”Mystery People”: Triracial Isolate Newspaper Coverage and Conceptions of Race from 1880-1943

ABSTRACT Croatans, Melungeons, Redbones, Wesorts. In US society at the turn of the twentieth century, as in other times, racial identity brought power and powerlessness. Triracial isolates—with their presumed blend of Indian, European, and African ancestry—puzzled early newsmen who marveled about and ridiculed them. This qualitative content analysis pulls apart newspaper coverage of such groups to explore its underpinnings. Analysis of news stories (N = 125) spanning sixty-three years, from 1880 to 1943, reveals the themes of Mysterious Origins; Description, especially racial comparison; and Anecdote, from history to humor. The articles’ presence in publications hundreds, even thousands, of miles from these communities evidences a kind of racial campfire story, taken out, burnished, and repeated for entertainment. Group members’ voices are largely excluded from narratives. The coverage illustrates society’s deep-seated desire to name, claim, and defame based upon perceived race, as well as news conventions of othering.