r/AmericanHistory

The last census of the 1700s tells us that the percentage of slaves was almost 30%, as slavery increased significantly in Santo Domingo in the late 1700s due to the Family Compacts (between the monarchies of the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of France against the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Archduchy of Austria), which brought more investment, and especially due to the ease of buying Black people on the Dajabón frontier, both legally and illegally (without paying taxes).

Primary Sources:

1740 Census: We only have the summary by Archbishop Álvarez de Abreu in his work "Compediosa Noticia de la isla de Santo Domingo" (Compendium of the Island of Santo Domingo), reproduced by Carlos Larrabazal Blanco in his work "Los negros y la esclavitud en St. Dgo." (Blacks and Slavery in Santo Domingo).

It counts 12,259 inhabitants, of whom the majority were Black, especially free people.

1783 Census: This was a parish census and lacks detail.

Around 1783, the island had 117,300 inhabitants distributed across 18 localities; 14,000 of them were enslaved Black people.

1794 Census: Reproduced by Moreau in his work "Histoire Physique des Antilles Françaises", published in Paris, 1822:

The population of Santo Domingo in 1794 was distributed as follows: Whites 35,000; Free People 38,000; Slaves 30,000

The 1794 census summarized in percentages:

Whites 34% | Slaves 29% | Free People 37%

To clarify the comparative chart, the 5-8% of owners come from the 34% and 37% because, contrary to popular belief, the owners were not only white but also mulattos, mestizos, zambos, castizos, free blacks and Indians as owners but they owned fewer slaves than the whites.

Note: There were still some Indians living in Santo Domingo who had survived the foreign diseases brought by Europeans and Africans, as well as the encomienda system, but they were already highly racially mixed or had been socially reclassified. However, the term “Indian” continued to be used as a legal or social category.

Source(s):

.- La Colonización de la frontera dominicana (1680-1795). By Manuel Vicente Hernández González, 2006.

.- Historia de la República Dominicana (2010). By Frank Moya Pons.

.- La esclavitud del negro en Santo Domingo (1980). By Carlos Esteban Deive.

Herant served as a Sergeant & Tail Gunner on B-24G #42-78319, 744th Bomber Squadron, 456th Bomber Group, U.S. Army Air Force during World War II.

He resided in Bennington County, Vermont prior to the war.

He was noted, when he enlisted, as being employed as a Photgrapher and also as Single, with dependents.

B-24G #42-78319 took off from Stornara, Italy on a bombing missing to bomb the oil depot in Vienna, Austria. Shortly after bombs away they were hit by German flak near the bomb bay doors causing engine damage and fuel leaks. The crew were given the order to bailout over the island of Vis. The B-24 then crashed into the sea.

Herant was "Killed In Action" in this crash during the war. He was found floating in the water with his parachute still on. He was first interred on Vis Island and later transferred to here.

He was awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.

The term "sarará" refers, in Brazil, to people of mixed white and black ancestry whose main characteristic is the presence of curly, blond or red hair, and light skin, as well as the children of black people born with albinism, specifically called "sarara-miolos" (brown-headed sararas).

Sarará was a term used to describe a descendant of Black people with light skin, curly, yellowish hair, and light eyes. Sarará miolo referred to the same person, but almost albino.

The term originally comes from the Tupi language and refers to a red ant with wings (most likely in reference to the fire ant, which emerges into the light on sunny days after the rain).

According to Luís da Câmara Cascudo, the term sarará refers only to a "light-skinned mulatto with red hair," excluding blond hair, the term being an analogy with the ant of the same name, due to its reddish color.

The Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil, from Bahia, in his song "Sarará Miolo," says: Sara, sara, sara cura / Dessa doença de branco / De querer cabelo liso / Já tendo cabelo louro / Cabelo duro é preciso / Que é para ser você crioulo.

The lyrics refer to the reddish-haired mixed-race person who, in São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos, Brazil, would be called that. In the lyrics, Gil would also be making a reference to the saracura bird, a type of water hen that has the habit of standing on one leg – just like mestiços, who would seek to rely on only one of their racial origins – the white one. "Cura," in this case, would be a reference to the "disease of wanting to be white," highlighting that in the mestiço person there is a marked presence of black features, such as facial features and curly hair, despite having light hair and eyes.

Singer Sandra de Sá achieved success in 1982 with the song "Olhos Coloridos" (Colored Eyes), by composer Macau, which accurately portrays the perception of white racial identity in Brazilian society: A verdade é que você / Tem sangue crioulo / Tem cabelo duro / Sarará, sarará / Sarará, sarará /Sarará crioulo.

