yes i belive i read that book.. but a later edition.. Before the mayflower.. yes they spoke of the same settlers. It spoke also of the fact that their descendants owned property, were elected to office etc. The probibitive laws began, if i remember correctly, almost around the time that the first slaves were brought to America. As you so rightly alluded to,Rootsie racism had to be created by society to justify the heinous actions of the system at the time

and indeed as you said the first real blacks of america were the Olmecs :)... suppressed histories abound... http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ancientamerica.htm