Family tradition says she was Creek or perhaps Cherokee (Canavan (1997)). Her great granddaughter Elizabeth Sweet was listed on the 1850 census as a race other than white. Rachel is the only one of Elizabeth's ancestors who could account for Elizabeth having been mixed race.

She was not a Quaker at the time of her marriage, but later embraced the Society of Friends.

The 1835 Cherokee Census of Tennessee, although much later, shows James Hare at Ooltewah, Tennesse, with a household of three half-bloods, one of whom could read English. There was also the household of Quatie Hare, wife of Chief John Ross, at Red Clay in McMinn County, Tennessee, with two full-bloods and four half-bloods, three of whom could read English.