Quadroon

<h2 id="etymology">Etymology</h2>
The word quadroon was borrowed from the French quarteron and the Spanish cuarterón, both of which have their root in the Latin quartus, meaning "a quarter".
Similarly, the Spanish <a href="/facts/Cognate/nXETf5Y4">cognate</a> cuarterón is used to describe cuarterón de mulato or morisco (someone whose racial origin is three-quarters white and one-quarter black) and cuarterón de mestizo or <a href="/facts/Castizo/dudmdbSt">castizo</a>, (someone whose racial origin is three-quarters white and one-quarter <a href="/facts/Amerindian/LG2r6wXm">Amerindian</a>), especially in <a href="/facts/Caribbean_South_America/qfxINfYn">Caribbean South America</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a>

<h2 id="racial-classifications">Racial classifications</h2>
Quadroon was used to designate a person of one-quarter African/<a href="/facts/Aboriginal_Australians/DNAQ5z5m">Aboriginal</a> ancestry, that is equivalent to one <a href="/facts/Biracial/6Lw9XVgR">biracial</a> parent (African/Aboriginal and Caucasian) and one white or European parent; in other words, the equivalent of one African/Aboriginal grandparent and three White or European grandparents.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> In some countries in Latin America, which had a variety of terms for racial groups, some terms for quadroons were morisco or chino, see <a href="/facts/Casta/xntnbvRx">casta</a>. Terceroon was a term synonymous with quadroon, derived from being three generations of descent from an African ancestor, counting the ancestor as the first generation.
The term <a href="/facts/Mulatto/a7bbro4x">mulatto</a> was used to designate a person who was biracial, with one fully black parent and one fully white parent, or a person whose parents are both mulatto.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> In some cases, it was used as a general term, for instance on <a href="/facts/United_States_census/UGexlXP8">U.S. census</a> classifications, to refer to all persons of mixed race, without regard for proportion of ancestries. The only time a more specific classification was utilized was in the <a href="/facts/1890_Census/RWFwbtDd">1890 Census</a>, which counted almost a million mulattoes (defined as 3⁄8 to 5⁄8 white), over 100,000 quadroons and slightly under 70,000 octaroons among 7,5 million Black people; however, the <a href="/facts/Census_Bureau/heKtzoXX">Census Bureau</a> concluded from the experience that this kind of distinction is unreliable and "of little value"<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a> so it was abandoned.
The term octoroon referred to a person with one-eighth African/Aboriginal ancestry;<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> that is, someone with family heritage equivalent to one biracial grandparent; in other words, one African <a href="/facts/Great-grandparent/PSfbI4sh">great-grandparent</a> and seven European great-grandparents. An example was Russian poet <a href="/facts/Alexander_Pushkin/nJ5WQ7MV">Alexander Pushkin</a>. Octoroon was applied to a limited extent in Australia for those of one-eighth Aboriginal ancestry, as the government implemented assimilation policies on the <a href="/facts/Stolen_Generations/Lc5Fp28M">Stolen Generations</a>. The term mustee was also used to refer to a person with one-eighth African ancestry.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> 
The term <a href="/facts/Sacatra/fG758JNf">sacatra</a> was used to refer to one who was seven-eighths black or African and one-eighth white or European (i.e. an individual with one black and one griffe parent, or one white great-grandparent).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a>
The term mustefino refers to a person with one-sixteenth African ancestry.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a> The terms quintroon or hexadecaroon were also used.
In the <a href="/facts/French_West_Indies/4vJy9rP9">French Antilles</a>, the following terms were used<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a> during the 18th century:

<table><tbody><tr><td>Black ancestry</td><td><a href="/facts/Saint-Domingue/McA6yA5L">Saint-Domingue</a></td><td><a href="/facts/Guadeloupe/vwgVTYPm">Guadeloupe</a>/<a href="/facts/Martinique/HTwzANWx">Martinique</a></td></tr><tr><td>7/8</td><td><a href="/facts/Sacatra/fG758JNf">Sacatra</a></td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>3/4</td><td>Griffe</td><td>Capre</td></tr><tr><td>5/8</td><td><a href="/facts/Marabou_(ethnicity)/GE5gghTT">Marabou</a></td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>1/2</td><td><a href="/facts/Mulatto_Haitians/opTNMNBX">Mulâtre</a></td><td>Mulâtre</td></tr><tr><td>1/4</td><td>Quarteron</td><td>Métis</td></tr><tr><td>1/8</td><td>Métis</td><td>Quarteron</td></tr><tr><td>1/16</td><td><a href="/facts/Mameluco/UdbFbmms">Mamelouk</a></td><td>Mamelouk</td></tr><tr><td>1/32</td><td>Quarteronné</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>1/64</td><td>Sang-mêlé</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>
In some countries in Latin America, the terms griffe or <a href="/facts/Sambo_(racial_term)/IlnfduJK">sambo</a> were sometimes used for an individual of three-quarters black parentage, i.e. the child of a mulatto parent and a fully black parent.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a>

<h2 id="depiction-in-media">Depiction in media</h2>
Main article: <a href="/facts/White_slave_propaganda/GDP130XD">White slave propaganda</a>
In the period before the <a href="/facts/American_Civil_War/A9FT3ksD">American Civil War</a>, mixed-race slaves with predominantly white features were depicted in <a href="/facts/White_slave_propaganda/GDP130XD">photos and other media</a> to show whites that some slaves were visually indistinguishable from themselves, thus preventing them from seeing slaves as an ethnic "<a href="/facts/Other_(philosophy)/ar6kEVTe">other</a>", in order to further the <a href="/facts/Abolition_of_slavery/LDD5kEAc">abolition movement</a>.

