Poland's Black Madonna and the American South. Spread of Cultural Heritage. Colonial America and Forward

Cultural Vestiges - 

Immigrants and Slaves, Contacts and Ideas

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Who emigrates.  1) People under pressure, or 2) People just adventurous, or 3) People with few other optionns; or 4) People forced to.

What do they take with them, if they can. What do they take in mind, heart or hand, that ends up in the household of their next family, or down the road, the next intermarried family. What loss of tradition is there, when the story connected to an object is lost. The question arises in the context specifically of the book, "The Secret Life of Bees," by Susan Monk Kidd, now a film.

Jasna Gora, Monastery, exterior, Black Madonna, Czestochowa, CZ

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There, a cultural vestige of Poland, a picture of the Black Madonna at Jasna Gora, appears as central to a Black family, descended from slaves. How did it get there? We speculated that there could be connections with Polish Roma other either enslaved or immigrant groups in the South. There is also a Sara-La-Kali role figure. See FN 1. See The Fodder Site, Mixed Origins, Clues to Religions, Cultures.

Here we look at other Polish connections that could have brought knowledge of the Czestochowa Black Madonna, at Jasna Gora, to American Blacks and others. Inconclusive. Surely others knew of the Black Madonna, if that one book family did. How widespread at our colonial times was that iconic painting of the Black Madonna?

1.  Polish settlers have been here from earliest colonial times.

This "Info Poland" site says that Poles came to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608, as skilled workers in glass and in "pitch and potash burners," brought by the London Company, see http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art39fr.htm/. A second large group came at the time of the American Revolution, and more between 1800 and 1860.

Prominent Poles in our Revolution:  Pulaski, and Kosciusko.

2.  Poland has Gypsies, and Gypsies began immigrating to America early on. Were some Polish immigrants also gypsy?


That site does not mention Polish Roma as immigrants, but this one, "Roma People" at Crystalinks, at ://www.crystalinks.com/romapeople.html/ mentions that the largest group of Gypsies in Germany are Polish Roma, in connection with the spread of Roma churches; so we know of broad ranging Roma populations in Northern Europe, who could have come here.

Crystalinks, "Roma People, Gypsies", at ://www.crystalinks.com/romapeople.html/ affirms Roma immigration to the United States in colonial times, especially in Virginia and Louisiana. 

Some groups are like Roma in lifestyle, but not of Indo-Iranian heritage.

They could have blended in more easily.

There are other groups in Northern Europe with similar lifestyles as Roma, but are not Indo-Iranian, but are "white Gypsies" according to this site, "Roma Peoples" at://www.mlahanas.de/Greece/History/RomaPeople.html/.

These are known in Germany as the Jenische, or Yeniche (France), or Jeniche; in Norway and Sweden as the Tatere or Tater (perhaps deriving from Tatars, or Tartars?); and Travellers, in Ireland (see "What is an Irish Traveler" at ://www.slate.com/?id=2071456 - they believe the derivation to be from pre-Celtic minstrels, displaced, and refer to them as "white gypsies"); and Travelers with various names also are in the United Kingdom and America; as quinqui or mercheros in Spain. See also Gypsies, Roma, Romani.

For an 1889 account, see the "Full Text of the 'Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society.' " in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at ://www.archive.org/stream/journalofgypsylo01gypsuoft/journalofgypsylo01gypsuoft_djvu.txt/. Scroll down to the Polish gypsy stories. Do a search for pol and get the Poland and Polish references. Stories, language matters.

3. We find no direct evidence that Polish Roma were enslaved in Poland, as the Roma had been in Romania, England, Scotland, Spain, other areas. So a theory of American slave groups including Polish gypsy slaves may not hold.

4.  Do Poles include as gypsies these "white gypsy" groups. Did these, rather than the Indo-Iranian branch end up within the broad cultural mix of peoples from immigration, or hired on ships from earliest colonial times, and live now in the South and Appalachia in particular. There is a group there, descended from many ethnic groups, including, some say, Roma.

These are the American Melungeons. Need to find out if they have Catholic backgrounds? What kinds of icons might they have?

5. One Black Madonna, at least, ended up in a rural town in South Carolina

Or was it North Carolina?. Still, why did Hollywood change the icon in the film to kitsch,  from that great art on the book's cover. Why offer the film's paltry modern swoopy figure, instead of Art, is beyond us, unless it is to deny the ancient tradition.
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FN 1 See Gypsies, Roma, Romani: Melungeons, Parse for American Gypsies. There may also be another connection with a cultural religious role figure, this time, Gypsy - and the Roma Sara-La-Kali, see The Fodder Site, Mixed Origins, Clues to Religions, Cultures.

The Sara-La-Kali connection: patron saint of the Roma, perhaps shown in the painting at Gdansk Cathedral,  an affinity for a female intermediary, worship of one for aid and succor and protection and endurance, is possible - an easy move from that by proximity, and intermarriage, even if not common enslavement, to the slave world Black African female goddess figures?  See both at the Cathedral at Gdansk. If you have more information, or can correct our understandings, we invite you.

As we look at that Black Madonna, where else did it go.  See Switzerland Road Ways, Gran San Bernardo Pass and find it at the monastery at the summit of that ancient pass.  Did it come that way to Poland eventually.  We are trying to find that story.