The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry

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"A valuable contribution to Deaf Studies and other fields, The People of the Eye will certainly improve our understanding of humanity."

-Yerker Andersson, President Emeritus, World Federation of the Deaf

"A wonderful contribution that certainly makes a convincing case for Deaf ethnicity."

-Dennis Cokely, Director, American Sign Language Program; Director, World Languages Center, and Professor and Chair, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Northeastern University

"Outright fascinating."

-Richard Eckert, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Richland

"Elegant prose, meticulous research, and well-aimed quotes make a convincing case for ethnicity. I especially enjoyed the spirited debate in the 'Yes, But' section, which had me on the edge of my seat. The historical portrait of early Deaf American life, which the authors painted so vividly, is sure to inform and inspire many generations to come."

-Anna Mindess, Interpreter Educator, and author of Reading Between the Signs: Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

"The genealogical work in this book is groundbreaking. It goes beyond elite-driven histories and shows a dense web of interconnections among grassroots Deaf people. This book fundamentally alters our understanding of the origins of the American Deaf community."

-Joseph Murray, Assistant Professor, Department of Deaf Studies, Gallaudet University

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Series Editors

Marc Marschark

Patricia Elizabeth Spencer

A Lens on Deaf Identities

Irene W. Leigh

The World of Deaf Infants: A Longitudinal Study

Kathryn P. Meadow-Orlans, Patricia Elizabeth Spencer, and Lynn Sanford Koester

Sign Language Interpreting and Interpreter Education: Directions for Research and Practice

Edited by Marc Marschark, Rico Peterson, and Elizabeth A. Winston

Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children

Edited by Brenda Schick, Marc Marschark, and Patricia Elizabeth Spencer

Advances in the Spoken Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Edited by Patricia Elizabeth Spencer and Marc Marschark

The Gestural Origin of Language

David F. Armstrong and Sherman E. Wilcox

Deaf Cognition: Foundations and Outcomes

Edited by Marc Marschark and Peter C. Hauser

The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry

Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard, and Ulf Hedberg

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Harlan Lane

Richard C. Pillard

Ulf Hedberg

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On the nature of the Deaf:

"The deaf are ... first, last, and all the time the people of the eye."

-George Veditz (President, National Association of the Deaf, 1861-1937). Ninth Convention of the National Association of the Deaf and Third World's Congress of the Deaf, 1910. Philadelphia: Philocophus Press, 1912. p. 30.

On sign language and the Deaf:

"The topic that concerns you, gentlemen, rather than an ordinary medical issue is, above all, a lofty question of humanity and civilization which requires deep reflection, not only by doctors but by teachers, philosophers and scholars."

-Ferdinand Berthier (French Deaf leader and educator, 18031886). Observations sur la mimique consideree dons ses rapports avec 1'enseignement des sourds-muets. A M. le President et a Messieurs les Membres de I'Academie Imperiale de Medecine. Paris: Martinet, 1853. (transl. H. Lane)

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List of Illustrations xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xvii

