Category: Articles

  • The title of a possible discussion of the Negro in Louisiana presents difficulties, for there is no such word as Negro permissible in speaking of this State. The history of the State is filled with attempts to define, sometimes at the point of the sword, oftenest in civil or criminal courts, the meaning of the…

  • Tiffany Rae Reid pens first book as a guide for raising biracial children phillyBurbs.com 2011-12-18 Naila Francis, Staff Writer At first, there were the looks, brazenly curious, speculative, and in Briety McKeon’s eyes, even judgmental. Who was the little girl beside her? The one with the warm, honeyed tint to her skin, the darker, curlier…

  • Narrative Miscegenation: “Absalom, Absalom!” as Naturalist Novel, Auto/Biography, and African-American Oral Story Journal of Narrative Theory Volume 31, Number 2 (Summer, 2001) pages 155-179 DOI: 10.1353/jnt.2011.0080 Alex Vernon, Associate Professor of English Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas Charles Darwin’s evolutionary ideas, especially as disseminated by Herbert Spencer, profoundly affected literary criticism at the end of the…

  • Between Black and White: Attitudes Toward Southern Mulattoes, 1830-1861 The Journal of Southern History Volume 45, Number 2 (May, 1979) pages 185-200 Robert Brent Toplin, Professor of History University of North Carolina, Wilmington The documents of slavery—laws, narratives speeches, and political tracts—contain abundant references to “Negroes” and “mulattoes.” By the standards of antebellum America, the…

  • Negro Genius—Reviewed work(s): The Journal of American Folklore Volume 18, Number 71 (October-December, 1905) pages 319-322 NEGRO GENIUS. As a dispatch from Washington, D. C., the “Evening Transcript” (Boston, Mass.) of February 18, 1905, published the following concerning the investigations of Mr. Daniel Murray: – “Daniel Murray, for many years an assistant in the Library…

  • Celtic Tiger, Hidden Dragon: exploring identity among second generation Chinese in Ireland The Irish Migration, Race and Social Transformation Review Volume 2, Issue 1 (Summer 2007) pages 48-69 Nicola Yau, Independent Researcher Through qualitative interviews, participant observation and an asynchronous group discussion on an Internet forum for second generation Chinese, this article explores identity among…

  • The passing of Charles Chesnutt: Mining the white tradition Wasafiri Volume 13, Issue 27 pages 5-10 DOI 10.1080/02690059808589583 Sarah Meer, Lecturer of English Univeristy of Cambridge In May 1880, the young Charles Chesnutt confided to his diary his ambition to write a book. Its object would be ‘not so much the elevation of the colored people’—the concern…

  • Boucicault’s misdirections: Race, transatlantic theatre and social position in The Octoroon Atlantic Studies Volume 6, Number 1 (April 2009) pages 81-95 DOI: 10.1080/14788810802696287 Sarah Meer, Lecturer of English Univeristy of Cambridge This article challenges a number of myths the Irish-American melodramatist Dion Boucicault himself created about his play The Octoroon. Boucicault claimed that London theatre…

  • The Negro Defined The Yale Law Journal Volume 20, Number 3 (January, 1911) pages 224-225 In many of the states where a considerable portion of the population is colored, statutes define the term negro and establish his status where the same is considered, because of local conditions, as essentially different from that of Caucasians. Where…

  • The Octoroon and English Opinions of Slavery American Quarterly Volume 8, Number 2 (Summer, 1956) pages 166-170 Nils Erik Enkvist Akademi Abo, Finland After his great successes, and notably that of Colleen Bawn, Dion Boucicault became something of a leading figure among English-speaking playwrights, while the critics as well as the public eagerly watched his…