Jack D. Forbes, Africans and Native Americans (1993; first ed. Black Africans and Native Americans, 1988). Forbes documents Jesuit letters from Brazil (1549-1565, ed.…

SUMMARYJack D. Forbes, Africans and Native Americans (1993; first ed. Black Africans and Native Americans, 1988). Forbes documents Jesuit letters from Brazil (1549-1565, ed. Serafim Leite) calling the Americas' people "negros," and distinguishing "negros da terra" (Blacks of the land) from "negros da Guiné" (Blacks of Guinea); Nóbrega 1549 called the American women "negras" when few or no African women were in Bahia. The 1519 Brazil observer: "not black or white but of olive color," with canoe-men "so black." 1524 Carolina coast (Verrazzano): "dark color not much unlike the Ethiopians" (check translation). Record (via Forbes)

NOTEthe highlighted "giant fiction" paragraph is the meme author's commentary, not Forbes. Lens: "negro" was a label applied to the land's own people; the color words moved, the people didn't.