What "griffe" meant depends on who wrote it (Louisiana, 1700s–1910)

SUMMARYWhat "griffe" meant depends on who wrote it (Louisiana, 1700s–1910) [Connections: Louisiana (deep), Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDChristophe Landry's glossary to the 1777–1783 cathedral register defines Spanish "grifo/grifa" as a physical descriptor for "a deep coppery complexion and fine, straight hair," with "griffe" as the Louisiana French equivalent. His 1777 census legend defines "griffe" as "Copper-colored." On his "physical descriptors" page he quotes his uncle describing a "grif" family as "they're mulattoes, but they're dark-skinned with fine hair." By contrast, a 1910 Daily Picayune report (reprinted in the St. Martinville Weekly Messenger, April 30, 1910) explained "griffes" as the children of Black and mulatto parents. Louisiana's 1909 Gay-Shattuck liquor law named "griffes, mulattoes, quadroons, and others."

DISPUTEDThe client's lead says griffe means "Indian and African." The fetched sources do not define it that way. They define it as a skin-and-hair descriptor, or as a fraction of African ancestry. In the 1778 inventory above, though, a griffe child was the daughter of an Indian mother

PATTERNA label that described copper skin and straight hair, and that was used for a child of an Indian woman, was later redefined as a fraction of "Negro" ancestry

LENS (WW9)"Copper-colored, fine straight hair," then redefined as part-Negro. The word stayed and its meaning was swapped

OPENNeeds deep research. Pull the glossaries kept in the St. Louis Cathedral and St. Martin de Tours sacramental books (Landry mentions them but does not quote them), and Moreau de Saint-Méry's 1797 charts

SOURCES"What he look like?" (Christophe Landry, LHCV); Register 4 glossary (LHCV); "Mixed Breeds Are Not Negroes and May Mingle With Whites" (Mixed Race Studies, reprinting the Weekly Messenger, April 30, 1910, via Chronicling America).