African American Keywords for Chronicling America

Related Terms: Colored, Black, African American, Slave, Negro

Definitions: An American of African origin; a black American. 

Contextual Considerations, or "How this Term was Used": The term Afro-American was used from the 1870's to the early 1990's, and held a similar meaning as African American.

Insider / Outsider Use: Throughout the twentieth century, African American newspapers used the term “Afro-American” to refer to members of the community.

Examples from Chronicling America: 

Afro-American Courier (Yazoo City, Miss.), 01 May 1957. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Afro-American" in The Washington Herald (Washington, D.C.), 28 May 1909. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Afro-American" in The Colorado Statesman (Denver, Colo.), 18 April 1914. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress

OCR Considerations, or "How the Computer Sees it"

 "Afrc-American" in The Broad Ax (Salt Lake City, Utah), 18 Sept. 1926. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Afre-American" in Daily Public Ledger (Maysville, Ky.), 19 April 1892. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

Related Terms: Black, African American, Slave, Negro, Ebony 

Definitions: By the nineteenth century, this term had replaced other derogatory terms for any person of African or African American descent who is melanated. From the late 1960s on, this term was replaced by “Black” and “African American.” This term is still used by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 

Contextual Considerations, or "How this Term was Used": Many nonwhite groups, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have used this term in a positive manner, and this reclamation has led to its usage by various movements to protect the rights of ethnic populations.

Insider / Outsider Use: Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, African American newspapers used “Colored” to refer to members of the community.

Examples from Chronicling America:  

"Colored" in Salt River Journal (Bowling Green, Mo.), 19 Sept. 1840. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

The Colored American (Washington, D.C.), 15 March 1902. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

OCR Considerations, or "How the Computer Sees it": 

"Colered" in Herald of the Times (Newport, R.I.), 18 Jan. 1838. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. 

"Cqlored" in The Bossier Banner (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.), 08 Feb. 1876. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

Related Terms: Colored, Mulatto, African American, Slave, Negro 

Definitions: Deriving from the Portuguese “crioulo,” which refers to an enslaved person born in their enslaver’s house, this term refers to any person of mixed ancestry born in a country previously colonized by white Europeans. Particularly in Louisiana, this term denotes descendants of early French settlers living in the southern United States. 

Contextual Considerations, or "How this Term was Used": During the nineteenth century, the mixed-race Creoles of Color or “gens de couleur libre” (free persons of color) gained prominence as an ethnic group, and many in Louisiana used it to distinguish themselves from foreign-born and Anglo-American settlers. Since the nineteenth century, this term has been used to describe not just people but also cultural expressions, languages, and literature.

Insider / Outsider Use: Throughout the nineteenth century, newspapers based in Louisiana published in both English and French. The newspapers used the term “Creole” to refer to members of this specific ethnic group as well as the wider culture.

Examples from Chronicling America: 

"Creole" in The Rhode-Island Republican (Newport, R.I.), 04 Feb. 1813. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

The Mississippi Creole (Canton, Miss.), 06 Nov. 1841. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Créole" in The Weekly Louisianian (New Orleans, La.) 15 April 1882. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

OCR Considerations, or "How the Computer Sees it": 

"Crcole" in Arizona Republican (Phoenix, Ariz.), 23 Feb. 1911. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. 

"Creolo" in Nebraska Advertiser (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]), 07 Sept. 1882. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

Related Terms: Colored, Creole, African American, Slave, Negro 

Definitions: This term is usually used to refer to a person with one white and one Black parent, or, to a person with mixed Indigenous ancestry. 

Contextual Considerations, or "How this Term was Used": In the eighteenth-century United States, specific laws designated what persons were considered “Mulatto,” and usually, this refers to anyone with any mixed ethnicity in their ancestry, including both African and Native Americans. By the nineteenth century, this term was considered offensive, and it is generally used as a slur for people with intersectional racial identities. 

Insider / Outsider Use: For this term, the distinction between insider and outsider use does not apply, either because insiders do not use the term or because insiders and outsiders use the term in ways that are very closely aligned.

Examples from Chronicling America: 

"Mulatto" in Daily Ohio Statesman (Columbus, Ohio), 11 Dec. 1867. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Mulattoes" in The Seattle Republican (Seattle, Wash.), 06 Sept. 1912. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

OCR Considerations, or "How the Computer Sees It": 

"Muiatto" in The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 14 Sept. 1907. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Malatto" in The Broad Ax (Salt Lake City, Utah), 31 March 1906. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

Related Terms: Colored, Black, African American, Slave, Ebony 

Definitions: Rooted in the Latin word for “black,” this term refers to s person of African or African American descent who is melanated. Prior to the abolition of slavery in the US, this term was sometimes used with an offensive connotation and was often a synonym of “slave.”

Contextual Considerations, or "How this Term was Used": This term was the standard designation for African Americans from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. Often, this phrase was used to assert Negro pride  by Black scholars, namely W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. The term was also embraced by artists of the Harlem Renaissance and social movements, such as the United Negro Improvement Association. In the 1960s, this term was replaced by “Black” and later by terms like “Afro-American.”

Insider / Outsider Use: Prior to the 1960s, African American newspapers embraced this term in reporting on social and professional news of interest to the Black community.

Examples from Chronicling America: 

"Negro" in The Gazette (Portland, Me.), 14 May 1798. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Negro" in The Kansas City Sun (Kansas City, Mo.), 16 Aug. 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Negro" in The Detroit Tribune (Detroit, Mich.), 07 March 1942. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

OCR Considerations, or "How the Computer Sees It": 

"Necro" in Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Ill.), 28 Aug. 1867. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Negto" in The Echo (Meridian, Miss.), 25 Feb. 1944. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.  

Related Terms: Colored, Black, Enslaved Person, Negro, Creole

Definition: This term refers to one who is the property of another person, whether by birth, purchase, or capture. This term is used for a person who is forced to perform labor or service against their will under threat of physical abuse, separation from family or loved ones, or death. In the context of United States history, this term refers to one of the millions of kidnapped Africans transported to the Americas and their descendants held in bondage from 1619 until the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865.

Contextual Considerations, or "How this Term was Used": This term suggests that the individual was not human but was a piece of property and that the individual had accepted their enslavement as a definition of their identity. As such, this term has been replaced by “enslaved person.”

Insider / Outsider Use: For this term, the distinction between insider and outsider use does not apply, either because insiders do not use the term or because insiders and outsiders use the term in ways that are very closely aligned.

Examples from Chronicling America: 

"Slave" in The Jasper Weekly Courier (Jasper, Ind.), 08 Dec. 1893. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. 

"Slave" in New Britain Herald (New Britain, Conn.), 30 Dec. 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

OCR Considerations, or "How the Computer Sees it": 

"Flave" in The Enquirer (Richmond, Va.), 14 July 1804. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

"Slavo" in The Herald and News (Newberry S.C.), 25 Dec. 1906. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.