Is this the source of many family legends of “Black Dutch” and “Portuguese” ancestry?

Who was Rebecca Rousom to be described as “Italian looking”?

We must remember that at this time in American history that women were regarded as little more than chattel slavery. Many marriages were out of a need for survival by both male, female and family units, and racial ethnic history did not matter or had very little meaning.  Rebecca very easily could have been of Roma Gypsy ancestry, indeed, the Cole family is in some records as being of this ancestry.

The Bounds family then married into the Coles and Webbs in Anson County NC.

   Who was my 6X Great Grandmother Rebecca Rousom Bounds?

The Cole and Webb families

I descend from the Cole and Webb families of Richmond North Carolina.  The Cole family married into the Perkins family in North Carolina, some of these families it appears may have migrated into Kentucky and Ohio where they became the Carmel Ohio Melungeons or Carmel Indians.  Surnames of the Carmel Melungeons are Cole, Perkins and Gipson/Gibson.

http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Inn/1024/carmel1/Carmel1.htm

http://www.buckeyepower.com/cl/upload/pg_228.pdf

Perkins is a known Louisiana Redbone surname and is probably connected to Carmel Ohio Melungeons.

The Cole name is also a known Lumbee surname in the area along with Webb. 

The Webb family are most probably of Tuscarora Native American ancestry mixed with "other", I suspect the "other" is Middle Eastern, South Asian or Roma ancestry but at this point in time that ancestry has not been proved. 

These mixed families then married other similar families of non-Anglo ethnic admixture, including West African Angolan Bantu, along with Northern European in Southeastern North Carolina.

      Tuscarora Native American Indian Woman

The Webb family

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/k/e/i/Derrick-M-Keith/FILE/0022text.txt

On the Webb Family of North Carolina website it states the following....

They have been identified as native americans and free land owners as early as
1759. Many descendents are members of the present day Waccamaw Indian tribe
based in North and South Carolina. DNA samples taken of Webb relatives shows a
very high percentage of native American, suggesting heavy Indian blood. Other
Webb relatives show Indian/caucasian blood mixtures, suggesting intermarriage
with white spouses.  Interesting physical features of the Webbs show skin tones
that vary from very light to dark red color.

Because Webb is an English name, the origins are more likely a mixture of Indian
and English. There is no proof that they are Waccamaw indians other then being
“indigenous” to the local lands of the Waccamaw, based on land deeds and
intermarriage with Waccamaw families.

There is some speculation that the Webbs may have been migrants from VA, either
as freed blacks or Mulattos, or the product of an indentured servant white women
and freed slaves. VA was home to free Webb families of color as early 1600’s.

I suspect that the Webb family is all of the above, including Nanticoke Native American , African Mulatto, Waccamaw Native American and the Tuscarora tribe. 

 Perhaps even Mediterranean and Spanish/Iberian connection off the coast of Maryland.  There is probably a strong connection to the Delaware Moors and Nanticoke of Maryland.

The descendents of the Webb and Cole families, even today, still show the ethnic physical features, of the early American Colonist of different ethnic types and their admixture with Native Americans.