With regard to the question about the original meaning of "mulatto."
Most linguists believe that the word was derived from the "mula," the
word for mule in Spanish or Portuguese - like the mule which is a cross
between a horse and a donkey, mulatto/mulato refers to a bi-racial
person.  "Mulato" first appears in the written record in the mid to late
fifteenth century as Iberian explorers came into contact with Africans
and South American indians, and it was indiscriminately used to refer to
individuals of white/black and white/Indian heritage.  

My understanding is that the word "mulatto" is first mentioned in
"American" literature in Hening's Statutes in 1705 - "And for clearing
all manner of doubts which hereafter may happen to arise upon the
construction of this act, or any other act, who shall be accounted a
mulatto, Be it enacted and declared, and it is hereby enacted and
declared, That the child of an Indian and the child, grand child, or
great grand child, of a negro shall be deemed, accounted, held and taken
to be a mulatto" (Hening 1705,p.250).

 

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