Another use of the name in music, to indicate only the physical characteristic, is found in the lyrics of "Sara Sarará" by the Brazilian band Chiclete com Banana from Bahia, where only the physical characteristic serves as an association with the female name Sara.

Another form of personal identification is the lyrics of "Os Meninos da Mangueira" by Rildo Hora and Sérgio Cabral, in which Santa Claus is described as "a sarará mulatto / First cousin of Dona Zica."

Almost everyone has heard of James Butler Hickok under his pseudonym ‘Wild Bill’. It was a name

well earned with his, sometimes embellished, exploits in the American West creating a legend that

continues to grow even today. But, even by his standards, 1871 was a tumultuous year culminating

in a fight, in Abilene, with Phil Coe that ended his days as a lawman in tears.

James Butler Hickok was born in 1837 in Homer, Illinois the son of Canadian parents. He fled the

family home aged 18 after a canal fight in which he erroneously thought he’d killed his opponent.

He moved west and became a constable in Monticello Township - his first law enforcement role.

Then, in 1860, while a stage coach driver he was severely injured by a bear after trying to

encourage it to move from the coach’s road. The bear was killed but Hickok needed a lengthy

recovery period. During this recuperation he worked as a stable hand at Rock Creek, in the

Nebraska Territory.

It was here that he killed his first man. David McCanles confronted the station manager, Horace

Wellman, over overdue property payment and the situation deteriorated to the extent that McCanles,

and two men with him, were killed. Some say that Hickok killed all three but it is probable that he

only dispatched McCanles.

The Civil War broke out in April 1861 and he had a varied career during the hostilities. Adopting

the name William Hickok (sometimes Hitchcock or Haycock) he served the Union army as a

teamster, wagon master, scout and, according to Buffalo Bill Cody, a spy. He was also noted as a

provost Marshal in Missouri during 1863.

After the war, Hickok took up gambling in Springfield, Missouri, and it was here that he killed his

second man. A dispute over a gold watch won by Davis Tutt led to a face-off on the street that

resulted in Tutt’s death. A murder charge was reduced to manslaughter and a not guilty verdict was

given.

He then spent time as a deputy Marshal at Fort Riley, Kansas and scouted for George Armstrong

Custer. In 1869 Hickok was elected as city Marshal of Hays City, Kansas and also sheriff of Ellis

County. It was while in those roles that he took his death tally to five. Bill Mulvey was shot during a

drunken rampage, then, controversially, Samuel Strawhun after a confrontation. Finally, in 1870, a

physical fight with two US troopers led to gunplay and one of the soldiers, John Kyle, was killed by

Hickok (the other was wounded in the knee).

The army was, understandably, angry and to avoid complication Wild Bill left Hays and made his

way to Abilene, Kansas. Here, his path was to collide with Phil Coe.

It was now 1871.Hickok had been hired as City Marshal of Abilene to replace Tom “Bear River”

Smith who had been shot, then hacked to death, serving a warrant. The job paid $150-a-month plus

extras for literally keeping the streets clean and shooting unlicensed dogs!

During the summer of 1871 Hickok met two significant people. Firstly, the woman who was to

become his wife 5 years later, Agnes Lake, passed through Abilene. She was the owner of “Lake’s

Hippo-Olympiad” circus and they met when she paid the performance fee for her show. Obviously,

theatrical life had an appeal for Bill as he later tried his own hand, unsuccessfully, in his own and

others, Wild West shows.Secondly, the notorious killer John Wesley Hardin arrived at the end of a cattle drive.

Hardin was operating under an assumed name, Wesley Clemmons, and Hickok always claimed he didn’t know

of Hardin’s past. Nonetheless, although they became close - gambling and whoring together- when

Hardin killed a man, whose snoring was disturbing him by shooting through the floor between

them, Hickok went to the American House Hotel to arrest him. He failed due to the outlaw leaving

via a window, over a roof and hiding in the stable until he could ride to Texas.

But since Wild Bill had arrived as Marshal there had been an underlying tension between himself

and Philip Houston Coe.

Coe had been born two years after Hickok in Gonzales, Texas. He was an exceptionally tall,

polished ‘dandy’ who’d served on the opposite side in the civil war. He’d then spent some time in

Mexico as a mercenary for the Emperor and it was there that he’d met Ben Thompson, a known

gunman. The now friends had then made their way to Abilene where they’d opened a cattlemen’s

saloon, the Bull’s Head.

