Mulatto
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Definition
Mulatto (also mulato) is a historical term, based in slavery, that has two meanings: Mulatto is a person of African and European ancestry (mixed race), that represent a large percentage of both black and white blood lineage. Due to the close proximity of Africans and Europeans from colonial times to present day America, it is inferred that as high as 98.9% of blacks in the U.S. have a bloodline that can be traced to European ancestry which has helped to distinguish the term African American. Many mulattos are multigenerationally mixed, and do not necessarily have one parent of African and one parent of European ancestry. In a more technically correct useage, mulatto is a also a word to describe a person who has one parent of African and one parent of European ancestry. In the United States, from a historical context, this term is not a polite way of referring to someone of bi-racial ancestry. However, outside the United States, in other countries with a majority of descendants of slaves, the use of the word is descriptive and not meant as perjorative.
Etymology
The origin of the term given by most dictionaries is mule, from the Latin mulus. Because of this origin, some have found the term offensive and an inappropriate label for those in the mulatto community.
Muwallad versus mulo/a
The term mulato is documented in the data bank of the Real Academia Española for the first time in 1549. It states "The term MULATO is documented in our diachronic data bank in 1549, whereas MULADÍ (From Mullawadí) does not appear until the half of the XVIII century, according to Corominas". They further state mulo has two meanings in Spanish. The first meaning is "mule" from Latin mulus. There is no proof of whether the term has once been a generic designation name for any hybrid species, but this is why it may be considered offensive by some English-speakers who might prefer terms like "biracial" or "mixed race," instead. The second meaning of mulo in Spanish according to the Real Academia Española is "a person characterized by strength and vigour".
Another etymology which can also be found in some dictionaries and scholarly works traces its origins to the Arabic term muwallad, which means "a person of mixed ancestry". Muwallad literally means, "born, begotten, produced, generated; brought up, raised; born and raised among Arabs (but not of pure Arab blood). Muwallad is derived from the root word WaLaD (Arabic spelling: waw, lam, dal). Walad means, "descendant, offspring, scion; child; son; boy; young animal, young one." Muwallad referred to the offspring of Arab men and foreign, non-Arab women. The term muwalladin is used in Arabic up to this day to describe the children between Arab fathers and foreign mothers. According to Julio Izquierdo Labrado [1] as well as Leopoldo Eguilaz y Yanguas and others as well as different Arab sources [2] muwallad is the etymological origin of mulato. In this context mulato would have been derived DIRECTLY from muwallad and NOT through muladi, a term which applied to Spanish Christians who had converted to Islam during the Arab domination of Spain. Rather do the two words share the analogous etymology of muwallad. The Arab origin of mulatto would not be surprising given the importance of Arabic at a time when Latin was rejected in favour of Arabic. Arabic is the seventh on the list of languages that has contributed to the English vocabulary.
History
Haiti
During the 17th century. Haiti became a common area for French and English buccanears. The French colonist began importing slaves to help develop the sugar plantations on the northearn coast. Eventually Haiti became the most prosperous coffee and sugar colonies.
More French began to settle into colonies once inhabited by the Spaniards, and eventually dominated by Frenchmen, black slaves, and freed slaves. By the 18th century, between the blacks and the French, a new group of individuals emerged; the mulattos.
With the rise of the mulatto community, French-Creole planters fought to prevent representation of mulattos in the French National Assembly. This fired the revolt of the mulattos under the leadership of Vincent Oge. In 1793, the english invaded Haiti, drawing an alliance with Andre Riguad, a mulatto, while the blacks formed guerilla bands led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. By 1801, Toussaint finally contributed in the conqeur and the abolishment of slavery and proclaimed himself governer of Haiti.
As of now Haiti is dominated by the mulatto community who still hold on to their French cultural traditions.
Jamaica
Jamaica was originally inhabited by Tainos Indians before before it became heavily colonized by the Spanish. In the 17th century, the British gained control of the Jamaican Islands killing off the indigenous indians before transporting slaves to the area for their sugar producing colonies. Many of these women became partners, although not married, to their slave owners; and once given birth to their children, a vast amount of these women were given their freedom. In the 1820's the mulatto population in Jamaica exceeded that of the white population, which in turn helped with the revolt to free the slaves. By 1838 slavery was abolished, and by 1962 Africans and mulattos had gained full independence.
By 1987, Jamaica had a growing educated middle-class of mulattos that identified with the British social and political standards.
Brazil
In Brazil, throughout the 1600 and 1900's, 3.5 million African slaves from the West-Central and Southeast Africa were transported in. During this time, the demographics for Brazil were mostly European men, who produced children with the African females. Today, the term mulatto is still used in Brazil to describe a child of a black and white union, although in this region it's not taken as a degrading label.
United States
In the United States, the term was in the beginning also used as a term for those of mixed white and Native American ancestry. Mulatto was an official census category until 1930.[1] In the south of the country mulattos inherited slave status if the mother was a slave, although in French-influenced areas of the South prior to the Civil War (particularly New Orleans, Louisiana) a number of mulattos were also free and slave-owning.
Demographics
Latin America
Mulattos represent a significant portion of various countries in Latin America: Cuba (approx. 51%), Brazil (approx. 38%), Colombia, Venezuela, Panama (approx. 14%), Costa Rica (approx. 5%), Honduras, and Nicaragua.
The roughly 200,000 Africans brought to Mexico were for the most part absorbed by the mestizo populations of mixed European and Amerindian descent. The state of Guerrero once had a large population of African slaves. Other Mexican states inhabited by people with some African ancestry, along with other ancestries, include Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Yucatan.
