Trends in Mate Selection in a Tri-Racial Isolate

Abstract

T EHE population' of Southem Maryland is a tri-racial hybrid group which manifests many of the physical and social characteristics common to other known isolates located throughout the eastern part of the United States.2 It is reputedly descended from mixed white, Indian, and Negro stock, although its most group-conscious members tend to reject the theory of Negro intermixture in their family background. skin color and hair texture of many members seem to substantiate the theory of some white ancestry, and although a relatively high proportion possess some of the physical characteristics usually associated with Negro types, in general this population is marked by a high degree of visibility. Brandywine group is predominantly rural. It has a total population of approximately 5,000.3 Roman Catholicism is today, and has been traditionally, the religion of almost all its members. Sixteen surnames are common in the population; four of these are unique to the group, the remaining twelve being more or less common among Negro and/or white families in the area. group has succeeded in maintaining a considerable measure of isolation from the larger Negro and white populations through endogamous marriages as well as by residential and, to some extent, occupational segregation. Although it manifests many of the characteristics of a folk * Read before the twenty-first annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Asheville, North Carolina, April 11, 1958. 1 This group is usually identified in the literature as the Wesorts. latter name is not used in this report because it is considered a term of opprobrium by the members of the group under discussion. writer's investigations on this population are part of a larger genetics project which is sponsored by the combined National Institutes of Health. His study is supported by a research grant -M-1164 (C)-from the National Institute of Mental Health, United States Public Health Service. 2 considerable body of literature exists on racial isolates in the eastern United States. Three of the best general references are: William Harlen Gilbert, Jr., Memorandum Concerning the Characteristics of the Larger Mixed Blood Racial Islands of the Eastern United States, Social Forces, XXIV (May 1946), 338447; Edward T. Price, A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States, Annals of the Association of Geographers, XLIII (June 1953), 138-155; and Calvin L. Beale, American Triracial Isolates, Eugenics Quarterly, IV (December 1957), 187-196. Gilbert article is particularly useful because it contains a useful bibliography on each group. later publication of William Harlen Gilbert, Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States, a reprint from the Smithsonian Report for 1948, pp. 407-438, lists the family names which are identified with each group. Some of these racial hybrids have been studied quite extensively. following are some of the better known reports of this kind: Will Allen Dromgoole, The Melungeon Family Tree and Its Branches, Thze Arena, III (May 1891), 745-775; Roland M. Harper, A Statistical Study of the Croatans, Rural Sociology, II (December 1937), 444-456; Guy B. Johnson, Personality in a WhiteIndian-Negro Community, Sociological Review, IV (August 1939), 516-523 (a study of the Croatans); Vernon J. Parenton and Roland J. Pellegrin, The 'Sabines': a Study of Racial Hybrids in a Louisiana Coastal Parish, Social Forces, XXIX (December 1950), 148-154; and J. Hardy Jones, Jr., and Vernon J. Parenton, The People of Frilot Cove: a Study of Racial Hybrids, Journal of Sociology, LVII (September 1951), 145-149. Although the Brandywine group has received some attention in the local popular press, no serious study of the group was attempted until recently. Gilbert and Price general publications cited above present some useful basic data on the characteristics of this population. Two additional studies must be mentioned: William Harlen Gilbert, The Wesorts of Southern Maryland: An Outcasted Group, Journal of tlze Washington Academy of Sciences, XXXV (1945), 237-246; and, Linden S. Dodson and Jane Woolley, Community Organization in Charles County, Maryland, Bulletin No. A21 (College Park, Maryland: University of Maryland Agricultura Experiment Station, 1943), pp. 297-299. 3 Since group members are classified with Negroes in census reports, it is impossible to obtain an accurate measurement of the population's size.