Free people of color
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The term free people of color (French: gens de couleur libres), in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, at first specifically referred to persons of partial African and European descent who were not enslaved. The term was especially used in the French colonies, including La Louisiane and settlements on Caribbean islands, such as Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, Martiniqueand Jamaica. Freed African slaves were included in the term affranchis, but historically they were considered distinct from the free people of color. In these territories and major cities, particularly New Orleans, and those cities held by the Spanish, a substantial third class of primarily mixed-race, free people developed. These colonial societies classified mixed-race people in a variety of ways, generally related to appearance and to the proportion of African ancestry. Racial classifications were numerous in Latin America.
In the Thirteen Colonies settled by the British, and later in the United States, the term free Negro was often used to cover the same class of people - those who were legally free and identifiably of ethnic African descent. It included persons of mixed race as well as freed African slaves.
See also
- Gens de couleur
- Affranchi
- Mulattoes
- Free negro
- Coloured
- Creoles of color
- Louisiana Creole people
- Mulattoes in Haiti
