In yesterday's post I mentioned an exchange I had on X (Twitter) with a person who had posted a reply to someone who criticized a previous port of his, that went as follows:
"[expeletive deleted] we are indigenous to the USA. We built the country from scratch. We were here before this countries inception. Also there were Black Aboriginal tribes here In the Americas that were enslaved & mixed in with the small 3% of African slaves that came to the US. EthnoGenesis."
Rude comments and pseudoscientific nonsense bother me, so my reply was "The Native Americans arrived ~20 kya and are the First People. Black Africans were forcibly transported by the slave trade ~1492-1808. There was no "indigenous" (autochthonous) population and no native "Black Aboriginals" in the Americas. Homo sapiens arrived ~20,000 years ago." Factual and polite.
As an answer, the X post author, uploaded the following image and posted more nonsense: "Before the red skin mongolóid tribes came from Siberia there were BLACK ABORIGINAL tribes in America. It’s been proven over & over there were Black aboriginal tribes in America before the slave trade."
The "proof" added as bibliographic reference in the image, shows a Wikipedia entry on Constantine Samuel Rafinesque which, states that "Among his theories were that ancestors of Native Americans had migrated by the Bering Sea from Asia to North America, and that the Americas were populated by black indigenous peoples at the time of European contact." It also includes an image of a text snippet from Rafinesque's self-published magazine, the Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge, which in its issue of Sept. 1833, on page 85 refers to the Primitive Black Nations of America. I found the article, and below is a transcription of part of its text:
"The Society of Geography having offered a reward for the best Memoir on the Origin of the Asiatic Negroes, I sent them last year two Memoirs; one on those Asiatic Negroes, wherein I demonstrated the affinities of their languages with the African and Polynesian Negroes, as well as with the Hindus and Chinese, and renders it probable that all the Negroes originated in the Southern Slopes of the Imalaya [sic] Mountains, as they did once exist all over India, South China, Japan, Persia, and Arabia. My second Memoir was on the Negroe or Black Nations, found in America before Columbus, wherein I proved their existence and connection by language with the Ngroes of Africa and Polynesia... To many) this fact of old Black Nations iki America will be new, yet it is an important feature of American History, as well as the existence of primitive White Nations there still more numerous. To furnish a kind of insight into this subject I will here merely enumerate the Black tribes of which I have found evident traces and remains, in North and South America:
1. The Ancient Caracols of Hayti represented as a Nation of Beasts by the historical songs, see Roman and Martyr.
2. The Califurnams of the Carib Islands, called Black Caribs or Guanini by others, are a black branch of Caribs. See Rochefort, Herrera, &e.
3. The Arguahos of Cutara mentioned by Garcia in the West Indies, quite black.
4. The black Aroras of Raleigh, or Yaruras of the Spaniards, ugly black or brown Negroes, yet existing near the Oronoco, and language known, called Monkeys by their neighbours.
5. Chaymas of Guyana brown Negroes like Hottentots, see Humboldt.
6. The Mangipas &nd Porcigis of Nienhof, the Motayas of Knivet, &e., all of Brazil, brown Negroes with curly hair. See also Vespucius and Pigafetta.
7. The Nigritas of Martir in Darien, yet existing in Choco under the name of Chuanas or Gaunas or Chinos. See Mollien. Ugly black or red Negroes.
8. Those of Popayan called Manabi blackish with negro features and hair. See Stevenson.
9. The Guabas and Jaras of Taguzgalpa near the Honduras. See Juaros, &c, now called Zambos.
10. The Enslen or Esteros from New California, ugly blackish Negroes. See Vanegas, Langsdorf, &c.
11. The Black Indians met by the Spaniards in Louisiana in 1543. See Soto's invasion.
12. The Moon-eyed Negroes, and Albinos, destroyed by the Cherokis and seen in Panama. Barton, &c.
Among these the Yarura language has 50 per cent of analog with the Gauna 40 per cent with the Ashanty or Fanty of Guinea, and 33 per cent with the Fulah, Borny and Congo languages of Africa. In Asia it has 39 per cent of affinity with the Samang Negroes, and 40 per cent with the Negroes of Andaman as well as those of Australia or New Holland."
