Mulatto
Mulatto is a term for an individual born of one White and one Black parent. From the Spanish word for young mule, mulatto also refers to a person of mixed race. Light-skinned African Americans often were referred to as mulattoes, regardless of heritage.
Mulattoes were more likely to be manumitted, to be educated, and to own property—benefits often conferred through a White father. However, due to the socially accepted “one-drop rule,” whereby a person with one drop of African blood was considered Black or Negro, the majority of mulattoes were granted no special privileges because of their racial status or classification. In fact, throughout the 19th and much of the 20th century, mulattoes were stereotyped in literature and culture as tragic figures, neither fully White or Black.
Yellow
Yellow, as seen in this exhibition, refers to the complexion of a very light-skinned mulatto or person descended from a mulatto. It is sometimes spelled as “yaller.”
Miscegenation
Miscegenation, from two Latin root words meaning “mix” and “race,” refers to interracial mating or the interbreeding of races or ethnicities, especially between Whites and members of other races. Miscegenation between Whites and Blacks occurred frequently during the period of slavery and produced a large mixed population.
Many states had laws prohibiting interracial sex, cohabitation, and marriage. Pennsylvania’s first antimiscegenation law, “An Act for the better regulating of Negroes in this province,” was passed in 1725. The U.S. Supreme Court did not declare antimiscegenation laws unconstitutional until 1967.