Part I: Ethnicity and the Deaf-World

1. Cultural Cohesive Forces 3

Language 3

Bonding to One's Kind 8

Cultural Rules and Values 10

Social Institutions 15

The Language Arts 17

The Visual Arts 20

History 20

Ethnic Territory 26

Kinship 28

Ancestry in the Deaf-World 30

Socialization 32

2. Ethnic Boundaries 34

Outside Forces 34

Inside Forces 35

Multiethnicity 40

Summary 41

3. Yes, But 45

On Assimilation 45

On Deaf Bodies 46

On Socialization 49

On Other Challenges to Deaf Ethnicity 49

On Scholarly Recognition 51

On Disability 52

On Deaf Diversity and American Pluralism 56

Notes to Part I 59

Part II: Deaf Ancestry: Henniker, NH, and Martha's Vineyard, MA

4. Context: Settling the New World 81

5. The Brown Family of Henniker, NH 89

6. Martha's Vineyard 97

Vineyard Lineages 97

A Kentish Enclave 101

Life and Marriage on Martha's Vineyard 103

7. Assimilating and Differentiating Societies 106

The Bali Example: Desa Kolok 109

Notes to Part II 110

Part III: Deaf Ancestry in Maine-Northern Cluster

8. Migration from Martha's Vineyard to Maine 123

The Smith-Parkhurst Clan 124

The Davis Clan 125

The Newcomb Clan 126

The Smith-Hinckley Clan 127

The Sebec Lovejoys 127

The Samuel Allen Clan 128

9. Other Settlers in the Northern Cluster 131

The Jellison Clan 131

The Jack Clan 132

The Berry Clan 133

The Lovejoy Clan 135

Where Deaf People Lived 138

Notes to Part III 140

Part IV: Deaf Ancestry in Maine-Southern Cluster

10. Southern Cluster 147

The Rogers-Holmes Clan 147

The Badger-Boardwin-Brown-Glidden Clan 147

The Campbell Clan 149

The Curtis-Rowe Clan 151

Notes to Part IV 160

Part V: Deaf Ancestry: Summary and Reflections

Summary 163

Reflections 165

Notes to Part V 168

Appendices

Appendix A. Briefly Noted Lineages 171

Appendix B. What the Pedigrees Reveal about Genetic Transmission 179

Appendix C. Pedigree Methods 182

Appendix D. Every Name Index to Pedigrees at Our Website 187

Notes to the Appendices 234

Figures 2 through 17 237

Index 261

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Figure 1 Thomas Brown portrait

Figure 2 Brown pedigree

Figure 3 Tilton pedigree

Figure 4 Mayhew pedigree

Figure 5 Skiffe pedigree

Figure 6 Smith-Parkhurst pedigree

Figure 7 Lambert pedigree

Figure 8 Newcomb pedigree

Figure 9 Allen pedigree

Figure 10 Jellison pedigree

Figure 11 Berry pedigree

Figure 12 Lovejoy pedigree

Figure 13 Jack pedigree

Figure 14 Rogers pedigree

Figure 15 Badger pedigree

Figure 16 Campbell pedigree

Figure 17 Curtis-Rowe pedigree

Figure 18 Kinship network diagram

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We thank the following people who assisted us in gathering, analyzing or displaying our findings: Ms. Ellen Adams, Ms. Carole Browne, Ms. Isabelle Chopin, Ms. Merce Crosas, Ms. Flossie Dere, Col. Wayne Frank, Mr. Jason Freitas, Ms. Mary French, Ms. Emily Gilchrist, Dr. Sue Hotto, Ms. Katarzyna Kaczynski, Ms. Eunice Ladd, Ms. Kay Lam, Ms. Shannon Locke, Mr. Jean-Louis Martinez, Ms. Jillian Motyl, Mr. Edward Murkland, Ms. Kelly Milligan, Mr. Michael Olson, Ms. Harriette Otteson, Ms. Cheryl Patten, Ms. Nancy Porter, Dr. Judy Shepard-Kegl, Mr. Tommy Strunk, Mr. Gary Wait, Ms. Sherry Walrath, Mr. Christian Wayser, Dr. Bencie Woll, Dr. James Woodward, Dr. Del Wynne.

We are indebted to the following colleagues who made many valuable suggestions concerning the manuscript: Dr. Yerker Andersson, Dr. Kathleen Arnos, Dr. Doug Baynton, Dr. Dennis Cokely, Mr. Russell Dover, Dr. Carol Erting, Dr. Francois Grosjean, Dr. Tom Humphries, Dr. Robert E. Johnson, Dr. Paddy Ladd, Dr. Harry Lang, Ms. Ella Lentz, Dr. Ceil Lucas, Dr. Harry Markowicz, Ms. Anna Mindess, Dr. James Morris, Dr. Joseph Murray, Dr. Carol Padden, Mr. Frank Philip, Ms. Joan Poole-Nash, Dr. Rachel Rosenstock, Mr. Gerald Shea, Dr. Theresa Smith, Dr. Ted Supalla.

