A "free person of colour"?

Question

What would have been the meaning in 1847 of "a free person of colour"? A slave who had been freed or someone "born free" or something else? 

See: "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Seamen's Proofs of Citizenship, 1791-1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGRZ-SL74 : 15 March 2018), Benjamin Gale, 23 Apr 1847; citing Membership, Pennsylvania, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1880. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

Answer 1

It could mean a few things. He could have been born into slavery and manumitted. He could have been born free to free parents. Baltimore already had a large free community of people of color in the early 19th century.

Comments

Thanks Jessica, excuse my ignorance, being Australian I don't have a great knowledge of US history.

I'm not even sure if this is the right Benjamin Gale, all I have is that his son Francis was probably born in Baltimore. Would there have been many inter-racial marriages back then? The only photo I have of Francis, he doesn't have obvious black heritage.

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Those who could pass as white, often did so.

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If you haven't already, I recommend a DNA test from 23andMe or Ancestry. It will show if you have any significant amount of African ancestry. If you do not, you can safely exclude this Ben Gale as your ancestor.

There were some very racially mixed families at this time. Actor Joe Manganiello discovered that among with his ancestors was William Henry Cutler (1860-1921), a free black man who married a white woman.

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Inter-racial marriages, probably not as it was illegal in many states, but relationships very likely. Some passed for white when they could to obtain success in finding jobs and living "the good life". But, they often feared their secret would be discovered. So they distanced themselves from their African-American family.

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Thanks Jessica, yes, it looks like DNA testing is the next logical step to exclude or keep this particular Benjamin Gale as a possibility. It's the first record I've come across that was a definite possibility for father of Francis.

Answer 2

In regards to inter-racial couples, what I have found in my experience with researching my own family is this. My GG Grandparents were an inter-racial couple. My 2nd Great Grandmother lived with her father for 30 years, in Camp Creek, TN. She was white.  She met my G Grandfather, who was mulatto, they got married, had 3 kids and from that day on, she was listed as mulatto on every census!!

so, yes there were marriages back then, but in order for it to happen, whoever was white, became mulatto!!!

Comments

I think this scenario is more common than most people think or care to believe. Research and DNA are proving this to be true as far as relationships. Out of historical curiosity, do you know the relationship that created your GGGrandfather's mulatto status. We are 18* 10c2r. William Enloe and I are 9* 6c6r.

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You're right, K. This scenario was much more common than people realize and I love that DNA is bringing it to light.

And I've see that too, Jacqueline where the white half of the partnership was enumerated as Mulatto because it was illegal in most states for them to marry until 1967. Or in states where it was legal, the enumerator just made a presumption. For anyone who is curious, we have a help page that tells us when interracial marriage was legal in each state. This knowledge helps us in our research.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:US_Black_Heritage_Anti-Miscegenation_%28marriage%29_Laws

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There was a case in New Orleans back in the 19th century where a white man and his black girlfriend pricked their fingers and shared a droplet of blood, and then he demanded a marriage certificate from the courthouse on the basis that he had "Negro blood" in his veins. Folks were determined!

Gilbert Cox (abt.1740-abt.1811) and his wife were free people of color (FPOC) and my ancestors. Amusingly, the Wikitree page dodges any implication that they might have had African ancestry like Keanu Reeves dodging bullets in the Matrix.

Notable Clarence Rivers King (1842-1901) convinced a black woman named Ada Copeland that he was a black man who worked as a Pullman porter. If you go to his Wikipedia page, you'll see photos of him which reveal that love really is blind. This man had Ada convinced he was a black man! They had five children! Bless her heart.

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Charles Lee Younger (1779-1854) No record of marriage but, he did identify children in his will who he fathered with a mulato FPOC. At least one son was born some 15 years before emancipation.

 As far as demanding a marriage license, there were laws against cohabitation as well.

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Thanks everyone for all the information and link to the project page which led me to other very informative pages. Looks like DNA testing might be useful for going further.

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Hello K,

As of right now, we have no definitive proof but, we believe (mostly because of DNA matches and connection to other family members) that my GG Grandfather was the product of George Young (Young-29206) and a slave woman!! Still trying to figure out how to prove it!

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Hey Jaqueline, I have found both black and mulato's buried in the "family" cemetery which causes me to think that there were a variety of relationships that history dismisses. I don't know that I can prove anything but, that does support Thomas Sowell or Mark Twain's quote that no amount of evidence will convince a fool whose mind is made up.

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Amen to that K!!!!!!

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Come join the Weekend Chat, our conversation is sure to excite and contradict conventional wisdom. Get there early, it starts around 9am-Kevin

Answer 3

Margaret, you have several great responses here. I'd like to add that the US Civil War, fought as a dispute between slaveholding southern states and "free" northern states, ended slavery by law in the US in 1865. Northern states abolished slavery before this, albeit at different times. For example, Massachusetts began its gradual abolition process in 1783. In Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey, slavery was prominent into the 1840s. And in neighboring Maryland, where Baltimore is, slavery persisted through 1864 despite Maryland aligning with the northern side of the Civil War.

Also, keep in mind unscrupulous white criminals would kidnap free northern Black folks and sell them into slavery in places like New Orleans. This is one reason it would be important to document one's status as a "free person of colo(u)r."

Another thing to keep in mind: in one of those documents Benjamin Gale is listed "coloured," but that is crossed out and he is listed as "mulatto," an archaic and offensive term for mixed-race people. In the American South, this usually indicated European and African heritage. In the New England region of the US, especially in the eighteenth century, it often indicated mixed African and Indigenous American heritage. I think it's a long shot, but it's worth keeping an open mind that the "free person of color" Benjamin Gale may have Native American heritage.

Comments

Emancipation Proclamation - Definition, Dates & Summary Just for accuracy and clarification.

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Thanks Wayne for all that info, lots to ponder on, I'd love to be able to get a definite link to this Benjamin (or any other) to our Francis. Thanks again for taking the time to give me background info.