The saloon was part of the issue. Coe and Thompson had painted an advertising mural on the side

of their saloon. The painting was of a bull, but with explicit anatomical details that offended many

of the more 'proper' townsfolk. It was Hickok’s job to ensure that the offensive details were over-

painted. Against Coe’s protestations, and probably under pistol guard, the job was done. But Coe

was humiliated.

In addition, there are suggestions that the two men were involved in a ‘love triangle’ with Jessie

Hazel, a local brothel keeper. She had chosen Coe and, if true, this would also have aggravated the

tension between them.

It is rumoured that Coe’s partner, Ben Thompson, tried to incite John Wesley Hardin, before his

dramatic exit, to kill Hickok. But wary of Wild Bill’s reputation, the killer refused.

Co-incidentally, Thompson was away from Abilene at the time that the strain between the two sides

broke. Coe, along with a group of between 50 and 200 ‘cowboys’ , got roaring drunk and decided to

rid themselves of the troublesome lawman. Hickok was, as usual, at his ‘office’ (a poker table in the

Alamo saloon) and was probably aware of the growing crisis. Coe, and his men, approached the

Alamo with the intention of provoking some melee that would result in the death of their adversary.

Naturally, given the late hour (9:00 PM in October) and the drunken state of the crowd., the

subsequent events are jumbled and, in some instances, contradictory. But it is clear that a shot was

fired outside the Alamo. Wild Bill came outside to investigate. Coe claimed to have shot at a stray

dog. But he then drew a second pistol, firing towards Hickok. One bullet missed, the other tore his

coat. Hickok, drew, fired three times. Coe was hit twice in the stomach but Mike Williams, a deputy

and also friend of Bills, had, in the confusion, run onto the scene and, taken by surprise and unable

to see clearly in the dark, Hickok’s third shot hit Williams in the head, killing him instantly.

Reports suggest that Wild Bill Hickok was in tears as he carried the body into the Alamo saloon.

What is not in doubt is that part of Hickok died with his friend.

Coe took 4 days to die of his stomach wounds, dying agonisingly from peritonitis.As the cattle trade had already begun to shift away from the town, Abilene City Council quickly

decided they no longer needed a "man-killer" marshal. They officially relieved Hickok of his duties

in December.

Wild Bill’s tumultuous 1871 came to an end. He was 34.

His final years were a steady decline from the man he once was. Bill was already suffering from

failing eyesight and this was aggravated by the stage spotlights when he joined Bill Cody’s “Scouts

of the Plains” in 1873. He met up with Agnes Lake again in 1876 but only hung around Cheyenne,

Wyoming Territory, for a couple of months before the lure of the gold fields near Deadwood

became too much. It was there, holding the now famous ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ of 2 aces and 2 eights,

that he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall. He was 39.

James Butler Hickok was a true Western Legend and it’s not possible to do any sort of justice to the

events of his life in a thousand words. That’s not nearly enough to even cover the events of the year

of my interest, 1871, but I hope I’ve done enough to encourage you to read more on this fascinating

man. Inspiration has been received from the books below. They are recommended.

Legends of America

Wild Bill Hickok - A Life from Beginning To End. - Hourly History.

Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth - Joseph G Rosa

https://viewfrom1871.substack.com/p/1871-the-year-that-broke-wild-bill

Dougla (from the Caribbean Hindustani: dugalaa, "mixed") is a term used to describe people of mixed Black and Indian ancestry.

The word Dougla originates from dogala (दोगला), a Caribbean Hindustani term that literally means "two necks" and can also mean "many," "much," or "mixture." Its etymological roots are related to the Hindi do ("two") and gala ("throat"). In the context of the West Indies, the term is used specifically for a type of mixed-race population: Black Indians.

The 2012 census of Guyana identified 29.25% of the population as Black Guyanese, 39.83% as Indo-Guyanese, and 19.88% as "mixed race," with the latter category primarily representing descendants of the first two groups.

In the French West Indies (Guadeloupe and Martinique), Black-Indian people were formerly called Batazendyen or Chapé-Kouli.

There are sporadic records of interracial relationships between Indians and White—both consensual and non-consensual—even before the formation of mixed-race populations between Blacks and Indians.

