Part 3 of my “Racial Dictionary” continues with words, both academic and inappropriate which you may come across in your research. Some of the words will be familiar; others will be from a world long forgotten. So smile, laugh, cry and be in amazement at the world of our ancestors, and how they saw each other. 

If you have just joined this particular blog, don’t forget to study my introduction to the series in Part 1 to place these blogs into a context. I have listed the sources I utilized and genealogical reviewers who judged my accuracy at the end of this Part 3.

Paddy: A slur in the UK for the Irish dating back to the eighteenth century.

Pakeha: A Maori term for a European especially one of British Isles descent. It now means foreigner, to include all non-Maori.

Peckerwood: A historic USA term used through the mid-twentieth century by southern African Americans and upper class whites for the poor rural whites. It is still found among African Americans as a slur against whites.

Person County Indians: A USA term used to describe the tri-racial isolates of Person County on the North Carolina-Virginia border. Today they are the Sappony Tribe.

Pik(e)y (Piker): A UK term with several meanings; derived from “turnpike,” it means an Irish Traveller, Gypsy, or itinerant poor person. In the nineteenth century, it was also a general slur for the Irish.

Pommy (Pommies): A term used in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand for a South African of British Isles descent.

Pineys: A USA slur for tri-racial isolate families in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Pondshiners: see Bushwhackers

Poor White Trash: see White Trash

Pot Licker: A slur for the Irish, derived from the fact that during the Potato Famine the Irish would lick their pots to obtain the last morsel of food.

Potato Eater: A term for the Irish used by the gangs of New York City.

Potato Nigger: A USA slur for the Irish because they ate lots of potatoes.

Quadroon (Quarteron): A person with ¼ black and ¾ white ancestry. It also applies to having a white and mulatto parent.

Quinteron: A person who is 1/16 black or 15/16 white.  

Ramps: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in Western Virginia. See Melungeons

Red Bones: A USA slur for several tri-racial isolates groups in: Calcasieu, Vernon, Allen, Rapides and Beauregard parishes, Louisiana and Richland County, South Carolina. See Sabines.

Red Legs: A USA slur often seen as “Redlegs.” 1.) For tri-racial isolate families in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, which today are the Beaver Creek Indians. 2.) In Barbados as an offensive term for the islands’ labor-class whites.

Redneck: 1.) A USA slur for Southern labor class poor whites which referred to the Scots-Irish in the American South. See Redshanks. 2.) South African slang from rooinek (red-neck) to refer to an Anglo-African. 

Redshanks: This insult used by both blacks and the white planter class described white slaves and indentured servants in the Colonial Americas whose limbs reddened in the sun of the southern colonies. This may be where the term “redneck” originated.

Redskin: A historic USA slur for Native Americans.

Sabines: A USA description for tri-racial isolates in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana; which name comes from the Sabine River. A historical slur was Red Bones.

Sawny (Sandy): A common name for a Scotsman.

Shant: A derogatory term for the poor Irish who lived in shacks known as shanties.

Shanty Irish: A historic USA term for poor Irish.

Shelta: In Ireland, this slur for the Travellers is derived from the Irish word meaning “The Walkers.”

Slaughters: A USA term used to describe a clan of tri-racial isolates of Slaughter Hill in the Schoharie Valley, Schoharie County, New York.

Smiling Indians: A USA term used to describe the tri-racial isolates in Orangeburg County, South Carolina known as the Beaver Creek Indians   . They also were called Brass Ankles, Croatans, Mulattos, Red Legs

Smilings: A USA term for the tri-racial isolates in Robeson County, North Carolina who moved from Sumter County, South Carolina, and did not amalgamate fully with the Lumbees.

Smoked Irish(man): A nineteenth century USA term for blacks. It was a double insult for both blacks and the Irish.

Summerville Indians: A USA term for tri-racial isolates in Summerville, Berkeley County, South Carolina, now known as the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians. See Brass Ankles.

Swamp Yankee: A USA term meaning rural white Protestant farmers from Rhode Island and western Connecticut.

Tan: A derogatory term for British people used in Ireland. It is derived from the Black and Tans, the nickname for an auxiliary British Army unit deployed to Ireland in the 1920s.

Teaguelanders: A common term for Irishmen (Tea Gueland meaning Ireland).

Teapot: A nineteenth century British term for blacks.

Tinker: see Irish Tinker

Touch of the Tar Brush: A British slur for a person of predominantly white ancestry who has suspected African or Asian ancestry.

Tri-Racial Isolate: A USA term to describe families from isolated communities, who trace back into the colonial period having white, black, and Indian ancestry.

