Publisher's Synopsis
A reflection into a little known history of American Amalgamation, its racial classifications, and my families heritage and plight. "My grandmother said she was Indian!". This is what I uncovered in search of my Cherokee Ancestor. What is a Mullato? Who is an Indian? These questions were the beginning of my sojourn through my ancestors Early American History. Following the trail of westward expansion I found my ancestors as Free People of Color. This Journey showed me their life and times, struggles, and resilience. Moreover it taught me how it took the culmination of United States history to forge a Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Cultural Me. Am I to be classifed as Melungeon? Mullato? African American? Cherokee? Caucasian? Or neither? This began as a quest to find my cherokee ancestor. It wasnt until after I realized I had found myself. My own existence is present only when weaved through the ancestors who came before me. I was really finding who I was! Finding what made me - Me. Their trail takes us through North Carolina in late 1780's, to Georgia by 1800; by 1810 Kentucky, and into Arkansas by the mid to late 1820's. Until Act 151 of 1859 an act to remove all free negroes from the state of Arkansas. The Gaskins trail then takes us to the Kansas border 2 miles from Eldorado, Butler County, Kansas during the Civil War when the Confederate troops aided by the rebel Indians stormed the Indian Territory In what is known as the Trail Of Blood On Ice. By the 1880's most of the family resided in Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory.
