LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.19 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 19.OCT.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Thomas Byro <thbyro at earthlink.net>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.16 (07) [E]

Marco:

I would like to add that I discussed  the theory as to Jackson White origins
presented by the lecturer of the historical society with a Jackson White
aquaintance of mine as we were sipping Walter Fahloh's powerful schnapps.
This would have been around 1975, the year before I left the area. Andy
(last name omitted to protect the guilty) felt that the theory was a lot of
nonsense.  However, he had no alternate theory to propose.  Although I had
my doubts about it, I returned to acceptance of the theory in spite of many
doubts I had had.  My doubts hinged on the fact that 200 prostitutes would
have had no difficulty in finding work in New York, which even then was a
wild city ( an article I had read in a newspaper stated that even in New
Amsterdam times, there were more bars than churches).  And then too, I
reasoned that the lecturer must have done her homework and have researched
the question thoroughly.  Maybe not though.  Maybe she gave vent to the same
prejudices felt by the general population of the area.

I would like to add that in the lowland areas, Dutch names are extremely
frequent.  I went to High School with many.  No one though assumes though
that someone is a Jackson White merely because their name is Vreeland.  That
distinction is reserved to the people who live in the mountains or who moved
from there.Making joking comments about the Jackson Whites was commonplace
in the area but I don't recall anyone with a Dutch surname doing so.  I
wonder if the name and concept of Jackson Whites is not imposed by the
outsiders who have moved into the area who were not pleased with the obvious
mixed race status of the mountain people?  In other words, that the Jackson
Whites were not a separate people but were part of the continuum of Dutch
decended people?

Jackson White status haunted  people in the area and limited where they
could live, for eaxample.  Mike Milligan moved down from the mountains years
ago and opened a successful construction business but he was limited as to
where he could buy a house in spite of the fact that he was quite affluent.
He bought a house in the area of the former Camp Midvale (which I used to
manage).  The communists and former communists of the area were much more
tolerant than the typical population of the area. ( Camp Midvale is another
interesting story, Opened by German Naturfreunde in the early 20th century,
the fight between the Nazi Bund and the German communists in the 1930's, the
communists winning and kicking out the Nazis, etc.)

Regarding Jackson Whites having six fingers, there is some truth to that.
Squeek deGroat introduced me to his cousin, who unbidden showed me his
hands.  There was a definite stub of a sixth finger next to his little
finger.  He said that most people have them surgically removed but that he
decided to keep them.

Tom

Thomas and Robert, thanks for the information!
Thomas wrote:

> I lived in Ringwood in northern New Jersey for years.  I used to know many
> of the Jackson Whites personally.  Although family names like vanZutphen,
> Onderdonk, deGroat, vanDunk, etc. predominate, I never came across anyione
> who spoke other than English.  But their population ranges through some
> pretty wild areas, so who knows.  Many of the ones I knew made a living in
> questionable ways, such as "jacking" deer (I know a bar in Wanaque with an
> enormous meat locker where one can sell such meat).  They are universally
> proud of their ability to shoot and to hunt.

I already thought it would be very questionable
that these people would still speak a language
that had died out almost a century earlier in all
neighbouring valleys. Nevertheless there should
be a whole chapter about the language of the
Jackson Whites in a book called 'The Ramapo
Mountain People' by a David S. Cohen. That
should be worth checking out, since I found
some remarks on the internet as "In New
Jersey there is a language that is a version of
Flemish mixed with English, plus a few animal
& plant terms from Lenape-Delaware Indian,
called 'Jersey Dutch.' The variant spoken by the
Mountain People is called 'nêxer däuts,' that is,
'Negro Dutch' (see Cohen, "The Ramapo Moun-
tain People," Rutgers Univ Press, 1974, pp 142-
143)".
I take it that traces of this Jersey Dutch dialect
can still be found in the speech of the Jackson
Whites.

> I attended a lecture at Ringwood Manor, given by the local historical
> society years ago on the origin of the Jackson Whites. According to the
> lecturer, the name originated with a man named Jackson, who got as
contract
> to supply 200 prostitutes to the English army in New York during the
> revolutionary war.  He got some prostitutes to volunteer off the streets
of
> london but got nowhere the total that he needed.  So, he started
kidnapping
> women, and brought his total up to 100.  For the remainder, he bught 100
> slaves and set off for New York.
> The women were kept in a stockade and were abandoned when the English lost
> the war and had to break out.  Everywhere they went they were shooed off
by
> farmers with guns, so they made their way across the Hudson River to
> northern New Jersy, an area that was inhabbited by Dutch bandits who had
> intermarried with Indians.  They intermarried with these people and thus
> were born the Jackson Whites.

As far as I know, that is only one of the
theories. Another theory says that the
name 'Jackson Whites' actually stand for
''Jacks and Whites" ('jacks' referring to the
term 'freed blacks').

> My brother still lives in that area and he informed that that the Jackson
> Whites had recently been classified as the Ramapo Indian tribe.

According to their official website at
www.ramapoughmountainindians.com
they are not yet classified as Indians, but
have been trying to convince the Bureau
of Indian Affairs that they are Indians
since 1978.
Strange to see the name of their current
chief: Walter 'Silent Wolf' Van Dunk!

Finally, a question for Robert Bowman:
when did your paternal grandmother
die? I have already found that Jersey
Dutch was at least spoken fluently untill
about 1940 by a few last speakers. And as
late as 1964 a James Storms (born in 1888)
compiled "A Jersey Dutch Vocabulary"
(published by the Pascack Historical So-
ciety). He drew upon his own memory of
what he had heard as a child and that of
other elderly in Bergen County, NJ.

Regards,

Marco

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