Atlanta Constitution 1897

"This is part of an article that can be found at my Historical Melungeon website. The 'Croatans' referred to below are also known as the Lumbee tribe.

Atlanta Constitution

November 7, 1897


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BILL ARP'S LETTER

''It seems that these Croatans were never Americanized until the last civil war when many of them came to the front with their guns and said they wanted to fight some. They were accepted and enrolled and did fight for the confederacy. During the war there was an election held in a county where some of them lived. And they were persuaded by an ambitious candidate to go to the polls and vote for him. Their votes were challenged by the other fellow upon the ground they had some Negro blood in their veins. They were very indignant and said, "When you want us to fight for you, we are same as white folks, when we want to vote, you say we are negurs." And so a committee of four doctors was appointed to examine them and say what they were. The committee took them out to a sandy place in the road and had them take off their shoes and make tracks barefooted. Five of them made very fair Anglo-Saxon tracks and were accepted, but of the other two the report was that the hollow of their feet made holes in the ground and they were rejected. There are some of these Croatoans on Newman's ridge, in Tennessee."


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