Black Dutch (genealogy)

Black Dutch is a term with several different meanings in United States dialect and slang. It generally refers to racial, ethnic or cultural roots. Its meaning varies and such differences are contingent upon time and place. Several varied groups of multiracial people have sometimes been referred to as or identified as Black Dutch, most often as a reference to their ancestors. The Dictionary of American Regional English defined "black Dutch" as "A dark-complexioned people of uncertain origin."

Genealogist and journalist James Pylant wrote that "a blanket definition cannot be given for every American family claiming descent from the Black Dutch." Common interpretations of Black Dutch ancestry include Jewish, Spanish Dutch, Dutch Indonesian, Native American, Mulatto, African, and others.

Jimmie H. Crane wrote in 2006 that term Black Dutch appears to have become widely adopted in the Southern Highlands and as far west as Texas in the early 19th century by certain Southeastern families of mixed race ancestry, especially those of Native American descent. When used in the South, it usually did not imply African admixture, although some families who used the term were of tri-racial descent.

In addition, some mixed-race persons of European and African descent identified as Portuguese or Native American, as a way to explain their variations in physical appearance from Europeans and to be more easily accepted by European-American neighbors. By the late 18th century, numerous free mixed-race families were migrating west, along with white Americans, to the frontiers of Virginia and North Carolina, where racial castes were less strict than in the plantation country of the Tidewater.