Hello list, As Earl said, there are probably several legitimate explanations for the term "Black Dutch". If I may offer mine. A a young child, I shadowed my grandfather day and night. He was always saying he was black dutch or Pennsylvanis dutch. Up until about two years ago I had accepted this and would tell people I was Dutch. Then I learned that in reference to the Pennsylvania Dutch, this was a term that meant simply Pennsylvania German, as dutch in the aforementioned context was the Americanized version of "Deutsch" the German word for Germany. http://www.kerchner.com/padutch.htm gives a good explanation for this. As for black dutch, I have heard it refered to a German from the black forest area of Germany. More recently I downloaded a explanation of the term from either the Fayette or Sullivan Co TN homepage. In short it stated that it was a term that people with mixed blood, primarily Indian/white, used when questioned about their nationality. It was extremely unpopular to be part Indian when term came into being and I suppose those of mixed blood were darker than most and drew unwanted attention. The explanation sounded reasonable but who knows. Gary I just checked the Fayette County Tn page and the links are there for the explanation of black dutch but they are no longer valid. If any one is interested I will find the download and send it to you individualy.