(East) Texas "geechee" redux

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated :Wed, 14 Sep 2005 17:12:51 -0400,  Wilson  Gray
_hwgray at GMAIL.COM_ (mailto:hwgray at GMAIL.COM)   inquires:

>Lieutenant-General Russel Honore is a textbook  example of the kind of
>person that black (East) Texans refer to as a  "geechee": a black
>person from Louisiana in general or from New Orleans  in particular,
>especially one with a French or a Spanish surname and/or  of mixed
>African-European ancestry. For readers of TIME, on p.57 of  the
>September 19 issue, there are two more examples of the geechee type  to
>be found.

>Needless to say, black people who fit this  description are found all
>over the United States, including Texas. Why  black (East) Texans
>should apply the term "geechee" specifically to black  Louisianans I
>have no idea. Indeed, my mother and her mother fit the  type. But,
>being native Texans, they would be referred to only  as
>"olive(-skinned)" and "bright(-skinned)," resp.



In New Orleans before the Louisiana Purchase, and for years afterwards,
rather than simply classifying people as either "white" and "Negro" (or "white",
"Negro", and mixed-race), there was an elaborate classification system which
sorted people by how many EIGHTHS of their ancestry was of white, African,
and/or American Indian ancestry.

 From _http://www.afrigeneas.com/forum/index.cgi?noframes;read=29721_
(http://www.afrigeneas.com/forum/index.cgi?noframes;read=29721)  we  get the
followibng list of these sort boxes:
SACATRO - Negro & Griffe - 87.5 Black blood
GRIFFE - Negro & Mulatto - 75% Black blood
MARABON - Mulatto & Griffe - 62.5 Black blood
MULATTO - Negro & White - 50 % Black Blood
OS ROUGE - Negro & Indian - 50 % Black blood
TIERCERON - Mulatto & Quadroon - 37.5 Black blood
QUADROON - White & Mullatto - 25% Black blood
OCTAROON - White & Quadroon - 12.5% Black blood

There is a list in the WPA Writers' Guide to Louisiana which I have not  seen
for many years but which if memory serves seems to be the same.

The above list was posted in response to somebody's question about the term
"grief colored" which may be someone's misrendering of "Griffe".

Web site _http://www.likesbooks.com/neworleans.html_
(http://www.likesbooks.com/neworleans.html)
<begin quote>
In New Orleans and Louisiana, before the Civil War there was a sizable
population of free men and women of mixed race. They were known on legal  documents
as gens de couleur and femmes de couleur. There was an elaborate caste
system among them based on skin color. A mulatto was the offspring of a black  and
a white. A griffe was the offspring of a mulatto and a black, a quadroon was
the offspring of a mulatto and a white and an octoroon was the offspring of a
quadroon and a white. There were other terms used as well (os rouge for
example)  if the person had Indian ancestry. It all got to be very confusing.
<end quote>

To answer your query, it is quite possible that the term "geechee" results
from a distant memory in East Texas that mixed-race people FROM LOUISIANA were
at one time classified differently from mixed-race people who came from
anywhere  else.  If so, then "geechee" is obviously an East Texas rendering of some
 Louisiana term which may not be on the above list.

OT:  during my quickie Google search I ran across a 1946 article at
_http://www.melungeon.org/index.cgi?&CONTEXT=cat&cat=10057_
(http://www.melungeon.org/index.cgi?&CONTEXT=cat&cat=10057)  on  populations of mixed black/Indian/white
ancestry who (as of 1946) remained  isolated from the surrounding white and
black population.  (I find to  my surprise that one such group, known as the
"Nanticokes", lives or lived  near Bridgeton New Jersey, around fifty miles from
where I live.)  The  article includes an interesting usage of "Native
American":

"These examples [of isolated mixed-race populations] show how outcast or
pariah peoples come into existence and provide a ready parallel to the
Untouchables of India and the Eta of Japan.
"It is extremely urgent that a  program be devised as soon as possible for
the assimilation and betterment of  the condition of these native American
backward minorities."

The article also says that one such population in Louisiana is known as the
"Red Bones", that being an English translation of "os rouge".
- James A. Landau