ABSTRACT:
Paths Not Taken, Part 1 – A puzzle of U.S. history is the permanence of America’s “black” ethnic group. It is unique in two ways. First, others quickly blended into the U.S. melting pot, while African-Americans show no sign of assimilating after four centuries. Second, dozens of nations in both hemispheres imported millions of African slaves. Yet all but one absorbed their former slaves by intermarriage after freeing them. This 32-page booklet shows how and why caste exogamy (intermarriage) and caste permeability (passing) both rose and fell over the centuries.
