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Race & Identity

Black + Native: Allies, Family and Slaveholders?

The complicated history of Black and Indigenous America.

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Black + Native: Allies, Family and Slaveholders? — Essay cover

Introduction

African-descended and Indigenous people encountered one another for centuries. Their relationships included family, intermarriage, refuge, trade, resistance, conflict, enslavement, and slave catching.

Different Native nations also had very different relationships with African-descended people.

This visual essay follows the evidence slide by slide, from Black and Native families to Native communities as places of refuge, Native slave catchers, and Indigenous slaveholding.

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Sources & Further Reading

  • Katz, William Loren. Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage. New York: Atheneum, 1986.
  • Green, William H. “African American-American Indian Relations.” EBSCO Research Starters, 2022.
  • Garrison, Tim, and Evan Haefeli. “Native Americans and African Americans.” African American Studies Center. Oxford University Press, 2006.

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