Turks: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in Sumter County, South Carolina.

Thick Mick: A slur commonly used in England where Irish immigrants did much of the manual labor.

Wesorts: A term, first to be documented in 1896, used to describe tri-racial isolates in Charles and Prince Georges counties, Maryland.

White Nigger: (Wigger): A USA nineteenth century term for the Irish; it is still used with different meanings.

White Trash: A USA slur to denote whites (often of Scots-Irish roots) who were poor, under-educated, and historically “not quite white.” Treated as a race of their own, especially in the South, this sub-group has been the subject of popular literature for years. Another variation is “Poor White Trash.” Both variations are still in use today.

Yank(ee): A historic and current USA term used by Southerners to describe Northerners. It has been adopted and used by non-Americans to describe Americans. The term originally meant someone from New England.

Yellow Carib: A term used in St. Vincent by the colonial authorities to describe those of Carib heritage as opposed to a Black Carib.

Yellow People: A generic USA slur used to describe tri-racial isolates.

Yokel: A term used in the UK, USA, and Canada for an unrefined white person.

Zambo: A term meaning several things in the USA: 1.) The child of a mulatto and a black; 2.) A child of a Native American and a black; 3.) Three-quarters black.

SOURCES: “List of Ethnic Slurs”, www.enwikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_slurs, “List of Ethnic Slurs by Ethnicity” www.en.eikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnc_slurs_by_ethnicity, “List of Regional Nicknames”, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regional_nicknames, “The Racial Slur Database”: www.rsdb.org, Virginia Easley DeMarce, “Very Slitly Mixt”: Tri-Racial Isolate Families of the Upper South – A Genealogical Study,” in National Genealogical Society Quarterly 80 (March 1992): 5-35: www.genpage.com/DeMarce.pdf , William Harlen Gilbert, Jr., Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States (Washington D. C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1949), Francis Grose, “1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,” www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/, “Old Time Racial Terms & More People of Color,” www.smoot-family.us/terms.html

REVIEWERS: I would like to thank the following genealogists for reviewing these three blogs for accuracy and for providing suggestions: Jayne Davis, past president of the Franklin County, Ohio Genealogical Society, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohfcghs ; Ann Eccles and Tom Rice with the Irish Genealogical Society International, www.irishgenealogical.org in South St. Paul, Minnesota; Leland Meitzler, publisher and blogger of www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com and www.genealogyblog.com based in Utah; Claire Smith-Burns. Library & Public Education Committees Director for the Kelowna & District Genealogical Society in Kelowna, British Columbia, www.kdgs.ca, and Bob Murray, genealogist in Belfast, Northern Ireland, www.youririsheyes.com  

 

Part 2 of my “Racial Dictionary” continues with words, both academic and inappropriate which you may come across in your research. Some of the words will be familiar; others will be from a world long forgotten. So smile, laugh, cry and be in amazement at the world of our ancestors and how they saw each other. 

You will find a list of sources utilized and genealogical reviewers at the end of Part 3. To gain a full context, you will need to read the introduction to Part 1 of this blog series.

First Peoples/First Nations: A contemporary Canadian term for Native Americans.

Free Black: Sometimes referred to as “free persons of color” or “free color,”’ they were either free slaves, African Americans who were born free, or mixed-race who were bi-racial or tri-racial.

Free Issue (Free Issue Negro): A USA term for a black or mixed-race person who was free by manumission or birth. This term was common in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Free Mixture: A mixed-blood person who was not a slave.

Frog: see Bay Frog

G. and B. Indians: This USA term for tri-racial isolates in West Virginia is taken from the Grafton and Belington Railroad.

Golliwog: A predominately UK expression for people of color, especially Afro-Caribbeans. It references a late nineteenth century children’s literary character and a type of black dolls.

Greeks: A USA term used at times in North Carolina for tri-racial isolate groups.

Green Nigger: Historically used mainly in large USA cities with large Irish populations because the Irish were held in low regard as were the African Americans of the period.

Griff(e) (Griffane, Griffin): A USA term for a person having a black parent and a parent of Native American ancestry; or an alternative for the word mulatto, in Louisiana.

Gringo: A Latin American term used disparagingly against North Americans and North Europeans. While it can be used as a slur, it is not always; such as, a Mexican using it to refer to an American.

Groid: An older USA slur, a derivative of negroid.

Gub(ba): An Australian Aboriginal slur for a white person.

Guineamen: A USA slur to describe tri-racial isolates who lived in an area called Guinea Neck, Gloucester County, Virginia.