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>

<ul><li><a href="/facts/Afro-Latin_American/o3qT2mut">Afro-Latin American</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Anglo-Indian/dxEmxDez">Anglo-Indian</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Indian_South_Africans/XLHjCutU">Indian South Africans</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Baster/bW5FK73l">Baster</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Casta/xntnbvRx">Casta</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Children_of_the_plantation/XqcsjHC8">Children of the plantation</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Coloured/In5w0T22">Coloured</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Discrimination_based_on_skin_color/0JNuYAtV">Discrimination based on skin color</a> a.k.a. Colorism</li>
<li><a href="/facts/High_yellow/cb3IYlYc">High yellow</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Miscegenation/MfpRnrJn">Miscegenation</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Mischling/kbHwkLpb">Mischling</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Morisco/c22opq1u">Morisco</a>- Term for quadroons in Spanish colonies</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Multiracial/6Lw9XVgR">Multiracial</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/One-drop_rule/VPgQTAVy">One-drop rule</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Passing_(racial_identity)/65uyHY2T">Passing (racial identity)</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Racial_hygiene/tyeupmY5">Racial hygiene</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Sacatra/fG758JNf">Sacatra</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Sally_Hemings/f5CRjhCH">Sally Hemings</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Kottak, Conrad Phillip (2009). "Chapter 11: Ethnicity and Race". Mirror for Humanity a Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 238. <a href="/wiki/McGraw_Hill_Education" target="_blank">/wiki/McGraw_Hill_Education</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">"cuarterón, cuarterona". «Diccionario de la lengua española» - Edición del Tricentenario (in Spanish). Retrieved April 6, 2024. <a href="https://dle.rae.es/cuarter%C3%B3n" target="_blank">https://dle.rae.es/cuarter%C3%B3n</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Woodson, Carter G.; Wesley, Charles H. (May 2008). The Story of the Negro Retold. Wildside Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4344-7326-4. The mulatto was the offspring of a white and a black person; the sambo of a mulatto and a black. From the mulatto and a white came the quadroon and from the quadroon and a white the mustee. The child of a mustee and a white person was called the mustefino. <a href="978-1-4344-7326-4" target="_blank">978-1-4344-7326-4</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Woodson, Carter G.; Wesley, Charles H. (May 2008). The Story of the Negro Retold. Wildside Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4344-7326-4. The mulatto was the offspring of a white and a black person; the sambo of a mulatto and a black. From the mulatto and a white came the quadroon and from the quadroon and a white the mustee. The child of a mustee and a white person was called the mustefino. <a href="978-1-4344-7326-4" target="_blank">978-1-4344-7326-4</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Report on Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census, 1890. Norman Ross Pub. 1895. p. xciii. ISBN 978-0-88354-446-4. <a href="978-0-88354-446-4" target="_blank">978-0-88354-446-4</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Princeton University WordNet Search: octoroon <a href="http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=octoroon" target="_blank">http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=octoroon</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Octoroon" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 993–994. <a href="/wiki/Hugh_Chisholm" target="_blank">/wiki/Hugh_Chisholm</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Willis, Stuart. "Quadroons, Octoroons, Sacatra, and Griffe". Michigan State University. <a href="https://msu.edu/~williss2/carpentier/part2/quadroons.html&ved=2ahUKEwi09Z-gg9fZAhUjwYMKHR_BDP4QFjABegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw2_cyaDmu98woRGJOMkbEFj" target="_blank">https://msu.edu/~williss2/carpentier/part2/quadroons.html&ved=2ahUKEwi09Z-gg9fZAhUjwYMKHR_BDP4QFjABegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw2_cyaDmu98woRGJOMkbEFj</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Woodson, Carter G.; Wesley, Charles H. (May 2008). The Story of the Negro Retold. Wildside Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4344-7326-4. The mulatto was the offspring of a white and a black person; the sambo of a mulatto and a black. From the mulatto and a white came the quadroon and from the quadroon and a white the mustee. The child of a mustee and a white person was called the mustefino. <a href="978-1-4344-7326-4" target="_blank">978-1-4344-7326-4</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Frédéric Regent, Esclavage, métissage et liberté, Grasset, 2004, p.14 <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Gérard Etienne, François Soeler, La femme noire dans le discours littéraire haïtien: éléments d'anthroposémiologie, Balzac-Le Griot, 1998, p.27 <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Regent Frédéric, « Structures familiales et stratégies matrimoniales des libres de couleur en Guadeloupe au XVIIIe siècle », Annales de démographie historique 2/2011 (n° 122), p. 69–98 <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-annales-de-demographie-historique-2011-2-page-69.htm" target="_blank">https://www.cairn.info/revue-annales-de-demographie-historique-2011-2-page-69.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Woodson, Carter G.; Wesley, Charles H. (May 2008). The Story of the Negro Retold. Wildside Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4344-7326-4. The mulatto was the offspring of a white and a black person; the sambo of a mulatto and a black. From the mulatto and a white came the quadroon and from the quadroon and a white the mustee. The child of a mustee and a white person was called the mustefino. <a href="978-1-4344-7326-4" target="_blank">978-1-4344-7326-4</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Quadroon open-in-new

Quadroon