Transracialism

At a very young age, McGlee came to realize that we was, in fact, a black man trapped inside a white scotsman's body. This realization helped carve the path he would follow later in life.

In school, his early studies included the American civil war, its causes, and its effects. Something in him resonated with the lives and culture of the former slaves. He began studying them in earnest whenever possible. He read the poetry of James Watkins and other former slaves and learned many slave spirituals, including his favorite, Steal Away. He wrote, in a letter to his parents, that "Steal Away had meaning to me much as it did to the American slave, calling me to America to be the man I really am -- a black man."

It was this same feeling of transracialism that led him to the blues and its soulful harmonies. Interestingly, McGlee never actually met a black man until he arrived in the United States in the late 1920's. When he did, however, he was immediately accepted thanks in large part to his skill as a bluesman. McGlee quickly immersed himself in the culture of black America, becoming the man -- the bluesman -- he always knew he was.