Other types of miscegenation involving Indians — such as Indo-Chinese (Chindians), Indo-Hispanic (Tegli), Indo-English (Anglo-Indians), Indo-Portuguese (Luso-Indians), Indo-Irish, Indo-Scottish, Indo-Dutch, Indo-Arab and Indo-Amerindian — tended to identify themselves as belonging to one of the “older” ethnic groups considered non-mixed on the island: Black, Indian, Amerindian or White, or else “pass” as one of them.

Dougla can also mean "bastard" and it can be used as an insult.

“[...]

According to Ferne Louanne Regis, from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, in a paper presented at The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2013:

The word Dougla is linked to dogla, which has Indian origins and is defined by Platts (1884, p. 534) as a person of impure race, a hybrid, a mixed-race person; A two-faced or deceitful person, and a hypocrite.”

In Martinique, people of mixed Indian and Black descent are called chappè or èchappè. The literal meaning is someone who “escaped” being a “pure” Indian.

In Guadeloupe, these people are called batta coolie or batta-zendeyn, where batta means “bastard,” but with the intention of indicating mixture, and not necessarily with a negative connotation.

People called Douglas do not have a single or standardized appearance—there is considerable variation in physical features. However, it is common for them to have thick, wavy black hair, as well as brown skin with a characteristic slight undertone.

The earliest records of Douglas result from the interaction between Indian men and Black women. At the time, Indian women were a minority among migrants, as many did not cross the Atlantic because they considered themselves unsuitable for the work and feared exploitation.

The preservation of Indian culture and religious practices was extremely important for the workers making the transatlantic crossing. Engaging in non-religious practices or with people outside their community was seen as a compromise of religion, heritage, and culture—something considered crucial for survival in foreign lands.

The Indians did not arrive in the British Caribbean with the intention of settling permanently. Their main objective was to accumulate material wealth and return to their homeland, but this took time. Thus, the Douglases also represent, in a sense, the postponement of these plans.

The Douglas of Guyana:

Guyana has the largest Douglas population. About half of the country's population is composed of Indo-Guyanese and Black Guyanese. The Douglas population grew in the post-independence period due to urbanization, socialization, interethnic marriages, occupations, and interreligious interactions.

Most Douglas are young, especially those under 40. Currently, they represent about 17% of the Guyanese population and are increasingly asserting their cultural heritage.

The Douglases of Trinidad and Tobago:

The term Douglas is used by both Indo-Trinidadians and Black Trinidadians in Trinidad and Tobago. The categories "Black" and "Indian" are still frequently used as a reference to racial "purity."

Douglas can choose their own identity: if they have an appearance closer to Black Trinidadians, they may identify as Black; if they look more like Indo-Trinidadians, they may identify as Indian. It is also possible for them to distance themselves from both groups and identify simply as Trinidadians, adopting a national identity.

It is observed that Indo-Trinidadians tend to be more religious, more attached to ethnic identity, and more rigid regarding culture, mixing less with other communities when compared to Black Trinidadians.

Professor Elizabeth Rosabelle Sieusarran, from the University of the West Indies School of Continuing Education, stated in a speech at the official launch of the Indian Arrival Day Heritage Village, organized by El Dorado Shiv Mandir, that it is up to Indo-Trinidadians to decide whether to accept or exclude Douglas—people of mixed Indian and Black ancestry—from their community.

She highlighted that the growth of Western education and the consequent Westernization of the Indian community have led to an increase in intercaste, interreligious, and interracial marriages. According to her:

“In our quest to establish unity among our people, it is crucial to observe a growing phenomenon resulting from the expansion of Western education and the consequent Westernization of the Indian community. This has led to a higher incidence of marriages between different castes, religions, and races. The Indian community needs to decide how to deal with the children of this significant group, locally called Douglas. Should we accept them or exclude them? Whichever path is chosen, the fragmentation of the community must be avoided. Above all, we must remember that Trinidad and Tobago is our heritage. Our ancestors gave their blood, and we work to enrich our country. We live in a multicultural society, and coexistence is an essential element for our future success.”

In Chile, from the moment Spanish soldiers led by Pedro de Valdivia entered the northern territory, a process of miscegenation began, in which Spaniards began to marry and have children with the indigenous Mapuche population, known for their warrior character. This resulted, in the first generation, in a predominantly mestizo population in practically all the cities they founded. According to Nicolás Palacios, the Chilean mestizo—or the "Chilean race"—would be a mixture of two "dominant warrior races": the Visigoths of Spain and the Mapuche. In southern Chile, the Mapuche were one of the few indigenous peoples of the Americas who maintained continuous conflict with the Spanish Monarchy and did not submit to a European power. However, since southern Chile was colonized by German immigrants from 1848 onwards, many mestizos also include descendants of Mapuche and these German settlers.

