It appears to me that Mulatto was a term for a light-skinned Negro. Others
were listed as Black. Webster says a Mulatto is a product of a Negro parent
and a Caucasian parent.
David
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dana Meara" <mcmeara(a)sbcglobal.net>
To: <CAGLE-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 11:17 PM
Subject: [CAGLE] Yellow
I live 50 miles from the location of the document containing the
term
"yellow". As a matter of fact, I was born here on the La. side of the
Miss.
River, in what is known as Delta farm country. You are right in
that
"quadroon" meant
one quarter Negro and three quarters white. Also,
"octaroon" meant one
eighth
Negro and seven eighths white. However, for this location at least,
the
term
"mulatto" was used to mean half white and half Negro. If a
person was
light skinned
and did not know the amount of Negro blood then he would be
classified
according to
his skin color: yellow (or High yellow which meant very light).
This was
never meant to be demeaning in any way (it certainly did not mean one was
a
coward, etc.!). But was used for a legal identifying term. Negroes back
then were proud of their light skin!
I understand that in other parts of the U.S. the term Mulatto was
often
used to
mean any person not strictly Caucasian, but here that was not the
case.
Frances Davis
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mulatto is seen often on the old census records to identify someone who
had a dark
complexion, eyes and hair. The only choices to the census taker
seem to have been white, Indian, black or mulatto. Remember, the census
taker was the one who judged race in most cases. French, Spanish or anyone
darker than the ususal folks from the British Isles were often listed as
mulatto - this is even before we discuss Melungeon.
Dana
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