tex/pineywoods/harrison/history_bloodyground.html
• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jcr01
• http://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-regulatormoderator.html
• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcs09
• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcp02