Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 15:48 Post subject: the Octoroon
octoroon
SYLLABICATION: oc·to·roon
NOUN: A person whose ancestry is one-eighth Black.
USAGE NOTE: The terms mulatto, quadroon, and octoroon originated with the racial policies of European colonizers in the Americas, especially the Spanish. Because civil rights and responsibilities were based directly on the degree of European blood that a person had, such classifications were highly elaborated, and minor distinctions in ancestry were carefully recorded. While these terms have highly precise definitions, in actual practice they were often used based on impressions of skin color rather than definite knowledge of ancestry.
like the Quadroon post, this one will feature, historic and present information from all genre of the Octoroon.
Item Number: OCTOROON
Unit Of Price: each
Description: Tobacco label depicting a woman, ostensibly an octoroon (or person who is one eighth black) wearing a lace veil. Octoroon brand, manufactured by T.C. Williams Co., Virginia.
Size: 7.172 x 13.598. Digital reproduction of the original in the collections of the Library of Virginia.
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 16:13 Post subject: The Octoroon Girl, 1925. Archibald Motley
In The Octoroon Girl (fig. 3), Motley portrayed an elegant young woman seated on a sofa against a warm-red wall. In this beautifully balanced composition, the model is posed off center, between a gold-framed painting at the upper left and at the lower right a table on which books and a decorative figurine are arranged. Demonstrating the artist’s skill in rendering a variety of textures, she is stylishly dressed in a black-velvet dress trimmed with red satin and a close-fitting green hat and wears a jeweled pendant on a delicate gold chain. Her left hand is carefully positioned to display what appears to be a diamond engagement ring, while, in her right hand, she holds a pair of leather gloves. As in Motley’s Self-Portrait, the sitter looks directly at the viewer, conveying a sense of confidence and composure. Writing years later about The Octoroon Girl, Motley described how difficult it was to determine whether a light-skinned person is “pure Caucasian or Octoroon.” He stated:
I have seen Octoroons with skin as white as people from Northern Europe such as the Baltic countries; with blonde straight hair, blue eyes, sharp well proportioned features and extremely thin lips. The head is normally and well constructed and symmetrically balanced. The construction of the body is such as an elongation of the arms, a tendency toward a weak bone construction found in many of the dark purer Negroes and large fat heels are non-existant.
Because, for Motley, little distinguished “Octoroons” from whites, he depicted women of this “racial type” as elegant and upper class, with Euro-American features and signs of wealth and privilege. To him, such subjects not only appeared cultured and accomplished but also conformed to white America’s ideals of beauty and social standing, which Motley shared...
Published: January 20, 1981
Archibald J. Motley, a artist whose work has been shown in various museums, including the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago, died Friday in Chicago.
He was 89 years old.
Born in New Orleans, as a young man he worked for years at manual labor. He studied at the Art Institute at Chicago. His painting, ''The Octoroon Girls,'' won the Harmon Gold Medal in the late 1920's.
Last year, Mr. Motley's work was among that of 10 black artists honored by President Carter at a White House reception for the National Conference of Artists.
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 16:21 Post subject: Wynton Marsalis: At The Octoroon Balls
Wynton Marsalis: At The Octoroon Balls
~ Wynton Marsalis (Composer, Conductor, Performer), Timothy Eddy (Performer), Daniel Phillips (Performer), Steven Tenenbom (Performer), Edgar Meyer (Performer),
Since white skin privilege could not exist without blackness, laws were passed to prevent those categories from being "diluted". Interracial relationships were frowned upon in many countries, however the United States had the most stringent rules (and harsh punishments) for blacks who had relations with whites. Jules Zanger ("The Tragic Octoroon in Pre-Civil War Fiction") wrote, "The very existence of the octoroon convicted the slaveholder of prostituting his slaves and selling his children for pofit. Thus, the choice of the octoroon rather than the full-blooded black to dramatize the suffering of the slave not only emphasized the pathos of the slave's condition but, more importantly, emphasized the repeated pattern of guilt of the Southern slaveholder. The whiter the slave, the more undeniably was the slaveholder guilty of violating the terms of the stewardship which apologists postulated in justifying slavery." (pg. 235)
The first laws prohibiting marriage between blacks and whites, were passed in Maryland in 1661. To enforce these laws, blackness was defined by the "one-drop rule": anyone with one drop of black blood was legally black. The laws against miscegenation survived in many states until 1967, when the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in the Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia decision.
