one-drop rule

[Paul Frank]

The first OED quotation for the "one-drop rule" ("U.S. Now chiefly
hist. attrib. Designating an ideology in which a person is regarded as
black if he or she has even the smallest degree of black African
ancestry) is from 1976, which is surprising. This is from January 1837
(especially page 186, which speaks of "our own theory of the 'one
drop' "):

<http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gJkRAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA193&dq=%2B%22one-drop+theory%22+%2Bnegro&hl=en&ei=WzX2TJiLMMzysgbpoqDNBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=drop&f=false>

Paul

Paul Frank
Translator
Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
Espace de l'Europe 16
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu

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