Subject: fw: Mulatto, A Term for Discussion
From: SaundraB@aol.com
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.african
Date: 10 Aug 1999 11:26:08 GMT
Subj: The Term ‘Mulatto’
Date: 99-07-04 22:48:49 EDT
From: sandrad@ldl.net (sandra doolittle)
While I was growing up in Georgia , I had always heard and even our
Dictionaries said, Mulatto was the first offspring (generation) of a white and black
parent. Mulatto did not have mulatto children. The term was one time only. Mulatto had nothing
to do with complexion. My gg grandpapa (white) had a mistress (black) and several Mulatto
children. They were listed as as Mulattos. But, then when their children and grandchildren were listed , they were
listed as blacks.
Sandra
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Subj: Re: The Term ‘Mulatto’
Date: 99-07-05 11:46:01 EDT
From: DNYCE15@aol.com
Sender: owner-afrigeneas@Lists.MsState.Edu
To: sandrad@ldl.net, Riquili@aol.com, afrigeneas@msstate.edu
Sandra,
In regards to the offspring of mulattos being considered Black, in my
ancestors’ case that is not true. According to the 1880 census of Cumberland
County, VA, my paternal g-g-grandparents were both listed as mulatto. Their
children, including my paternal g-grandmother, were also listed as mulatto.
Now, I do not know if my paternal g-g-grandparents were “true mulattos”
(actually were the offspring of a white-black union) or if they were
classified as mulatto based solely on their complexions.
Donna
Web Manager – Family Reunion
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/3380
email: DNYCE15@aol.com
Researching: JAY, JORDAN, and MOORE in Person Co., NC;
WEBSTER in Cumberland Co., VA; HILL and THOMAS in VA (counties unknown)
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Subj: re: quest: The term ‘mulatto’
Date: 99-07-05 16:50:10 EDT
From: tootncmon@webtv.net
Sender: owner-afrigeneas@Lists.MsState.Edu
To: Afrigeneas@MsState.Edu
For each census, the enumerators are given official terminology to use
in identifying the race or color of people. Witness the current wrangle
about how to describe bi-racial people in the next census.
The only choice the enumerator made was which of the categories to apply
to a specific person, since that was the enumerators’ judgment call. In
the earlier censuses, “mulatto” may have been used for anyone who was
not “white” in the eyes of the enumerator. And even today, there are
people who believe that Jews, southern Europeans, middle easterners,
etc. are not ‘white.’
The terms for African-Americans have included Colored, Mulatto and
Black. Where “Mulattos” became “Black” in the next census it may be
because the term “Mulatto” was no longer used as an official category.
My great grandfather was Mulatto in 1870, Black in 1880 and White in
1900. Go figure.
M. Gillette
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Subj: Re: quest: The term ‘mulatto’
Date: 99-07-06 11:54:59 EDT
From: pierce@warwick.net (Pierce)
Sender: owner-afrigeneas@Lists.MsState.Edu
To: tootncmon@webtv.net, Afrigeneas@MsState.Edu
Greetings,
What the case you’ve presented suggests is that racial identity is not
biologically or genetically programmed at birth, but that racial categories
and identities are socially constructed and situationally variable. Many
years ago when I spent a year and a half in Suriname (the former Dutch
colony in South America), I was identified by the same person as a Nengre
(black person) and a Bakra (white person) on different occasions, and even
in different situations in the same day!!!!!
In the late 1960′s or early 1970′s, when Japanese trade became very important to the South African economy, Japanese merchant seamen were redefined by the Nationalist apartheid government as being “White” rather than “Colored”.
I suspect that if we looked harder, we would find many more of these
cases.
Warmest regards,
Edward Pierce
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Subj: Re: The Term ‘Mulatto’ & others List
Date: 99-07-08 10:44:35 EDT
From: SaundraB@aol.com
The 1870 census takers tended to describe the skin color of people as
they saw them, as compared to the 1880 census takers who tended to report the
race designation rather than skin tone color. The entire family is listed as
MULATTOES in the 1870 Ft. Gaines, Clay County, Georgia Census, living next to
the white slaveowner, NEEDHAM MLENDON and his wife, HARRIET. Also, in the
1880 Blakely, Early County, Georgia Census, MARTHA MCLENDON and a few of her
children have moved from Ft. Gaines, Clay County, Georgia to Blakely. All of
them are still listed as MULATTOES in this town as well.
In a book called the “Negro Population 1790-1815″, by the Department of
Commerce, Bureau of the Census in 1918, chapter 11 entitled Color-Black And
Mulatto Elements says:
“Be particularly careful to distinguish between blacks, mulattoes,
quadroons, and octoroons. The word ‘black’ should be used to describe those
persons who have three-fourths or more black blood; ‘mulatto’ those persons
who have three-eighths to five-eighths black blood; ‘quadroon’ those persons
who have one-fourth black blood; and ‘octoroon’ those persons who have
one-eighth or any trace of black blood.”
Here’s a chart that was copied from “The People’s Cyclopedia of Universal
Knowledge, with numerous appendixes invaluable for reference in all
departments of industrial life. The whole brought down to the year 1884 with
the Pronunciation and Orthography Conformed to Webster’s Unabridged
Dictionary. Illustrated with More than Five Thousand Engravings, and
Fifty-two Handsomely Colored Double-Page Maps by W.H. De Puy, A.M., D.D.,
For seventeen years Associate Editor of “The Christian Advocate” at New York;
Author of “Compendium of Popular Information,” etc. It’s from the article
on Mixed Races, and was originally “given by Dr. Tschudi, printed in the
appendix to Professor Wilson’s valuable work” _Prehistoric_Man_ (1881).
Father + Mother = Half-Caste
White + Negro = Mulatto
White + Indian = Mestizo
Indian + Negro = Chino
White + Mulatta = Cuarteron
White + Mestiza = Creole, only distinguished from the
white by a pale brown complexion.
White + Chinese = Chino-blanco
White + Cuarterona = Quintero
White + Quintera = White
Negro + N.A. Indian = Zambo or Cariboco
Negro + S.A. Indian = Mameluco
Negro + Mulatta = Zambo-negro or Cubra
Negro + Mestiza = Mulatto-oscuro
Negro + Chinese = Zambo-chino
Negro + Zamba = Zambo-negro (perfectly black.)
Negro + Cuarterona = Mulatto (rather dark.)
Negro + Quinterona = Pardoc
Indian + Mulatta = Chino-oscuro
Indian + Mestiza = Mestizo-claro (frequently very
beautiful.)
Indian + China = Chino-cholo
Indian + Zamba = Zambo-claro
Indian + China-cholo = Indian (with short frizzy hair.)
Indian + Cuarterona = Mestizo (rather brown.)
Indian + Quintera = Mestizo
Mulatto + Zamba = Zambo
Mulatto + Mestiza = Chino (of rather clear complexion.)
Mulatto + China = Chino (rather dark.)
Zambo, by the way, is (according to some dictionary I was cruising)
the source of the derogation “Sambo”.