Many writers, particularly African American writers have used characters who are children of interracial couples to demonstrate the instability of race. Hazel Carby asserted that, "it is no historical accident that the mulatto figure occurs more frequently in Afro-American fiction at a time when the separation of the races was being institutionalized throughout the South. As a mediating device the mulatto had two narrative functions: it enabled an exploration of the social relations between the races, relations that were increasingly proscribed by Jim Crow laws, and it enabled an expression of the sexual relations between the races, since the mulatto was a product not only of proscribed consensual relations but of white sexual domination." (236) In films, the mulatto characters provided a sexual tension that mammy figures were denied. However they paid a price for the liberties allowed to them on the big screen and have, for the most part, been what Donald Bogle called "tragic mulattas".
~ the rodriguez thesis
Last edited by gemini072 on Mon 07 Jul 2008 21:15; edited 2 times in total
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 16:27 Post subject: the octoroon mistress by Brady
sep/8/05 - BRADY has just donated his painting "the octoroon mistress" in conjunction with an ebay auction set to raise money for the american red cross. in response to the tragedy now plaguing new orleans and the surrounding areas devastated by hurricane katrina, BRADY would like to also send his prayers and love to the people of his beloved "crescent city."
bidding on this painting has ended. BRADY wants to congratulate the winning bidder, jeanette bodnar of south carolina, and thank her for her kind generosity.
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 20:43 Post subject: Re: the White Slave ... Tragic Mulatto
anonymous thesis wrote:
The first laws prohibiting marriage between blacks and whites, were passed in Maryland in 1661.
Wrong. The Maryland law of 1661 made no mention of "race," color, nor national origin. It simply punished marriage between free women (of any race, color, or national origin) and forced-laborer men (of any race, color, or national origin) by making their offspring slaves. The law was repealed in the 1680s because it conflicted with Virginia's partus sequitur ventrem law.
This mistake is not due to carelessness nor ignorance. It is common among those who simply cannot accept that there were unfree Europeans and slave-owning Africans in the 17th-century Chesapeake, and that their social division was between free and unfree, not between Black and White.
The first law against marriage between Euro-descended colonists (whatever their labor status) and Afro-descended colonists (whatever their labor status) was in 1691 Virginia.
anonymous thesis wrote:
To enforce these laws, blackness was defined by the "one-drop rule": anyone with one drop of black blood was legally black.
Grossly, inexcusably wrong. Regarding "race," no North American colony had any "racial" membership law in the 17th century. The first such law was 1705 Virgina (1/8 blood fraction). By 1861 when the Civil War broke out, most states had a blood fraction law (either 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8) but some states (SC) went by socioeconomic class, some states had three "races" (AL, LA), and some states had no definition at all (FL, TX). As of 1909, not one state had ever had a ODR law. Ever. The first ODR law was passed in 1910.
Regarding the connection between "race" and slave status, Gobu v. Gobu (1802 NC) established the precedent that if you had any visible Euro admixture you were presumed to be free. Sort of like a reverse one-drop rule. (The real one-drop rule, that any Afro ancestry made you Black, first became law in 1910.)
This precedent was then followed in Hudgins v. Wrights (1806 VA), Adelle v. Beauregard (1810 LA), Hook v. Nanny Pagee and her Children (1811 VA), Edwards v. M'Connel (1813 TN), Welborn v. Little (1818 SC), and on, and on, and on. Case after case, without a single exception, followed this precedent until slavery finally ended many decades later.