When slavery was abolished [citation needed], the African and Mulatto populations were even more absorbed. Culturally the blending of native American, European and African elements over four and a half centuries produced new cultures reflective of the mixing of these peoples.
Mulattos also constitute a significant portion of the population of Puerto Rico[2], a United States associated commonwealth territory. However, recent genetic research indicates that, in relation to matrilineal ancestry as revealed by mtDNA, 61% have inherited mitochondrial DNA from an Amerind female ancestor, 27% have inherited mitochondrial DNA from a female African ancestor and 12% showed to have inherited mitochondrial DNA from a female European ancestor. Conversely, patrilineal input as indicated by the Y chromosome, showed that 70% of all Puerto Rican males have inherited Y chromosome DNA from a male European ancestor, 20% have inherited Y chromosome DNA from a male African ancestor and less than 10% have inherited Y chromosome DNA from male Amerindian ancestor. As these tests measure only the DNA along the matrilineal line and patrilineal lines of inheritance, each test only measures the one individual out of thousands, perhaps millions of ancestors; they cannot tell exactly what percentage of Puerto Ricans have European, Amerindian or African Ancestry. However it is the most scientific and precise measurements of ancestry based on fact, that historians and other professionals have and use.
In Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue), mulattos represented a smaller proportion of the population than in many other Latin American countries. Today they constitute about 10% of the population. They made up a class of their own. Often they were highly educated and wealthy. Many Haitian mulattos were also slaveholders and as such actively participated in the suppression of the black majority. However, some also actively fought for the abolition of slavery. Distinguished mulattos such as Nicolas Suard and others were prime examples of mulattoes who devoted their time, energy and financial means to this cause. Some were also members of the Les Amis des Noirs in Paris, an association that fought for the abolition of slavery. Nevertheless, many mulattos were slaughtered by African Haitians during the wars of independence in order to secure African political power over the island. Earlier some African volunteers had already aligned themselves with the French against the mulattos during the first and second mulatto rebellion. In Haiti, mulattos initially possessed legal equality with the unmixed French population. This provided them with many benefits, including inheritance. In the 18th century, however, Europeans fearful of slave revolts had restricted their rights, but they were successfully reclaimed in 1791.
The Brazilian government bases it's census on color rather then race classification. According to it's latest census, 59% are white/Caucasian, 39% brown/Mulatto, 6% black/African, 3% other.
Mulattos make up 7.3% of the Jamaican population.
Population
Angola - 2% Brazil- 38% Cape Verde- 71% Colombia- 14% Cuba- 51% Grenada - 11% Guinea-Bissau - 1% Haiti- 5% Mozambique- 0.2% Namibia- 7.4%
Translations
Dansk (Danish): n. - mulat/adj. - mulat-
Nederlands (Dutch): mulat
Français (French): n. - mulâtre/adj. - mulâtre
Deutsch (German) : n. - Mulatte/adj. - Mulatten..., mulattenfarbig
Ελληνική (Greek): n. - μιγάδας (πρώτης γενιάς), μουλάτος
Italiano (Italian): mulatto
Português (Portuguese): n. - mulato (m)
Русский (Russian) : мулат, мулатка, относящийся к мулатам, оливковый цвет
Español (Spanish): n. - mulato/adj. - mulato
Svenska (Swedish): n. - mulatt
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified)): 白黑混血儿, 白黑混血儿的, 黄褐色的
中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional)): n. - 白黑混血兒/adj. - 白黑混血兒的, 黃褐色的
한국어 (Korean) : n. - 백인과 흑인의 1대 혼혈아/adj. - 흑백 혼혈의, 황갈색의
日本語 (Japanese): n. - 白人と黒人の混血児, 混血児
العربيه (Arabic): (الاسم) هجين, ملون
עברית (Hebrew): n. - בן תערובת (שחור-לבן), מולט/adj. - חום-צהוב, חום-זהוב
See Also
- List of Black/White people
- Quadroon/Octoroon - Includes list of famous quadroons and octoroons
- Sambo
Footnotes
- In the Dominican Republic, the mulatto population has also absorbed the small number of Taíno Amerindians once present in that country.
- Based on a 1960 census that included colour categories such as white, Black, yellow, and mulatto. Since then, any racial components have been dropped from the Dominican census.
Sources
- Julio Izquierdo Labrado (1993): La esclavitud en Huelva y Palos (1570-1587) [3]
- Leopoldo Eguilaz y Yanguas (1886): Glosario de las palabras españolas (castellanas, catalanas, gallegas, mallorquinas, protugueses, valencianas y bascongadas), de orígen oriental (árabe, hebreo, malayo, persa y turco). Granada, La Lealtad, 1886.
- SyriaToday Mulatto not derived from Latin but an Arabic loan-word
- Yemen Reviews Hadhrami Traders, Scholars and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean, 1750s-1960s. Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia, vol. 57. Leiden: Brill, 1997. x, 392 pp. ISBN 90-04 10771 1 LC# JV8750.5.H33 1997 Engseng Ho, an anthropologist, discusses the role of the muwallad in the region. The term muwallad, used primarily in reference to those of 'mixed blood,' is brilliantly analyzed through ethnographic and textual information.
- The British-Yemeni Society, Hadhrami migration in the 19th and 20th centuries
- Yemen Articles Interwiev: Hamid Al-Gadri
- Dictionary.com by the Lexico Publishing Group: mulatto Definition 1.
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary: mulatto Definition 2.
- Cambridge Dictionary of American English: mulatto Definition 3.