A public health textbook from the University of Chile states that 60% of the population is of exclusively European origin; mestizos are estimated at around 35%, while Amerindian peoples represent the remaining 5%. A genetic study from the same university indicated that, within the mestizo segment, the genes of the average Chilean are, on average, 60% European and 40% Amerindian. Chile was once predominantly mestizo, but this proportion decreased due to the continuous immigration and settlement of European colonists—mainly of Spanish and German origin—in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as frequent intermarriages with mestizos, until the mestizo majority came to be classified as a "castizo" majority.

Since Easter Island is a territory of Chile and its native inhabitants are the Rapa Nui, the descendants of marriages between European Chileans (mainly Spaniards) and Rapa Nui are considered, under Chilean law (as in much of the Hispanic world), to be mestizos.

The Concept of the “Chilean Race”

Original: «La raza chilena, como todos saben, es una raza mestiza formada por conquistadores españoles y araucanos…»

Translation: “The Chilean race, as everyone knows, is a mixed race formed by Spanish conquistadors and Araucanians...”

— Nicolás Palacios, in La raza chilena (1904).

Nicolás Palacios was a Chilean doctor and writer best known for his writings on the “Chilean race” and national identity. His book Raza chilena (1904; second edition in 1918) forms the ideological basis of many Chilean nativist groups.

Palacios identifies what would be typically Chilean with the figure of the roto (a term for the typical Chilean) and with the idea of ​​a supposed “Chilean race.” He elevates the Chilean mestizo in status because, according to his writings, the Chilean would be a mixture of two “dominant warrior races”: the Visigoths of Spain and the Mapuche of Chile.

Palacios attributes the origin of the Spanish component of the so-called "Chilean race" to the Baltic Sea coast, specifically to the Götaland region in Sweden, which he considers one of the supposed lands of origin of the Goths. He claims that, at most, 10% of the Visigoths mixed with the native Iberians of Spain, while the rest remained racially "pure" during the Middle Ages. The conquest of Chile and the long Arauco War attracted adventurous Spaniards of warrior lineage to the territory, which, according to him, gave Chile a large Visigothic heritage—in contrast to other more prosperous overseas Spanish kingdoms, where "merchant peoples" predominated. These Spaniards of supposed Visigothic ancestry would have mixed with the Mapuche, giving rise to the typical Chilean roto. According to Palacios, about 25,000 "Goths" arrived in Chile in the first five generations after the initial conquest, in the 1540s and 1550s.

Palacios further states that both the blond Chilean mestizo and the more tanned one share the same “moral physiognomy” and that both think and reason in the same way. He says that this similarity already appears in works of Spanish literature about Chile, such as the epic poem La Araucana, in which the Mapuche are frequently compared to the Germanic tribes considered “barbaric” who confronted the Roman Empire. According to him, the “roto Chileno” (a term used to describe someone with mixed-race heritage) would have nothing “Latin” about them besides their language and surname, not being racially “Latin.” Palacios also points to alcoholism as a characteristic that would bring Chileans closer to the Germanic peoples of northern Europe.

He warns against immigration from southern Europe and states that, from a medical perspective, mestizos descended from southern Europeans would have less “brain control” and would represent a social burden. He justifies this by saying that southern Europeans generally have darker physical characteristics, in contrast to the Germanic peoples of northern Europe, who supposedly have lighter hair, eyes, and skin. According to him, this would be the reason why the Chilean government encouraged immigration and colonization mainly from northern Europe, especially Germany. Finally, he adds that the so-called "Latin race" would not be capable of producing a "Miguel de Cervantes" or a "Michelangelo" in Chile or anywhere else, because, in his view, the "Latin race" of the 20th century would be very different from that of the Renaissance period.

"But whenever I refer to the fact that miscegenation among us was an essential and eminently popular process, something radically different from the shallow and false thesis of 'rape,' I realize that two things seem to prevent people from immediately assimilating the information.

One is the suspicion that 'poor whites' ever existed here. The second comes from the stereotype that what we had was a drastically dichotomous society, drastically divided between white masters and black slaves. But the truth is that 'poor whites' existed in abundance here. And, contrary to what the stereotype says, the society that was configured here was never dichotomous. We need to dispel these misconceptions.