Guineas: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in Barbour and Taylor counties, West Virginia. The name is thought to come from the district of Guinea on the Tygart River, West Virginia.

Haliwas: A USA term for tri-racial isolates in Halifax and Warren counties, North Carolina.

Hairyback: A South African slur for white Afrikaners.

Half and Half: see Half Breed

Half-Breed (Half Blood, Half Blooded): A historic North American derogatory term for anyone of mixed Native American and white parentage. The French term is Metis and the Spanish version term is Mestizo. It can also apply to someone who is part black.

Half Caste: A UK slur for anyone of mixed-race; it is often shortened to “Halfie.”

Haole: A Hawaiian USA term for non-natives, especially whites. It has different contexts and is less commonly used against non-Hawaiians.

High Yellow: A derogatory USA term for an African American of mixed-race who has African features with a light skin tone which appears yellow or golden. The phrase was popular in nineteenth and early twentieth century USA culture. An alternative term is “High Yeller.”

Hillbilly: A USA slur used for white Americans of Appalachian or Ozark ancestry. The Scots-Irish were frequently described by this term.

Honies: A USA term to describe tri-racial isolates of Slaughter Hill in the southern part of Schoharie County, New York.

Indians of the Green Swamp: see Cherokees

Injun: A historic North American offensive term used for a Native American.

Irish Tinker: Sometimes seen as just Tinker it is used in the UK and Ireland for the Irish Travellers or, more generally for a lower class person.

Issue: A USA slur historically used in Virginia counties by whites to describe tri-racial isolates or mulattos as they saw them. The “Issue” mixed-bloods were centered in Amherst County.

Jackson Whites: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates scattered in New Jersey and New York. They are located in the Ramapo Valley and adjoining Passaic, Bergen and Morris counties, New Jersey. In New York they are in Orange and Rockland counties. Today they are known as the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation.

Jim Crow: A historic USA term for a black person derived from the segregation laws which ended with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Jim Fish: A South African slur for a black person.

Jock(ie) (Jocky): A UK slur for a Scottish person, although it has been used in several contexts over the centuries. Derived from the Scottish language as a nickname for John and the English version of Jack among the English it is used as an insult.

Jukes: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates living in New York in the nineteenth century.

Lace Curtain Irish: A term for Irish immigrants who thought they were better off than their neighbors by hanging lace curtains in their windows.

Limey: This USA slur for a British person refers to the practice of giving sailors limes to prevent scurvy.

Marabou: A person with 5/8 black ancestry; the child of a mulatto and a griffe. This term is usually found in Louisiana.

Marlboro Blues: A USA description for tri-racial isolates in Chesterfield County, South Carolina.

Maroons: African slaves who escaped into the Jamaican frontier and formed their own communities.

Melungeons: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. They are also known as Ramps in Virginia.

Mestizo: A person of mixed Spanish and American Indian or European and East Indian ancestry.

Metis: A North American term referring back to the mixed-blood families of the French and other European fur traders on the North American frontier.

Mick(ey) (Mac, Mickey Fin): A historic term in the USA, the UK and the British Commonwealth for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia, it has been used from the nineteenth century to mean a Roman Catholic.

Moors: A USA slur for several tri-racial isolates groups in Cumberland County, New Jersey and Kent County, Delaware.

Mucker: A slur used historically in Boston for Irish who found employment filling in the Back Bay which was marsh and water at the time.

Mulatto: A somewhat vague term to denote mixed-race: means bi-racial, tri-racial or more.

Mulattoes: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates of Washington, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.

Munt(er): A derogatory term used by whites in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia for a black person.

Mestee (Mustee): See Octoroon

Mzungu: Used among blacks in Malawi and Eastern Zambia for a white person, although not necessarily offensive.

Nams: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates who in 1912 were living in Estabrook and Davenport, Delaware County, New York.

Negro(e): 1.) A common term to describe a person of African descent from the eighteenth  through twentieth centuries. 2.) A common word figuratively used among whites to mean a slave, as in “I’ll be no man’s negro” meaning “I’ll be no man’s slave.” 3.) Variations of the word, depending on regional English accents or the ethnic group using it are Nigger, Niggra, Niggroid, Nigra, Nigrah, Nigruh among others. It may or may not be offensive depending on the context.

NINA: A term to denote “No Irish Need Apply” used in the nineteenth century in the USA when many people would not hire Irish immigrants.

Ocker: Used in Australia and New Zealand for an uncultivated Australian.

Octoroon, (Mestee, Mustee): A person who is 1/8 black and 7/8 white; the child of a white parent and a quadroon.

