Jackson Whites

Jackson Whites, name applied to a group of people of mixed descent (African, European, and Native American) living in the Ramapo Mts. along the New Jersey–New York state line. The origins of these people have for years been surrounded by myth and legend, e.g., that they are descended from a mixture of the Tuscarora, Hessian deserters, women kidnapped in England by a man named Jackson, and runaway slaves. Research suggests that the origin of these people is to be found among remnants of the Algonquin, early white settlers (mainly British and Dutch), and free, landholding blacks who pioneered the Hackensack River valley before migrating to the Ramapo Mts. in the early 19th cent. The term Jackson Whites probably developed as a result of the continued joint reference to the mountain people as Jacks (an 18th-century term for freed slaves or blacks in general) and Whites, i.e., it became Jackson Whites by elision.