When I speak of popular miscegenation, what I have in mind, obviously, are the miscegenation tides that occurred among the socially less favored masses in our colonial world. Layers of poor whites, Black people, enslaved or freed, free Indians, servants or semi-servants.

The problem is that a kind of basic trio of slavery has become deeply ingrained in our imagination: white master, mulatto overseer, black slaves. However, poor whites have always been (as they still are today) the vast majority of the country's white inhabitants. (Anyone who truly wants to understand the subject should see the book Arraia Miúda, by Iraci del Nero da Costa, which is a rigorous study on 'non-slave owners' among us). And, alongside whites without slaves, we had blacks with slaves.

Pardos and blacks who became slave owners, and whites who did not own slaves, were equally located in a middle or intermediate stratum of colonial society.

The fantasy that, during the times of colonial slavery, every white person was a master and every slave was black dissolves upon first contact with the facts. This began with the stopover of Cabral's armada in the far south of Bahia, which left behind four or five poor sailors, the first Portuguese to reside in the "Brazilian India," to recall the expression with which the Jesuit Anchieta referred to the lands that are now Brazil. And it was there, among poor Portuguese sailors and indigenous women from the Porto Seguro region, that the miscegenation began that would later result in the formation of the Brazilian people.

The migratory flow of poor whites here was established by the Portuguese crown itself. The old kingdom sent many beggars, vagrants, and thieves to the African continent, India, and the Brazilian tropics.

In 1536, John III, the king who decided to build the City of Salvador, decreed that vagrant youth found wandering around Lisbon, "stealing purses and committing other crimes" in the Ribeira district, should be sent here. This, incidentally, never became a uniquely Portuguese phenomenon. Mercantilist Europe sent convicts to its lands in the Americas, just as England banished vagrants, thieves, and gypsies to its possessions in the New World.

But of course, not everyone came here by force. When he decided to leave Viana do Castelo, to be shipwrecked on the other side of the Atlantic on a Tupinambá beach, young Diogo Caramuru left behind a Portugal that offered little prospect for life – and engaged in what was the only dynamic reality of Portuguese life at the time: the sea and the dreams that the sea inspired. Next, poor white people made the Atlantic crossing to populate hereditary captaincies.

Like the colonists, fishermen, and small farmers who came from Viana do Castelo to the Captaincy of Porto Seguro, Duarte Coelho brought poor farmers from northern Portugal to Pernambuco. In the fleet that brought Thomé de Sousa, there were 600 soldiers and 400 convicts: all white – all poor. By 1580, Bahia under Portuguese rule already had 15,000 inhabitants. Of these, only 36 were sugar mill owners. Because of this demographically insignificant presence of wealthy whites, even in the capital of Portuguese America, when describing the people who inhabited it at the end of the 16th century, in his History of the Founding of the City of Salvador, the mulatto Theodoro Sampaio could write: '...a polychrome population, interesting in its way of life, dress, habits and customs, a people where there were whites, Indians and blacks, New Christians, Jews, Gypsies or Moors, soldiers from the prison, exiles, individuals with the stigmas of crime, some deaf, others mutilated in their fingers, semi-naked slaves branded in the face, speaking a half-language, a mixture of Portuguese with African or Tupi.'

For the following two centuries, there are many documents that highlight the penury in almost every corner, the suffering and even hunger throughout colonial Brazil. Alcântara Machado speaks of poverty in São Paulo, an environment where intense Euro-Amerindian miscegenation occurred.

Gregório de Mattos speaks of poverty and hunger in 17th-century Bahia, highlighting the state of 'universal famine' in Salvador, where, in his words, the people lived 'with empty bellies'.

Several foreign travelers recorded the poverty of the vast majority of the population of Rio de Janeiro, while also observing the prevailing miscegenation in the city. In fact, throughout Brazil at that time, very few white people knew wealth. And the situation, in all these places, would remain the same throughout the 18th century. Regarding Salvador and 18th-century Bahia, the Greek professor Luiz Vilhena defines the bulk of the local white and mestiço population as 'a congregation of the poor'.

