facts of this case are very remarkable and well authenticated,
I shall copy the account which was communicated to the
writer by a respectable lady who had resided in Virginia.
“ About nineteen years ago, in a small plantation near to
that of thisffamily, which belonged to a widow, two of her
slaves • being black, were married, and the woman brought
forth, a white girl, which this lady saw-very often, and,'as the
circumstances of the case werevery particular, I shalljnake
mention of them hem B -Wh,en the > poor woman was, told tbc
child was like the children of white people, she, was in great
dread of her husband, declaring at the same time, that she
never had any thing to do with a white man in her life, and
therefore begged that they would- keep the place dark that he
might not see it. When he came tp ask her how-she did,ftjfe
wanted to see the child, and wondered why the room was shut
up, as it was not usual. - The woman’s fears increased when
he had it brought into the lig h t; but white die -lookejkat- it£he
seemed highly pleased, returned the child,* and'behaved with
extraordinary tenderness. She imagined, thendissembled hi^,
resentment till she should be able to. go about, and that.^thten
he would leave Her; but in a few days he said to her,. ‘ You
are afraid of me, and therefore keep the room jdark,^because
my child is white, but I love it the better for th a t; ffim
my own father was a white man, though my grandfather,,and
grandmother werp both as black as you and myself ; and although
we came from a place where no white people,were
ever seen, yet there was always a white child in*every .family
that was related to us.’ The woman did well, and> the ohild
was shown about as a curiosity; and was, at about the.age
of fifteen, sold to Admiral Ward, and brought to London in
order to be shown to the Royal Society.”
, Mr. Jefferson has mentioned seven instances of theappear-
anee of the leucous variety which fell under his knowledge: in
several of these, the individuals who had this peculiarity had
children. Three female albinos were the offspring of the
same black parents; they had two other fall sisters, who were
black. Two of these albino women bore black children to
black men. The fourth example mentioned by Mr. Jefferson
was that of a woman,-whose parents came from Guinea; they
had three other children who1 were black. This woman was
an albino,and bore1 an albino'child to a black man. * The sixth
example' ‘-Was a whiteffifegress; who bore a black daughter to a
Mack man. The seventh instance was that of a male, who is
not said to have had"any children.*
- ^Amdngidlb.instances ofvwhife^ Negroes, mentioned by Dr.
Winterbottom, 4h®ie$are some in which this character was
transmitted:' One^<# th em ^w a s '^ y l^ ^ albino man, whose
father had been-a white Negf^’and his moth'er’a black woman.
From the^phTefft#Were bb'rh five black- and two white children.
In an&thetedase a man and a woman, both albinos, were
"bom o f black parents, who had &fevteTa#( other children that
were, black : both of !these‘“ albinos/-Wfere ‘ married to blacks.
The man had Children; the wdtfidn had black children.'f-
'Fhaenomena of this description1 areten'ot1 confined to t the
result %f marriages between albinos and black'persons; they
take’-p ia c e ^ lso when other whites are married tot blacks.
The following" instance/related:5 by Dr. Parsons, affords a
proof of this assertion-:
P “ A black man married a white woman in York several
years «.go; of which;”» says Dr. Parsons, “ I had an account
from an eyb-witness.She -soon proved with child, and in
due dime brought forth one- entirely black, and in every particular
of.colour and features resembling the father, without
the lea'St participation from the mother.” /
A similar observation may be made» in other instances;
when Europeans of the xanthous variety have been married
to persons desednded-from the darker races of- the melanous
variety. I have seen a family of several children, the offspring
of an European of sanguine complexion, and a very
dark Woman of colour, born in the West,Indies- Some of
the children are as dark as the ;mother, others very fair, and
of sanguine complexion* with light eyes.
A gentleman with whom I lately conversed, assured me.
that he knew a family of mixed breed from the West Indies,
in which one individual, a young man, was of very dark
• Jefferson’s Ndtesfon Virginia, p. 119.
f Winterbottom’s Account of the Negroes of Sierra Leone, vol. ii. p. 17Q.
B B