Redbone (ethnicity)

Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States to denote a multiracial individual or culture.

[10] 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.

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.

This battle also occurred due to similar tensions between Redbone and more recent, non-Redbone settlers.

The deputy sheriff arrested Sam Ashworth on the charges of abusive language from Negroes.

Justice of the Peace A. N. Reading ruled that Sam Ashworth was a mulatto and not exclusively black, but neither was he white.

The sheriff, Edward C. Glover, who was friendly to members of the Redbone community, allowed Sam to escape before sentence could be carried out.

In the aftermath of this incident, members of the Redbone community in Orange County were harassed; their homes and businesses were burned and plundered.

"[25][26] These incidents illustrate the friction between some (mainly new) non-Redbone settlers to the region and the existing Redbone population.

[28] During the era of mandated racial segregation under Jim Crow laws (c. 1870s to 1965) schools accepted Redbone students as white[29] 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.