Unlike most readers who repost this text without validating it (just try Googling it to see it paste-copied without any further questioning. See this search on Califurnams), I looked up these references cited by Rafinesque and found quite a few of them (refrence number is given in parenthesis) and added some comments:
(7) by Pedro Mártir de Angelería, page 130 mentions the Darien dark-skinned people: "There they found black slaves from a region only two days' journey from Cuarecua, where only black people are raised, and these are ferocious and exceedingly cruel. They believe that long ago black people came from Ethiopia to steal, and that, shipwrecked, they settled in those mountains. The people of Cuarecua harbor a deep hatred for these black people, and they either enslave one another or kill each other." This took place during Balboa's expedition across Panama, when he discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513. However, I did not find references regaring the Caracols (1) in Angelería
Regarding (2) the Caribs, Rouchefort (see pp. 251-252) writes "the Caribbians are a handsome well-shap'd people... True it is their complexion is naturally of an Olive-colour... All the Caribbians are black-hair'd... The hair of the Caribbians is not curl'd or frizzled, as that of the Moors , but streight and long..." Not African at all! Regarding Walter Raleigh and the Aroras, Raleigh wrote: "my old pilot, a man of great travel, brother to the cacique Toparimaca, told me that... there inhabited four principal nations... The fourth are called Aroras, and are as black as negroes, but have smooth hair." Dark, but not negroes, smooth hair, not African.
Humboldt (5) did not describe the Chaymas as Hottentots: "Their colour is that of the whole American race, from the cold table lands of Quito and New Grenada to the burning plains of the Amazons... If the uniform tint of the skin be more coppery and redder toward the north, it is on the contrary among the Chaymas of a dull brown inclining towards tawny." In fact, he says they look like Asians: "If the Chaymas, and in general all the natives of South America and New Spain, resemble the Mongul race, by the form of the eye, their high cheek bones, their straight and flat hair, and the almost entire want of beard; they essentially differ from them in the form of the nose, which is pretty long, prominent throughout it's whole length, and thick toward the nostrils, the openings of which are directed downward, as with all the nations of the Caucasian race. " (See p. 223-224).
(6) the citation is incorrect, the author's name was Johannes Nieuhof a Dutch explorer does not mention Mangipas or Porcigis, only Brazilian Tupí natives "They are of a dark brown colour, black hair, which hangs all over their fhoulders..." (p. 133). The only people with curly hair are the Brazilian Portuguese! (p. 129)
Gaspard Mollien (7) mentions African Blacks and Indians, and no reference to Black Indians (See Chapter VIII). Miguel Venegas (10) describes the natives of California as "The color is somewhat more tan and darker than that of the other Indians of New Spain" (Mexico). I read the chronicles of De Soto's expedition (11) and found no reference to black people in Louisiana.
So, I confidently replied in Twitter: "Wrong. No Black natives. Whiteness was a Spanish mindset and the color of natives concerned them a lot. But sorry, not one single research paper has shown black natives in America."
The reply, again unfounded was "Just because you say that dont make it true. It’s been proven over & over there were BLACK ABORIGINAL people in America before the slave trade or even before the red skin mongolóid tribes. For example the “Luiza” women who is the oldest skeleton found in the American was Blk."
This person refloated as factual the unfounded story of an African-looking Luzia (the Lagoa Santa woman) who in fact was a Paleoindian with a small percentage of Austronesian alleles, and clearly an Amerindian who carried no African genes in her.
The author then added in a quick follow-up post [sic]: "Also the explorers them selves wrote about the Black Aboriginal people they encountered. Learn history"
I must admit that the "learn history" part irked me, I love history, and have read almost every single book about Patagonia, and history in General. History has always fascinated me, and I enjoy checking historic events by reading eyewitness accounts. The guy then included the following images about Verrazzano.
In fact, Verrazzano who was born in what is now Italy, and served the French Crown, exploring the Atlantic seabord of North America, wrote about Amerindians with tan skin, not black-skinned Africans. As proof, see The Voyage of Verrazano, by Henry Murphy, 1875. So I retorted: "Verrazzano original text p. 23 https://ia801308.us.archive.org/19/items/cu31924028728065/cu31924028728065.pdf: "They exceed us in size, and they are of a very fair complexion (?) ; some of them incline more to a white (bronze ?), and others to a tawny colour ; their faces are sharp, their hair long and black" - no curls or black skin."
That was the end of the exchange, which was pretty worthless, but had two positive outcomes.
The first, was that I identified and read several original sources that supposedly support the presence of dark, African-like Amerindians and in fact prove the opposite.
The second, is a lesson learnt: it isn't worth the effort to try to persuade stubborn or illogical people against their mindset, it is best to avoid conflict and preserve one's inner peace and follow the advice given in Proverbs 26:4.
Have a great week!
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
