The same family. The same land. A new name every ten years.
Open your family’s census records and you’ll see it: one decade they’re mulatto, the next they’re colored, then negro, then Black. Sometimes white. Sometimes Indian. The people didn’t change. The box did.
This is how the war over the record was fought on paper, and how to read that paper when you trace your own people.
In this guide
- What the people hold
- The box, decade by decade
- Who filled in the box
- In their own words
- How to read your family’s race box
What the people hold
| What families say | Standing |
|---|---|
| “Our records changed, but we didn’t.” Families watched the label move from Indian or mulatto to colored to negro within one lifetime. | Oral Tradition, backed by The Record (the census itself) |
| The labels were used to cut people off from land, nations and rights. | Community Belief, backed in places by The Record (Virginia, 1924) |
| “Black” is a name given from outside, not who we are. | Community Belief |
The box, decade by decade
The U.S. census changed its race categories almost every time it counted. Standing: The Record (U.S. Census Bureau).
| Census | What the box allowed | What it meant for our families |
|---|---|---|
| 1790–1840 | Free white persons, “all other free persons,” slaves; later “free colored persons” | Free Native and mixed families were folded into “other” or “free colored.” No name, only a tally under the head of household. |
| 1850–1860 | White, Black, Mulatto | Every free person is named for the first time. Native people living among neighbors were often marked M or B. |
| 1870–1880 | White, Black, Mulatto, Chinese, Indian | “Indian” appears as a choice, but the enumerator still decided who got it. |
| 1890 | Black, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon | Enumerators were told to sort people by fractions of “blood” by looking at them. |
| 1900 | Black (mulatto dropped) | Mixed families flattened into one label. |
| 1910–1920 | Black, Mulatto (mulatto returns) | The same family could move back and forth between labels. |
| 1930 | Negro; mulatto dropped for good | Instructions told enumerators to record people of mixed Negro and Indian ancestry as Negro unless Indian ancestry clearly dominated and the community accepted them as Indian. |
| 1960 onward | Self-identification begins | For the first time, many households chose their own box. |
| 2000 onward | More than one race allowed | People can finally mark both, or all, of who they are. |
Who filled in the box
For most of American history, your ancestors did not choose their race on the census. The enumerator did, usually by looking at them, sometimes by asking a neighbor, sometimes by guessing. A light-skinned child and a dark-skinned parent in the same house could get different labels. A family could be “mulatto” in one county and “negro” after moving one county over.
In some states the renaming was deliberate. In Virginia, the 1924 Racial Integrity Act and its registrar, Walter Plecker, turned “Indian” into “colored” on birth, marriage and death records. Historians call it a paper genocide.
In their own words
Truth is truth. Receipts are for proof. Standing: The Record.
- Congress: the Congressional Record states that Plecker spent decades changing birth certificates from “Indian” to “Colored,” “Negro” or “Free Issue.”
- The law: Black’s Law Dictionary defined “free woman of color” as all persons not of the white race, including Indians. The same dictionary counted the Moors of Spain and Portugal as “white” for citizenship. White and colored were legal lines, not skin.
- The newspapers: in the 1890s, papers called men born in County Cork, Ireland, an “Irish negro” and a “colored Irishman.” The labels never matched where people came from.
How to read your family’s race box
- Line up every census. Find the same person in 1950, 1940, 1930, and back as far as you can. Write down the race label each time.
- Treat a change as a clue. A move from “Indian” or “mulatto” to “negro” doesn’t mean you have the wrong family. It often means a new enumerator, a new county or a new law.
- Check the neighbors. Turn the page. If the whole neighborhood changes label in the same year, the clerk changed, not the people.
- Compare other records. Birth, marriage, death, military, church and tax records were written by different people at different times. When they disagree with the census, note every version.
- Look for “free colored” and “free issue.” Before 1865, many Native and mixed families were recorded as free people of color, not enslaved. That’s a door, not a dead end.
- Write your own record. Keep a family sheet that shows every label the paper gave, next to what your family says. Your record counts too.
Go deeper: Black American Indians: The Record, the Renaming, and How to Trace Your Own · the Vault · our story
Renamed Black. Born Aboriginal.
Questions
Why does my ancestor’s race change between censuses?
Until 1960, the census taker usually chose the race, and the categories changed almost every decade. The same person could be recorded as mulatto, colored, negro or Indian depending on the year, the county and the enumerator.
When did people start choosing their own race on the census?
Self-identification began with the 1960 census. Since 2000, people can choose more than one race.
Does “mulatto” on a census mean my family wasn’t Indian?
No. Mulatto, colored and negro were applied to Native and mixed families too. Treat the label as what a clerk wrote, and follow names, places and land.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau: Measuring Race and Ethnicity Across the Decades, 1790–2010
- Pew Research Center: What Census Calls Us
- National Park Service: The Racial Integrity Act
- Congressional Record: debate on federal recognition of six Virginia tribes
- Black’s Law Dictionary, “Free woman of color” and “Free white persons”
- Chronicling America (Library of Congress): Sea Coast Echo, Apr 13 1895; New York Journal, Aug 22 1896; Wichita Daily Eagle, Mar 16 1897