Regarding the same period, consider what Augusto Lima Jr. tells us in A Capitania das Minas Gerais: 'The nobility of profession and of money were a minority concentrated in the towns or their surroundings, on large rural properties, while the enslaved masses and freedmen, white, pardo, or black, all destitute, constituted an immense multitude of oppressed people.' Several scholars of Minas Gerais history highlight this reality. In Desclassificados do Ouro, historian Laura de Mello e Souza focuses on this: 'Allusions to poverty, ruin, and abandonment to which the mining populations were relegated represent the dominant tone of 18th-century Minas Gerais documents.' And post-gold poverty was also a fact.

Vila Rica did not completely collapse because commerce and artisanal activities sustained the city. In other words: luxury and ostentation did exist – but as something for the few, very few. In fact, what was seen there, in 18th-century Minas Gerais, was a world of poverty and even misery. Regarding São Paulo, consider the census conducted between 1765 and 1767, ordered by Governor Morgado de Mateus. This census was presented and analyzed by Vidal Luna and Herbert S. Klein in Evolução da Sociedade e Economia Escravista de São Paulo (Evolution of the Slave Society and Economy of São Paulo). And it is yet another devastating blow to the stereotype of the white Brazilian as a rich white man surrounded by a legion of black slaves. At that time, miscegenation in São Paulo had not yet fully expanded its scope – unlike Bahia, Pernambuco, or Minas Gerais.

Speaking of the less favored segments of the population of Minas Gerais, Laura de Mello e Souza observes: 'Whites, blacks, mestiços, free men or runaway slaves, these individuals were closer to each other than has been said... in many cases, they presented a certain cohesion that, even if spontaneous, must be taken into account'. To conclude: '...a society in which the lower strata presented intense coexistence and interpenetration'.

There was sexual encounter between slave and slave woman, between black or mulatto men and black or mulatto women – but also genetic crossings involving poor whites, mulattoes, cafuzos, blacks, cabras, caboclos, and curibocas... And not even in captivity did the sexual relationship between the master and his property predominate. In Slavery and Cultural Universe in the Colony, Eduardo França Paiva writes: 'Although sexual intercourse between masters and enslaved women was commonplace, it is wrong to imagine that the 'mulatinhos', 'pardinhos', 'crioulinhos' and 'cabrinhas girls' were, for the most part, children of the masters themselves or of their relatives. More than half of the births in captivity resulted from the union of enslaved fathers and mothers and, in many of these cases, there was encouragement from the masters for such reproduction to occur. The natural growth of the enslaved population was advantageous for the owners, from the richest to the poorest'.

But the most important events happened outside this circle. Outside the manor house/sugar mill/chapel complex, as well as outside the urban manor houses of Recife, Salvador, and Ouro Preto. The most important events happened – and could only happen – amidst the popular masses, in the most varied nooks and crannies of our cities. Examining the 1775 census in the city of Bahia, the anthropologist Thales de Azevedo [Povoamento da Cidade do Salvador] noted: "...more than half of the city's inhabitants were free and the great majority were of color, a sign that miscegenation was occurring on a large scale, mainly outside of marriage." And the situation was no different in other corners of the country. What was seen in Salvador, Bahia, and Brazil, from the 16th to the 18th centuries, was a society where the majority of whites and white mixed-race people shared not abundance, but scarcity. And there's no need to keep repeating that it was amidst a vast multitude of oppressed people of all colors that miscegenation spread irresistibly, in a mass biological process".

— Words by Antonio Risério, a Brazilian anthropologist, poet, essayist, and historian.

Any notion that the United States of America had become “post-racial” ended when Donald Trump, who as a candidate questioned President Barack Obama’s citizenship and used inflammatory racial rhetoric, was elected to succeed the country’s first "Black" American president, who is actually a mulatto whose father is black and mother is white.

As is often the case with American social issues, the debate about race and equality also resonates in Latin America. Mexican historian Enrique Krauze recently praised Latin America’s “talent for tolerance” in the New York Times, noting that as early as 1858, Mexico elected an Indian president (Benito Juárez). Since then, 33 of the country’s 36 presidents have been mestizos – that is, in Ibero-American terminology, people of mixed race.

On the other hand, there is an unusual and controversial episode that, I hope, may be enlightening: the time when Paraguay made it illegal for certain people to marry within their own race.

Paraguayan Exceptionalism

It was March 1, 1814, and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia was about to become "Supreme Dictator," a title he would hold until his death in 1840.

Many attribute to Francia the formation of modern Paraguayan society, multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural. He remains an enigmatic figure: a doctor of theology, but politically he acted like a French Jacobin. At the head of an austere, organized, and authoritarian government, he guaranteed Paraguay's independence by isolating the country from the outside world.

