persons of color revisited

Wed Feb 21 01:18:56 UTC 2001

On 02/04/2001 10:52:32 AM Eastern Standard Time
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU (Laurence Horn) wrote:

>A search [on Google] under "Amistad person
>of color" turned up, inter alia, the following brief from John Quincy
>Adams, which indicates that the denotation of "person of color" may
>not have been as broad then as it is now (emphasis added):
>
> January Term, 1841
>
>...that the court make such order for the disposal
>of the said vessel, cargo and slaves as might best enable the United
>States in all respect to comply with their treaty stipulations, and
>preserve the public faith inviolate. But if it
>should be made to appear, that the persons described as slaves, were
>
>negroes and persons of color,
>
>who had been transported from Africa,
>in violation of the laws of the United States, and brought within the
>United States, contrary to the same laws,

A casual search on Altavista.com turned up earlier usages.  (Quotations are
from
URL http://fly.hiwaay.net/~woliver/FreeMenofColor.html unless otherwise
noted):

"As of the first day of May 1808, it was unlawful for any free person of
color to migrate or be brought into Kentucky. If this did happen and the free
person of color remained more than 30 days, he was subject to arrest."

"MAIN, David. Summons: "To any Constable of Caldwell County ... Whereas
information hath been given to me B.G. RICE, a Justice of the peace, by some
[illegible] that David Main, a free man of colur, hath migrated or been
brought into this State from the State of Tennessee and hath remained herein
for the term of 30 days, in contravention of the act of the General Assembly.
Command you to cause the sd. David Main forthwith to be brought before me or
some other Justice of the peace to be dealt with according to law. 2 Jan
1837. Decision: "We the Jury find defendant David Main not guilty." /s/ M.
DUDLEY. [Caldwell County Loose Papers]"

    Judging by the above two quotes, it is probable that in 1807 or 1808
Kentucky passed a law that specifically used the term "person of color" to
mean any person who was of partial or complete African ancestry.

"In 1816 the American Society for the Colonization of the Free People of
Color in the United States, better known as the American Colonization
Society, was founded. The second article of the constitution stated that the
'object ... is to be exclusively directed, as to promote and execute a plan
for colonizing (with their consent) the free people of color residing in our
country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most
expedient.'"
(closing quote missing, added at the most likely spot)

The following two are from URL
http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Church_Daven.htm

"On 12 December 1816 Sally Peters, "a free woman of color," made oath in
Rockingham County, Virginia, that Coleman, eighteen years old, and Nicholas,
thirteen years old, were the sons of William and Hannah Clerk and were free
born in Culpeper County [Turpin, Register of Black, Mulatto and Poor Persons,
20-21]"

viii. Benjamin H., born about 1800, registered in Amherst County on 22 August
1822: a free man of colour aged twenty two years five feet eight inches high
of a bright yellow complection grey eyes with a natural mark on his right
cheek and was born free & by occupation a waterman [Register no. 10].

While we're at it, another term:

"Also emancipated was Judy, a yellow woman, during her life, but her
children, if she should have any, to be slaves. [Caldwell County Will Book B,
p. 74, recorded 17 Mar 1845]"

"Yellow" appears to mean a light-skinned person of mixed race.  I believe it
is nowadays highly politically incorrect, although I have not heard any
complaints about the state song of Texas, "The Yellow Rose of Texas", which
quite possibly refers to the singer's mulatto mistress (if sp, the song does
not make it clear whether the woman in question is slave or free).

                - James A. Landau