Encyclopedia Mulattica Vol. 1

By Samuel J. Fleming

This book examines the lives and times of people of mixed African ancestry over the centuries. It is the first in a series, the following editions of which will include a wider range of identities. Inside you will find 30 stories alongside 30 works of art further illustrating the written portions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098395339

Book preview

© 2021 Samuel J. Fleming

ISBN: 978-1-09-839533-9

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Written by Samuel Joseph Fleming

July 14th, 2021

Dedicated to my mother, father, sister, brother, and my extended family. I love you all.

Table of Contents

Cover

Title

Copyright

Mulatto Definitions:

Wayne County:

Mulatto Woman:

Mulatto Man:

Zambos:

The Pencil Test:

Plaçage:

The Harlem Renaissance:

Americo-Liberians:

Ogé’s Rebellion:

U.S. Caste System:

The Real Tragic Mulatto:

Black Beethoven:

Free People of Color:

Dumas and Pushkin:

Passing:

Depictions in the Media:

Casta Paintings:

Mulattoes in Slavery:

Black Men/White Women:

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas:

Gens de Couleur Libre:

Bob Marley:

Cape Coloureds:

Douglass, Du Bois, and Washington:

Solitude:

Mixed:

The Rhineland Bastards:

Experientia Mulattica:

Mulatto Definitions:

Mulatto is a versatile word. Invented to describe children born to one black African parent and a white European parent, or two mulatto parents. The word mulatto has unclear origins and a wide range of uses, but many sources say it derives from the Portuguese word for mule, mula, which itself comes from the Latin mūlus. Other sources claim the word is Arabic in origin, stretching back to the Muslim governance of Al-Andulus on the Iberian Peninsula, now modern day Spain and Portugal. The Muladí were Muslim people of mixed Arab, African and Native Iberian descent, their classification stemming from the Arabic muwallad which refers to people of mixed ancestry.

During the centuries following Christopher Columbus’s contact with the New World, European powers began heavily colonizing the locals there, bringing with them black African enslaved peoples and setting up governments structured on racial caste systems with white people placed firmly at the top and black people at the bottom. As the first colonists were overwhelmingly male, white European women were few in number in these lands. This led to white men seeking sexual relationships with their enslaved black women and other non-white women in the colonies. Sexual abuse and exploitation of African women by white men was rampant; many of these relationships resulting in mixed race children that the government decided required new classification. These mulatto children constituted a third class of people, in between the black and white, at times being afforded more legal rights than black people but fewer rights than white people.

Depending on the nation and time period, the life of a mulatto could be one of slavery and/or luxury, power and/or oppression, privilege and/or poverty. Primarily, though, as racial classifications were meant to maintain the status quo rather than accurately classify someone based on their ancestry, the mulatto children of white men and enslaved women were typically enslaved as well, their legal status following that of their mother. This was a practice called partus sequitur ventrem that English colonies in the Americas would adopt in 1662. During this time, it is likely that the category of black was often used synonymously with slave, inexorably tying the mulatto identity to the institution of chattel slavery.

As time passed, the racial purity of these groups began to wane, leading to terms such as white, black, and mulatto, changing to account for the increasingly mixed populations. In some nations, skin color, hair texture, nose size/shape, and other phenotypic markers were used to denote status. One’s appearance could determine one’s racial caste regardless of ancestry. In other nations, one’s ancestry is all that mattered. Even people who appeared white were considered members of whatever group from which their non-white (lower caste) antecedent haled, a practice called hypodescent. Further distinctions such as mulatto(a) oscura and mulatto(a) blanca within the mulatto class appeared as well, usually to identify phenotypic or ancestral proximity to white and black people.

In the United States, mulatto persons were counted as a category separate from black and white on the census until around the 1930s when the one-drop rule was adopted more broadly, designating all people of African descent as black regardless of appearance. Today, the word mulatto is used colloquially to describe anyone of primarily mixed African and European heritage, but it is also used to describe people of black and non-white ancestry as well.

Wayne County:

Settled within North Carolina, miles inland from the Atlantic coast lies Wayne County, a territory with a vibrant collection of people and Stories. Established during the Revolutionary War in 1779, Wayne County had consisted primarily of free white and enslaved black people but also included a smaller third group: free people of color of mainly mixed African, European, and Native American descent. These people had either been born free, manumitted, or purchased their own freedom, allowing them to acquire property and operate their own estates. Their population size fluctuated around fairly low numbers during the County’s beginning, the 1790 census only counting 90 (although the true number was probably greater).

This would remain the case until the arrival of the Wilmington and Weldon railroad in 1836, when their number surpassed 400 (again, the number was probably greater). The railroad brought with it opportunities for work and trade which attracted free people of all