In addition to the preceding colleagues, we had fruitful discussions of Deaf ethnicity with: Dr. MJ Bienvenu, Mr. Aaron Brace, Dr. Jere Daniell, Dr. Richard Eckert, Dr. Nora Groce, Dr. John Hinnant, Mr. Bill Moody, Ms. Sharon Neumann-Solow, Dr. Vincent Parillo, Mr. Brian Riley, and Dr. James Woodward.

We acknowledge gratefully the following organizations: the Gallaudet University Archives, the Harvard-MIT Data Center of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, the History Factory, the Maine Historical Society, the Maine State Archives, the Maine State Library, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Northeastern University Inter-Library Loan service, the Volta Bureau. The Office of the Provost, Northeastern University, provided partial support for this research and for Dr. Lane's sabbatical year. He acknowledges with appreciation the support of his scholarly work by his chair and dean.

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The United States has many ethnic groups-it is a hallmark of our culture. This book asks if we have failed to recognize one: Americans whose primary language is American Sign Language (ASL).' No one knows how many such people there are but estimates generally range from half a million to 1 million members in the United States.' For the present purpose, we need to distinguish Deaf ASL signers from the much larger and more heterogeneous group of more than 10 million hearing-impaired Americans who communicate primarily in English or another oral language.2 Most of the people in this larger group had conventional schooling and became deaf after acculturation to hearing society-many of them late in life. Accordingly, they do not see themselves as members of a sign-language minority nor do they participate in its organizations, profess its values, or follow its customs; rather, they consider themselves hearing people with a hearing disability. Something similar is true in all nations: there is a group of visual people3 who use a natural visual-manual language (ASL in the United States) and who are often not distinguished from the larger group of people who view themselves as hearing impaired and who use a spoken language in its oral or written form.4 We warmly endorse calls for greater recognition and study of both groups.5 This book is about the Deaf signers of ASL, for if any class of deaf people constitutes an ethnic group, surely it is the signed language minority. In choosing to address this minority, we also benefit from considerable research about its language, culture, history, and social structure.

This book, then, is about the linguistic minority in North America whose language is American Sign Language and whose members have a culture they call, in that language, the Deaf-World. Who is in the Deaf-World? Deaf ASL signers are.6 It is often said and repeated that very few Deaf children are born into the Deaf-World, since as few as 4 percent have Deaf parents.? In fact, however, most ASL signers have inherited their membership in the Deaf-World; rather few are Deaf due to disease or trauma. We explore this in Chapter 1; suffice it to say here that Deaf ASL signers are most often the fruit of ancestral transmission from the beginnings of our society and even before; thus, they are indeed "born into" the Deaf-World. As soon as one recognizes the hereditary basis of the Deaf-World, these major questions arise: Do ASL signers, like speakers of other languages, constitute an ethnic group? Who were their ancestors and what were they and their times like? These are the questions we undertake to answer in this book.

To discuss ethnicity, we must engage in classifying people and in generalizing about them, albeit using caution and available findings, and noting exceptions and restrictions. Whether we were wise to focus on the class of Deaf ASL signers rather than some other selection (for example, deaf people in general) will appear from the successes and failures of the analysis to follow. We recognize that classifying people by language use (or indeed by many other traits) is inevitably problematic. For one thing, class boundaries are often fuzzy even if the core tendency is clear. Furthermore, the class of Deaf ASL signers is far from homogenous. It embraces people of diverse ethnicities (such as African American, Asian American, and Native American), with diverse ages at acquisition of ASL, various kinds of schooling, and assorted parental languages.

Despite these concerns, we will be led to generalize about ASL signers and their language, culture, and history; if we refuse to do so, we will be unable to answer the central question: Are Deaf ASL signers an ethnic group? Our generalizations are based on carefully chosen informants and, in the case of one author - UH, on an insider's experience. We have drawn on the arts, histories, journalism, biographies, autobiographies, drama, and the findings of the social sciences; we have observed how members of the Deaf-World act in various settings.