America’s Racial Purity Test They Don’t Teach You About
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For centuries, blood was law in America, with the power to remove land rights and freedom status. Indigenous communities like the Gingaskin and Pamunkey fought to maintain their identities and land rights, while Black communities navigated a racial purity system designed to enslave their families for generations.
This episode of In The Margins is part of PBS’ America@250 collection, celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary. Democracy is built on participation. Get involved at https://vote.org/pbs
In The Margins is a series that covers the history they didn’t teach in school, exploring obscure, yet captivating tales that offer unique insights into their time and place.
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Want to learn more? Check out:
That the blood stay pure by Arica L. Coleman
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
Pocahontas’s People : The Powhatan Indians of Virginia through Four Centuries by Helen C. Rountree
A Legal History of Blood Quantum in Federal Indian Law to 1935 by Paul Spruhan
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@pbsorigins
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
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@JackStraw1961
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Tell that to Sally.
@TheronGJr
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Have we learned that when the oppressed side with the oppressors against even more oppressed people, BOTH oppressed groups eventually lose?
@kendi1417
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Even today, there's hyperfocus on black men in interracial relationships, but black women in interracial relationships is not only accepted, but celebrated.
@howard7689
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Substitute democrats for every reference to Americans and this will seem much more honest
@lucasfrank8843
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
It's now black Twitter's obsession.
@zu_20XX
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Divide and conquer. It’s why the culture wars are so important for the few to control the many, to distract from the class war.
@quinnfranke1347
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
You realize the usa has never changed. You think to yourself they couldn't get any more racist and yet they always do.
@RoughKnuckles187
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
If you ask any black American they were told that they have Indian in their family when growing up
@rabbitwitthegun
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Just remember that the hatred for Black people came long before the convenient excuses of crime, rap music and ghettos. These things are a direct effect of the hate.
@bnthern
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
wonderful and very educational – thank you
@TheZenGarden_
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Fyi: The Creator created the first two hueman beings from the soil of the earth, not from the sand or the snow!
Genesis 2:7
RMT: and YHWH the Elohiym molded the hueman of dirt from the ground and he exhaled in his nostrils a breath of life and the human existed for a living soul,
Exodus 4
6 And YHWH said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. (Levi.13:12,13)
7 And He said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. (aka Melanin)
Mosheh (aka Moses) was not a "white man," and there were no Europeans living in Mesopotamia or Africa before Alexander the Greek.
@PokhrajRoy.
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
8:15 I hate anthropometry! The most useless domain of study
@MisterCynic18
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Really wild how there's always some percentage needed to qualify as other races, meanwhile for blacks they just had the "one drop" rule. It's clear they hated all minorities, but the contempt for blacks was truly next level.
@becklarkin
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
1:01 "…thomas jefferson, who was obsessed with keeping white and black people seperate."
that didn't seem to be a problem on his plantation…
@LittleCinnamonRoll
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Bruh I'm never this early. I'm literally watching this before leaving for history class.
@RevLeigh55
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
My grandchildren need to learn this story and all of the other stories that show the white racism that founded this country. Our country is absolutely abysmal at teaching true history. The only way I am historically aware is from doing massive amounts of reading and studying on my own.
@PokhrajRoy.
September 23, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Obsessed with blood before the concept of blood groups and blood transfusions were discovered lol