Although Romani Gypsies do not exist in America, there have been similar marginal communities throughout American history. One interesting example is the Ben Ishmael Tribe.
The Ben Ishmael Tribe was a nomadic community of around ten thousand African, Native American, and poor White fugitives from the South who arrived in the Midwest at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They traveled between a series of campsites with names like Mecca (Indiana) and Mahomet (Illinois), which became sites for present-day black communities. These names may hint that the tribe preserved some traces of an Islamic tradition brought by slaves to America.
The Ben Ismael Tribe had hostile relations with the sedentary inhabitants of the region who considered them to be poachers and thieves. Their interracial character, nomadic lifestyle, and culture were at odds with the values of the settlers, farmers, and townsfolk who made life increasingly difficult for the tribe. Eventually the Ben Ishmeal were completely extinguished by the Indiana Sterilization Law of 1907 and other eugenics programs.
The minister and historian Hugo Prosper Leaming recounts the history of the Ben Ishmael in his 1977 paper, The Ben Ishmael Tribe: A Fugitive Nation of the Old Northwest. He describes the tribe as “a utopia on the margins of society, resisting racism, wage labor, and the state.”
The Ben Ishmael Tribe was a nomadic community of around ten thousand African, Native American, and poor White fugitives from the South who arrived in the Midwest at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They traveled between a series of campsites with names like Mecca (Indiana) and Mahomet (Illinois), which became sites for present-day black communities. These names may hint that the tribe preserved some traces of an Islamic tradition brought by slaves to America.
The Ben Ismael Tribe had hostile relations with the sedentary inhabitants of the region who considered them to be poachers and thieves. Their interracial character, nomadic lifestyle, and culture were at odds with the values of the settlers, farmers, and townsfolk who made life increasingly difficult for the tribe. Eventually the Ben Ishmeal were completely extinguished by the Indiana Sterilization Law of 1907 and other eugenics programs.
The minister and historian Hugo Prosper Leaming recounts the history of the Ben Ishmael in his 1977 paper, The Ben Ishmael Tribe: A Fugitive Nation of the Old Northwest. He describes the tribe as “a utopia on the margins of society, resisting racism, wage labor, and the state.”
Gypsy Man |