Wilmington” 2005: 1. In their campaign that triggered the riot, Democrats used Alexander Manly’s editorial that “challenged the popular notion among southern
judges and legislators that interracial sex was rape” ” Lowery, 2006: 349. As a result of the riot, there were black men who were killed or wounded throughout
the day because of the firing of rifles from “a mob of up to 2,000 Whites” Easley and Evans, 2005: 2. During the day, “the Red Shirts and the White Government
Union clubs,” the supremacist groups, “regularly brandished weapons while marching through black neighborhoods” Easley and Evans, 2005: 2. The total
death toll of the riot was as high as 250 http:ncpedia.orgwilmington-race-riot. Moreover, there were black and Mulatto men who were banished on November
10, 1898. There were two categories of black and Mulatto men who were banished: “First, were the African American leaders who were vocal supporters of
full participation in government by blacks and open opponents of the white supremacy campaign.
Second were African American businessmen and entrepreneurs whose financial successes were galling to the white upper and
working classes Wright, et al, 2006: 158.
D. Review of Mulattoes in the United States of America
The legal records of the first Mulatto in the United States “are few and not a model of judicial explication” but there were some documents about it
Hickman, 1997: 1172. In 1632, “Captain Daniel Elfrye was reprimanded by his employer for too freely entertaining a mulatto” Hickman, 1997: 1172.
Although the first formal statutes that prohibited interracial mating were introduced in Maryland in 1664, there were some cases happened some years
before in which white men were punished for having interracial mating. One of those cases was Robert Sweat’s in 1640. He had to do public penance because he
had a child with “a negro woman servant” Hickman, 1997: 1173. The first legal statute concerning Mulatto appears in 1656. Called
In Re Mulatto, the statute states: “Mulatto held to be a slave and appeal taken.”
Although a Mulatto has European ancestry, “the court found that the European ancestry made no legally significant difference at all” so heshe got racial
discrimination Hickman, 1997: 1174. In the late nineteenth century, Mulattoes got both advantages and
disadvantages. One of the advantages they got was that many Whites considered them to be superior to the full-blood Negroes and gave them better treatment.
“Proprietors generally preferred mulattoes as house servants and plantation tradesmen and gave them more opportunities to acquire skills for these
occupations than they gave the other slaves.” Mulattoes were also “provided some education, enjoyed good food, clothing, and shelter.” Sometimes they also had an
authority as plantation managers Toplin, 1979: 192. Furthermore, “masters chose mulattoes for household duties because the mixed race was more
susceptible to improvement and could handle tasks requiring higher capabilities” Toplin, 1979: 194.
Another advantage was that they usually “rose higher on the occupational hierarchy sooner and accumulated significantly more wealth” than Blacks. They
also had better access “to food, health care, housing, and clothing” Bodenhorn, 2002: 31-32.
Another advantage that the Mulattoes got was that they were more likely to hold professional and “proprietorial jobs than Blacks” although Mulattoes are
much fewer than Blacks Engerrand, 1978: 208. Furthermore, “in general the economically prosperous, the socially prominent, and the educated, intellectual,
and professional groups are chiefly mulatto” Reuter, 1928: 37. Besides their better occupation, the Mulattoes also had higher literacy rate
than Blacks. 40 percent of Mulattoes could read and write while “only one third of the Blacks had these skills” Engerrand, 1978: 208.
There were more Mulattoes “who have risen to some measure of national reputation” than Blacks. Some of them are: “Frederick Douglass, anti-slavery
agitator and politican [SIC]; Ira Aldridge, actor; Charles W. Chesnutt, novelist; Henry O. Tanner, artist; Booker T. Washington, educator and race politican [SIC];
Bert Williams, comedian” Reuter, 1928: 37. There were more Mulattoes occupying position as government officials
than Blacks. There were two Negroes who were members of United States Senate; both are mulattoes.
There were twenty Negroes who were “members of the National House of Representatives;” seventeen were Mulattoes Reuter, 1928:
38. The Mulattoes also got some disadvantages. One of the disadvantages was
that they were treated as Blacks. “For generations,” there has been a rule, informally known as “one drop rule,” which means “one drop of Black blood
makes a person Black.” The rule is formally known as “hypodescent” and the meaning is the same: “anyone with a known Black ancestor is considered Black”
Hickman, 1997: 1163. Degler made a research on “cases decided by southern courts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries” and found that “blacks and
mulattoes were, as far as southern law and southern society was concerned, one and the same” Bodenhorn, 2002: 25. Thus, the Mulattoes were considered
Blacks and consequently, they got racial discrimination like Blacks did. According to the law of Virginia enacted in 1785, a Negro is “a person
with a black parent or grandparent.” Before the enactment of the law, “a mulatto could posses up to one half African blood, but with this law’s enactment all
persons possessing one quarter African blood or more were considered Negroes.” The law continued to apply “through the nineteenth century” Zackodnik, 2001:
433. The law confirmed that Mulattoes were treated as Blacks. White people usually considered a Mulatto to be “just another nigger” and
“drove the mulattoes into the arms of the blacks, no matter how hard some tried to build a make-believe third world for themselves” Toplin, 1979: 186.
Consequently, Mulattoes were refused “in any social relationship to which other Negroes are ineligible” Reuter, 1928: 40. Therefore, because they were
considered Blacks, Mulattoes experienced racial discrimination like Blacks did: they were refused in some social relationships.
E. Review of Slavery in the United States of America