Last edited by fwsweet on Mon 07 Jul 2008 20:54; edited 6 times in total
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 20:48 Post subject: Re: the Octoroon
gemini072 wrote:
octoroon
SYLLABICATION: oc·to·roon
NOUN: A person whose ancestry is one-eighth Black.
USAGE NOTE: The terms mulatto, quadroon, and octoroon originated with the racial policies of European colonizers in the Americas, especially the Spanish. Because civil rights and responsibilities were based directly on the degree of European blood that a person had, such classifications were highly elaborated, and minor distinctions in ancestry were carefully recorded. While these terms have highly precise definitions, in actual practice they were often used based on impressions of skin color rather than definite knowledge of ancestry.
I have always wondered about the proof when it came to descriptions like Quadroon an Octoroon. It makes sense that they were more about racial phenotype observance, than some genealogical record.
Another thing that also annoyed me when it came to Quadroons and Octoroons is that every picture that I have seen of these people they either look Italian or like a lighter Mixed person. Granted there might be a couple of Quadroons that still look Biracial but Octoroon, that is only 12.5 % SSA. You can be 12.5 % Asian, African, Inuit, Indian, or whatever, if you are 87.5 of Caucasian, you will look caucasian, sandy brown, red, blond hair, and light eyes. Some might have both dark eyes and hair, but more will be amongst the broader spectrum of Caucasian variance.
If Quadroons & Octoroons were held into the African American community due to the One Drop Rule, that just sucks, since 12.5% or 25% SSA only makes you a Caucasian with an interesting genealogy (unless of course you choose to identify as African American, Multi-Racial or some other term).
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 21:10 Post subject: Re: the Octoroon
onlyhuman77 wrote:
every picture that I have seen of these people they either look Italian or like a lighter Mixed person. Granted there might be a couple of Quadroons that still look Biracial but Octoroon, that is only 12.5 % SSA. You can be 12.5 % Asian, African, Inuit, Indian, or whatever, if you are 87.5 of Caucasian, you will look caucasian, sandy brown, red, blond hair, and light eyes. Some might have both dark eyes and hair, but more will be amongst the broader spectrum of Caucasian variance.
Absolutely. Caroline Bond Day (working under famed anthropologist Earnest Albert Hooton out of Harvard) spent years researching, photographing, even measuring the skull-bones of thousands of mixed Americans. She never found one person of 1/8 Afro admixture who had any shred of Afro external appearance. Not one. In fact, her photos of people with 1/4 Afro admixture look Italian or Greek.
Caroline Bond Day and Earnest Albert Hooton, A Study of Some Negro-White Families in the United States (Cambridge MA: Harvard University, 1932)
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 21:19 Post subject: The Octoroon sculpture by John Bell
Fig. 10. Photographer unknown: The Octoroon (from a sculpture by John Bell), albumen print, one half of a stereograph, c. 1859-65. Collection of Gregory Fried.
The national struggle over the political meaning of race found expression in all arenas of antebellum visual culture. In The Octoroon, a statue made by John Bell, a naked and apparently "white" woman, her arms in chains, her clothes on the pillar beside her, bows her head in a sorrowful yet dignified resignation to inspection before going to the auction block (fig. 10).
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 21:24 Post subject: Octoroons: Incognito by Michael Sidney Fosberg
Many people would assume this man is an octoroon because of his Euro phenotype. We don't know the actual genetic mixture of his "African American" biological father.
Posted: Mon 07 Jul 2008 21:38 Post subject: Re: the Octoroon
onlyhuman77 wrote:
gemini072 wrote:
octoroon
SYLLABICATION: oc·to·roon
NOUN: A person whose ancestry is one-eighth Black.