Okie: A slur for the massive waves of poor white and mixed-blood migrants escaping the Dust Bowl of the 1930s bound for California. Estimates are 15% of Oklahoma residents left. They were viewed as a virtual ethnic group within California’s larger white community. Their plight was popularized in John Steinbeck’s classic novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) It is still used today and depending on the context may or may not be offensive.

If you would like to receive our daily blog, e-mail us at: customerservice@thejourneyhomegenealogy.com

Professional Links

Dwight Radford, visit me at: www.thejourneyhomegenealogy.com

Leland Meitzler Publisher of genealogy products and books: www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com

Irish Genealogical Society International: www.irishgenealogical.org  I write articles for their journal The Septs

Mike O’Laughlin author of Irish family history books: www.irishroots.com

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, MFA, CG professional book editing: www.nonfictionHelp.com  

Come enjoy the December research tour: www.SaltLakeChristmasTour.com I am one of the consultant’s at this wonderful event

 

Where we seek a context for our research, if we are to understand the historical records and what we are reading, we need to know how people described each other. 

This three-part blog about race is an educational resource to share my findings on terms I have gathered to describe people with Irish roots. These blogs are my creation and I take full responsibility for them. I include the following segments of the population: African American, Afro-Caribbean, Native American, Scots-Irish, and whites with roots in the UK and Ireland. While the listing span the centuries, I’ve only chosen historical and academic terms you will find in your research.

Racial labels come from any number of places. Some are based on color, nationality, race terms, family names, foreign languages, ancestors, geographic residences or culture. Others are just dirty! Not all terms are derogatory, but are simply descriptions for “them.” Also, contexts have changed over the years. In North America race originally was thought of in terms of skin color. In modern Canada, race is associated with culture; while in the USA, it is still associated with skin tone.

Be aware that I have included both crude, vulgar and inappropriate terms as well as academically appropriate terms. For good measure I have included all the inappropriate terms I could find to describe the Irish either at home or abroad. You may be familiar with some of them. The Irish Catholics and the poor whites in the USA (those with Scots-Irish roots) share the brunt of these words. 

My hope is my “Racial Dictionary” will make you laugh, cry and stare in amazement at the world our ancestors lived in. To demonstrate how important these terms are, I provide one example. If your family lore said you were “Black Dutch” then know that this term was code for mixed-blood Cherokees or Chickasaws with European ancestry. It’s no big deal today. However, in pre-Civil Rights USA society, skin tone defined who had civil rights and who did not. A family either “passed for white” at some point or made up a term to explain their skin color. By the way, a “Black Dutch” family is almost guaranteed a Scots-Irish ancestor.

My “Racial Dictionary” can not include all words and phrases. I have limited it to terms about groups of people, not individuals within the group; thus slurs such as Uncle Tom and Aunt Jemima are not included. My goal is to capture the essence of the main racial terms you may encounter in your research. This dictionary is meant to complement other genealogical racial glossaries such as “Old Time Racial Terms & More People of Color”: www.smoot-family.us/terms.html, by Frederick K. Smoot. Also be aware that whenever I use the term “common” I am referring to slag taken from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: www.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/

I have also had several genealogists review these three blogs for accuracy and usefulness. A list of reviewers and a list of my sources are provided at the end of the third blog.

Angie: A Canadian slur for English-speaking Canadians. It is short for Anglophone and is used in Quebec.

Anglo-African: A white African largely of British Isles descent. see Pommy (Pommies).

Anglo-Indian: People of mixed Indian and British ancestry. It also includes Indians from the old Portuguese colonies of Coromandel, Malabar Coasts, Goa and people of Indo-French and Indo-Dutch descent. It was originally used to describe all British people living in India.

Arabs: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in Summit, Schoharie County, New York.

Bay Frog: Hudson Bay and Frog refers to those with French Quebec ancestry. Sometimes termed Frog.

Black Carib: A term used by the Caribbean colonial governments to describe people of mixed African and Carib heritage.

Black Dutch: A USA term used among mixed-blood Cherokee and Chickasaw families, who did not remove to Oklahoma to “pass for white” by describing their skin tone in European terms.

Black Irish: 1.) A USA term used by mixed-race families with Cherokee and Chickasaw ancestry to whites too account for their skin tone.  Black Dutch was also used. 2.) A term for dark-haired Irish.

Bog Jumper: A slang for the Irish because of the many bogs in Ireland.

Bog Lander: A common term for an Irishman.

Bog Irish: A term used in the UK and Ireland for someone of low class or common Irish ancestry.

Bog Trotter: A common term for an Irishman.

Brass Ankles: A USA slur for tri-racial isolate families in Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Berkeley, Orangeburg and Clarendon counties, South Carolina. The term is thought to signify a “toasted brown color.” Today, the modern tribe is Beaver Creek Indians 

Breed(s): A North American slur for a mixed-blood Native American. See Half Breed.

Bristol Man: A common term for the son of an Irish thief and a Welch whore.

Broganier: A common term for someone who has a strong Irish pronunciation or accent.

Brown People: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in Rockbridge County, Virginia on Irish Creek.

Buckheads: A USA slur for tri-racial isolate families in Bamberg County, South Carolina.

Buckra: A term for a white man used by African slaves.

Bug: A common term used by the Irish for Englishmen, as it is said that bugs were introduced into Ireland by the English.

Bushwhackers: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in Columbia County, New York. Also known as Pondshiners.

Cajans: A term used to describe mixed-blood families, many tri-racial isolates in: Mobile and Washington counties, Alabama.

Cane River Mulattos: A slur for tri-racial isolates on Cane River in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.

Carib: The indigenous people who inhabited the Caribbean Islands and parts of the neighboring mainland.

Carmel Indians: A term to describe tri-racial isolates in Carmel, Highland County, Ohio. They are related to the Melungeons.

Cherokees: A USA term to describe what is today called the Waccamaw Siouan tribe of Bladen and Columbus, North Carolina. Also called “Indians of the Green Swamp,” and Croatans.

Clappers: A USA term to describe tri-racial isolates of Clapper Hollow in Schoharie County, New York.

Clay Eaters: A USA slur to denote the practice of eating clay by some poor whites and some blacks in the Old South, particularly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It was also used as a slur for some tri-racial isolates in the South.

Coal Cracker: Slang for the Irish, because so many Irish immigrants mined coal.

Cockney: A UK term for a person from East London. It has been used to refer to the working class Londoners, particularly from the East End.

Coe Clan: A USA term to describe the tri-racial isolates in Cumberland and Monroe counties, Kentucky.

Cohee: An eighteenth century USA term for independent Scots-Irish small farmers from the Piedmont or Appalachian Mountains. By the nineteenth century, it also came to mean “poor white trash.”

Colored: A historic term used in various contexts. 1.) In the USA it is an African American. Usage ranges from inoffensive to offensive. The term “free color” is seen in the records. 2) In South Africa, it conveys mixed-race.

Coolie: A term used differently for different groups: In the nineteenth century USA, describes the Chinese workers on the railroad; it also described Indo-Caribbean people, especially in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago; and described South African Indians.

Coon: A historic USA slur for a black person popularized in the song “Zip Coon” played at Minstrel shows in the 1830s.

Cracker: A nineteenth century term used in the USA to describe either a poor white Appalachian or a poor white Southerner in general. It also denotes the descendants of Scots-Irish.

Creole: 1.) A person of mixed European and African descent born in the Americas. In the fifteenth century, Portuguese-African traders popularized the term (crioulo/a). The term refers also to a language that blends European and African languages, spoken by Europeans, Africans and African-Americans, the most common being French Creole in St. Domingo/Haiti. 2.)  A USA slur for several tri-racial isolate groups in Baldwin and Mobile counties, Alabama.

Croatans: A USA slur that came into use about 1885 for tri-racial isolates in Robeson County, Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Harnett, Sampson and Scotland counties, North Carolina; Marlboro, Dillon, Marion, Horry counties, South Carolina. Modern tribes historically known as Croatans include the Coharie Intra-Tribal Council, Waccamaw Siouan, and Beaver Creek Indians.

Cubans: A USA slur for tri-racial isolates in North Carolina and Virginia. Also called Person County Indians.

Darke County Indians: A USA term to describe tri-racial isolates located near Tampico, Darke County, Ohio.

Darky (Darkey, Darkie): A general and historic term used by many ethnic groups; depending on the context, it  may or may not be a racial slur. When used against blacks, it is offensive; when used by blacks as a description, it is not offensive. In South Africa, it can be both offensive and racist.

Dingey Christian: A common term for a mulatto, especially of African ancestry.

Dogan (Dogun): A nineteenth century Canadian term for an Irish Catholic.

Donkey: A slang term used for the Irish in nineteenth century Pennsylvania; it was cheaper to hire an Irishman than a donkey in the coal mines.

East India Indians: A Colonial American term for people from the Indian subcontinent, used especially in Maryland and Virginia.

Tomorrow, I will continue with Part 2.