Interesting! I had to look up Octoroon, I don’t recall ever hearing that term before. I guess the assumption was that since their skin was a bit darker there must have been some “black” in their ancestry? Yet another example of how arbitrary all this is though!
In the 1910 U.S. Census, some Mexican Americans in South Texas were noted as "Octoroons" even though their entire families were Mexican.
Interesting! I had to look up Octoroon, I don’t recall ever hearing that term before. I guess the assumption was that since their skin was a bit darker there must have been some “black” in their ancestry? Yet another example of how arbitrary all this is though!
I think they were 1/8th black. I think I learned that word by reading Gone With the Wind or something.
Yes with the Octo part that would make sense. That’s maybe where I heard it, I haven’t read the book in a long time though so couldn’t recall.