USAGE NOTE: The terms mulatto, quadroon, and octoroon originated with the racial policies of European colonizers in the Americas, especially the Spanish. Because civil rights and responsibilities were based directly on the degree of European blood that a person had, such classifications were highly elaborated, and minor distinctions in ancestry were carefully recorded. While these terms have highly precise definitions, in actual practice they were often used based on impressions of skin color rather than definite knowledge of ancestry.
I have always wondered about the proof when it came to descriptions like Quadroon an Octoroon. It makes sense that they were more about racial phenotype observance, than some genealogical record.
I wonder are there records according to someone's birth, and of course I'm dealing with early on when these terms came into existance. I think by family knowledge (probably not a good term) it could be known as much. But I agree, that a lot of it may go by visuals. Even if the person is Mulatto[50-50].
Another thing that also annoyed me when it came to Quadroons and Octoroons is that every picture that I have seen of these people they either look Italian or like a lighter Mixed person. Granted there might be a couple of Quadroons that still look Biracial but Octoroon, that is only 12.5 % SSA. You can be 12.5 % Asian, African, Inuit, Indian, or whatever, if you are 87.5 of Caucasian, you will look caucasian, sandy brown, red, blond hair, and light eyes. Some might have both dark eyes and hair, but more will be amongst the broader spectrum of Caucasian variance.
When you say look Italian or a lighter mixed person, what do you actually mean? Of course with the quadroon we have a lot of recent pictures of various quadroons[1/4th] at least as close to definition:http://www.blackburn.gov.uk/upload/img_400/Scan07-03-24_1427.JPG
But most of the images I've seen of Octoroons most 'look white' I bet it would depend on the Euro admixture. In New Orleans it would probably depend on the Euro ethnic group, which most would say were French, Spanish, Creole. English and certain other Euro ethnic groups.
Also when dealing with the Octoroon, (as well as Quadroon) most stories, plays, literature dealt with females O+(which is something I hope to dig into) not males O->. And the Quadroon & Octoroon were considered EXOTIC. Italians(Mediterraneans) are exotic looking.
Exotic, Fancy, Beautiful tend to be words describing the OctoroonO+
And of course we know that there were/are ugly & plain quadroons & octoroons as well.
the descriptors of milky fair skin, dark eyes, long dark brown or black wavy/curly hair sounds exotic. French women were seen as exotic too. And many descriptions I've read by men describing the octoroon was similar. But we're just getting started so I hope to be able to present some more info on the octoroon.
If Quadroons & Octoroons were held into the African American community due to the One Drop Rule, that just sucks, since 12.5% or 25% SSA only makes you a Caucasian with an interesting genealogy (unless of course you choose to identify as African American, Multi-Racial or some other term).
Last edited by gemini072 on Mon 07 Jul 2008 21:54; edited 2 times in total
The Octoroon, by Dion Boucicault, is a lively and exciting melodrama of the kind they don't write for the stage anymore (though they write them for TV quite a lot; they're called soap operas). Set on a plantation in Louisiana in 1859, it's centered around the love between handsome George Peyton and beautiful Zoe, a love that's not only forbidden (for reasons I will get to in a moment), but also severely in jeopardy in that Zoe is also loved by both the kind-hearted but unsuccessful current overseer Salem Scudder and the evil and villainous former overseer Jacob M'Closky; while George is being pursued by Dora Sunnyside, the rich daughter of a neighboring plantation owner, whom George just may need to marry if he is to save his aunt's plantation. George's late uncle had been ruined financially—deliberately in one case and inadvertently in the other—by his overseers; unless a remittance arrives in time from Liverpool, the Peyton place (sorry) will have to be sold at auction.
Boucicault also works into this yarn such thrilling details as a fire aboard a ship, a battle between a Cherokee Indian and one of the main characters, and a newfangled camera, one of whose plates (or "dishes," as one of the slaves guilelessly refers to them) contains incriminating evidence of murder and thievery. It's pretty much non-stop action and romance, the kind of simplistic but riveting drama on which the American entertainment industry was built. Boucicault, the Irish American playwright who also gave us The Poor of New York, The Shaughraun, and London Assurance, knew a thing or three about stagecraft.
