PRIMARY DOCUMENT

An act declaring what persons shall be deemed mulattoes (October 1785)

CONTEXT

In “An act declaring what persons shall be deemed mulattoes,” passed in October 1785, the General Assembly provides a legal definition of the word “mulatto.”

FULL TEXT

CHAP. LXXVII.

An act declaring what persons shall be deemed mulattoes.

 I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That every person of whose grandfathers or grandmothers any one is, or shall have been a negro, although all his other progenitors, except that descending from the negro, shall have been white persons, shall be deemed a mulatto; and so every person who shall have one-fourth part or more of negro blood, shall, in like manner, be deemed a mulatto.

 II. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven.

CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
General Assembly. An act declaring what persons shall be deemed mulattoes (October 1785). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/an-act-declaring-what-persons-shall-be-deemed-mulattoes-october-1785.
MLA Citation:
General Assembly. "An act declaring what persons shall be deemed mulattoes (October 1785)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 23 Sep. 2023
Last updated: 2020, December 07
Feedback
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Sponsors