In 1814, Francia decreed the prohibition of marriages between "European men" (mainly Spaniards) and women "known as Spanish women" (born in Spain or descendants of Spaniards). European men could only marry Indian, Mestizo or Black Paraguayan women.

By preventing the old comercial elite of Spanish and Porteño from reproducing, Francia's decree had the clear potential to allow the newly independent Paraguay to consolidate itself as a mestizo nation.

Racial Justice or Political Maneuver?

But was that Francia's intention? Scholars disagree on the motivations behind his law, unique in Latin American – and perhaps world – history.

Sergio Guerra Vilaboy interprets the measure as an economic effort, noting that in newly post-colonial Paraguay, Europeans still occupied a prominent position. By limiting their power, Francia dealt "a hard blow to the old commercial oligarchy of Asunción," allowing other social classes to prosper.

For Julio César Chaves, the 1814 marriage decree aimed to reduce the social and economic power of the old commercial elite of Spanish and Porteño origin, in order to then concentrate political and military power in Francia's hands in Paraguay. It was just one of several similar measures. In addition to prohibiting Europeans from marrying each other, Francia confiscated elite and Church lands and gave them to Indian peasants as "state estates." In exchange, they served as soldiers loyal to the Supreme Dictator; no one could hold a rank higher than captain.

According to historian Richard Alan White, all of this constituted the "first autonomous revolution in the Americas": Francia had implemented a successful economic development program without foreign funding.

Another interpretation of the 1814 decree is that it sought equality – though not necessarily racial equality.

During his rule, as historian E. Bradford Burns recounts, Francia sought to expand Paraguayan egalitarianism. He abolished taxes paid to the Catholic Church, established religious freedom, and organized a free basic education system that reached the majority of the population, including Indian people.

By 1840, Paraguay had become “the most egalitarian society then known in the Western Hemisphere,” according to Burns.

Exceptional, yes – but since when?

Regardless of intentions, the 1814 decree contributed to the extinction of the old commercial elite of Spanish and Porteño origin in Paraguay.

In this effort, Francia continued previous Paraguayan initiatives to reduce racial distinctions. Since virtually no European women accompanied the Spanish conquistadors and settlers who arrived in Paraguay between 1540 and 1550, they all married Guarani indigenous women.

A century later, in 1662, local authorities requested a royal provision classifying their mestizo descendants as legitimate American Spaniards. Subsequent generations, also recognized as Spanish, received the same privileges as those born in Europe.

According to the American researcher Jerry Cooney, it was this provision – equally unprecedented in the Spanish Empire– that gave rise to Paraguayan exceptionalism.

Francia's decree, 150 years later, was just another "step towards the creation of a homogeneous Paraguayan society." As early as 1800, long before the Supreme Dictator, "Spanish mestizos" represented almost 60% of Paraguay's population and constituted the new middle and upper classes.

Thus, in Paraguay's early period, there was a considerable degree of racial equality, especially when compared to neighbors like Brazil or the then United Provinces (Argentina).

Mestizo, but not post-racial

However, this equality only applied to the dominant mestizo classes. Spanish mestizo avoid marrying with Black or Afro-descendant mestizo people such as mulattos and zambos, although they could occasionally marry Indian people.

As a result, a significant division remained between the ruling mestizo elite and the minority Black, Afro-descendant, and some nomadic or unassimilated Indian tribes.

Francia never questioned these principles on moral grounds. Overall, his regime consolidated the political hegemony of the mestizo class, with policies such as land redistribution and universal education also benefiting large Indian groups. However, Black people, Afro-descendants, and certain Indian peoples were marginalized.

It is difficult to assess whether Francia's marriage decree had an impact on present-day Paraguay. On the one hand, it quickly fell into disuse after his death, and almost the entire male population of the country was decimated in the Paraguayan War (1864–1870). On the other hand, today Paraguay is proud to define itself as a mestizo nation, with Francia as its founder.

What can this historical overview offer contemporary readers? For me, it reinforces the idea that "post-racial" does not exist. The recent election in the United States showed, disappointingly, that racial intolerance (as well as gender prejudice) remains very present.

Similarly, after Francia's government, oligarchic regimes and military dictatorships introduced new forms of racism and intolerance in Paraguay. Even today, Indian peoples suffer discrimination.

The Obama years were seen by many in the United States and the world as a symbol of social progress. However, as the exceptional Paraguayan period reveals, progress is complex—and can be quickly undone.