But of course I've been deliberately talking around the Big Sensational Concept that fuels the whole play, and that's the plot point given away in its title: Zoe is an Octoroon. She is the daughter of a quadroon slave and the late Mr. Peyton; Mrs. Peyton, for reasons of her own that are never clearly divulged, has raised Zoe almost as her own child (and as a free woman). With only one-eighth Negro blood, Zoe easily "passes" for white, and of course George doesn't realize that she is what she is until it's too late. (The laws of the time, and certainly the mores of slave state culture, forbade miscegenation, and as anybody who's ever seen Show Boat knows, even one drop of Negro blood was enough to make someone "black" in the eyes of the law.)
Eventually comes the big "confession" scene, where Zoe tells George the truth:
That is the ineffaceable curse of Cain. Of the blood that feeds my heart, one drop in eight is black—bright red as the rest may be, that one drop poisons all the flood; those seven bright drops give me love like yours—hope like yours—ambition like yours—llife hung with passions like dewdrops on the morning flowers; but the one black drop gives me despair, for I'm an unclean thing—forbidden by the laws—I'm an Octoroon!
Dramaturgically, it's not much different from Marguerite telling Armand that their love can never be; but in 1859 (two years before the Civil War) this was sensational stuff in the United States, and in 2006 it's almost impossible to listen to.
Which brings me to the controversial aspect of presenting The Octoroon after 150 years of progress in race relations: the whole world of the play—which was written to be performed and seen exclusively by white people, remember—is predicated on an assumption of the inferiority of blacks to whites. This sits so uneasily on modern audiences that it can't help but inform the experience of seeing this play, even though race (as opposed to slavery) is not the main thing that it's about. Why produce it, then; why see it?
Because this is our heritage. Slavery happened in the United States; plays depicting what used to be called the South's "peculiar institution" in a sentimental manner happened too. We need to see them up close and understand them and the insidious effects they had/still may have on attitudes in our nation.
And Metropolitan Playhouse has, bravely but not unsurprisingly, made the smart choice to let us see The Octoroon, warts and all, more or less as it was, certainly unexpurgated. Boucicault's flair for drama still shines through, even as the broad style in which he wrote sometimes clashes with the more realistic acting style preferred by contemporary performers and even as words and notions that feel horrendously racist often make our skin crawl.
Roe's staging is brisk and exciting, played out on a spare but effective set that's moved around by the actors as required; costumes by Melissa Estro are especially effective, notably the gowns worn by the female characters, which peg them on the socioeconomic scale with great efficiency.
The performances are variable, with particularly effective work coming from the ladies in the cast. Sarah Hankins, in her New York debut, is terrific as Dora, imbuing her with qualities that make us root for her even though she's clearly not the heroine of the piece. Wendy Merritt finds real goodness in Mrs. Peyton, letting us understand that in her time it was possible for a woman to view herself as a good "Christian" without once doubting her entitlement to own other human beings. In the title role, Margaret Loesser Robinson does a beautiful job playing passive tragedy, managing to make Zoe both fragile and sturdy at the same time.
The piece's five African American characters are portrayed with dignity and humanity by Lee Dobson, Alia Chapman, Alex Ubokudom, Tryphena Wade, and Justin Stevens. Arthur Acuna is very effective as Wahnotee, the Indian, who figures prominently in the machinery of the plot despite speaking no English. (The presence of this character offers interesting insight into the attitudes of the times: Wahnotee is depicted as a godless savage addicted to "fire water," an even more demeaning stereotype than that applied to the play's black characters.)
The Octoroon is tough to relax into and just enjoy in 2006. But this was provocative popular entertainment 150 years ago, and from that there is plenty to glean, even today.
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