I'm a writer, and I have a WIP of which the first chunk is set mostly in southern Louisiana just before the Civil War (1855-1860). One of my characters is a rich planter who of mixed white and Indian ancestry.
It's been fairly straightforward to find information on how mixed black-white people fared in the south, but less so to find information on mixed white-native people. I imagine it wasn't ideal, but it's hard to find much online.
I'm just wondering, would a man who obviously had native ancestry have been able to hold significant social capital in the antebellum south, granting that he was a wealthy slaveholder? Would he have been able to mingle socially with whites? Conduct business transactions with whites? Marry a white woman? etc.
Any recommended reading on this topic would be much appreciated.
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.
For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.