A Mixed-Race, Mixed-MarriagePosted in Articles, History, Media Archive, Slavery, United States on 2016-07-26 15:40Z by Steven |
Cumbo Family Website: Exploring Cumbo Family Roots and Branches across Generations
2016-05-06
Andre Kearns
Washington, D.C.
My great-great grandparents Edward Biggs and Florence Cumbo were both listed as Colored on their 1890 marriage license.
So why am I classifying their union as a mixed marriage?
It is because Edward Biggs was born to an enslaved family and Florence Cumbo was born to a free family of color.
Both were born mixed race people but due to different circumstances. Based on a family photo, Edward Biggs appears white. Based on research he was likely a quarter black, a product of successive generations of offspring between white men and enslaved women. Edward Bigg’s father, based on his death certificate was a man named Kader Biggs, one of the larger slave owners in Bertie County, North Carolina. His mother Sarah Peele was a bi racial woman born into slavery around 1848 in Bertie…
Read the entire article here.