coloured folk

[George Thompson]

It's true that the OED's entry on "colored", adjective, was written when Jim
Murray was little more than an infant; still, whether or not the files today
have instances from the U. S. before 1825 of coloured in the racial sense
[OED = 2b:], the following has interest.

[From a report of a suit in New Paltz, N. Y. in 1825 by Phillis Schoonmaker
against Cuff Hodgeboom, for Breach of the Promise of Marriage.]

The parties as their names indicate, are black, or, as philanthropists would
say coloured folks.



This is taken from the New-York Spectator, of April 29, 1825, but citing
"Noah's Advocate", aka the New-York National Advocate (which is not the same
as the National Advocate, which was being published in NYC at the same time.
 Don't ask how's come -- I might tell you).

 The story went viral, and a search of Readex's America's Historical
Newspapers turns up 11 versions of it, all citing Noah's Advocate.



The OED:

[2b]  Having a skin other than ‘white’; *esp.* wholly or partly of black or
‘coloured’ descent. In *S. Afr.* Of mixed black or brown and white descent;
also (with capital initial), of or belonging to the population group of such
mixed descent. *Cape Coloured* *adj.* and *n.* at cape *n.**3*
Compounds 2<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/27381#eid10129675>
.

1612    J. Speed *Theatre of Empire of Great
Brit.*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/36607?rskey=zAcJoG&result=6&isAdvanced=true>
i. xxv.
49/1   Their‥coloured countenances, and curled haire.

1760–72    J. Adams tr. A. de Ulloa *Voy.
S.-Amer.*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/36607?rskey=zAcJoG&result=6&isAdvanced=true>
I. iii. iii.
121   The‥Negro women, or the coloured women as they are called here.

1832    F. Marryat *Newton
Forster*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/36607?rskey=zAcJoG&result=6&isAdvanced=true>
II.
iii. 32   ‘Au cachôt!’ cried all the coloured girls.

1838    W. B. Boyce *Notes S. Afr.
Affairs*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/36607?rskey=zAcJoG&result=6&isAdvanced=true>
134
The coloured population are‥demoralized in large towns in the neighbourhood
of canteens.

1844    Gilchrist *Cape of Good
Hope*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/36607?rskey=zAcJoG&result=6&isAdvanced=true>
ii.
20   The native population of the colony is generally called Hottentot, or
bastard Hottentot, most of the coloured people approaching pretty nearly to
the Hottentot formation, and some presenting a greater or smaller mixture of
other, principally European, blood.

1850    H. B. Stowe *Uncle Tom's
Cabin*<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:31797/view/Entry/36607?rskey=zAcJoG&result=6&isAdvanced=true>
xviii.
182   Among the coloured circles of New Orleans.

[and more]
-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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