continents, flags, confederacy, yellow rose

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:23 PM -0800 2/22/02, FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:
>
>A do have a question, though.  I have heard from several people,
>independently, that the 'yellow rose' in the song "The Yellow Rose
>of Texas" was a black woman.  Can anyone corroborate or refute this?
>Has 'yellow rose' been a slang term for 'black woman'?  If not, how
>would anyone know and what difference would it make?

Not exactly black, but of racially mixed origin (the way I've heard
it), corresponding to the appellation "high yaller" or "high yellow".
The HDAS has for this 'a black person having light-brown skin--usu.
considered offensive'.  I notice that Mencken is cited (in the 1936
edition of _Amer. Language_) as having observed tht "The American
Negroes have many words of their own to designate shades of color,
e.g. brown-skin, high-brown, and high-yellow".    I'm not sure where
I've heard that the "yellow rose of Texas" had such a reference, but
there is a line in there about how "she's the fairest rose of
color...", which seems pretty unambiguous.

larry