mulatto always implied the person was of mixed racial ancestry.  

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
     and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York   12208-3494

518-445-3386 
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>>> [log in to unmask] 08/18/07 6:30 PM >>>
I believe the term mulatto, as it was used at the time, referred to the 
color of the skin and not a racial mix. The terms bright mulatto, very 
bright mulatto, dark mulatto were used to provide better descriptions of
the 
slave. Such descriptions often included notation of scars and other 
identifying marks.

This does not discount the number of interracial sexual relations, but
the 
use of the term mulatto should not be used as proof.

Pat Duncan
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Finkelman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] inter-racial sex acceptable?


> One measure interracial sex -- crude and not entirely accurate -- is
the
> number of mulattoes that the census recorded.  This only measures
> interracial children -- and only those interracial children that the
> census takes notices.  But, that number -- which hugely undercounts
> interracial sexual activity -- nevertheless shows that there were an
> awful lot of children of slaves mothers who had white fathers. All
> evidence from this history of American slavery shows that white men
> frequently had sex with slave women.
>
> Paul Finkelman
> President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
>      and Public Policy
> Albany Law School
> 80 New Scotland Avenue
> Albany, New York   12208-3494
>
> 518-445-3386
> [log in to unmask]
> >>> Heritage Society <[log in to unmask]> 08/18/07 5:55 PM
>>>
> In the current issue of the UVA Magazine, there is an article "Anatomy
> of a Mystery" which addresses the issue of Jefferson's alleged
paternity
> of slave children. In the article, Lucia Stanton is quoted as saying
> that Edmund Bacon (the overseer at Monticello who asserted he knew the
> father of Sally Hemings' daughter and that it was not Thomas
Jefferson)
> had a reputation among Jefferson*s grandchildren as "a great tale
teller
> and exaggerator." Also, in the article, Peter Onuff was quoted as
saying
> that, "What we take as the big taboo*crossing the racial boundary*was
> the norm in this period. What we think is the worst was then probably
> the most acceptable behavior. It happened all over the place." Does
> anyone have any references that Bacon was known as "a great tale
teller
> and exaggerator"? As to whether interracial sex was the "norm" I guess
> depends on how "norm" is defined. However, there were laws against it,
> so how was it "acceptable"?
>
> Richard E. Dixon
> Editor, Jefferson Notes
> Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
> 703-691-0770
> fax 703-691-0978
>