Biracial people occupied an elevated but precarious position within slavery

Evidence

In slavery and freedom, as usually the offspring of planters, biracial people oftentimes benefited from a higher social status than people of only African descent, and often they experienced less discrimination as well. Biracial people were probably more likely to have to perform the backbreaking tasks of the household, and they were often under closer supervision by planters than the slaves in the field, which could be just as backbreaking in a way, if not sexually abusive. Despite their elevated status, they still felt terror of the enslavers, and some antiracist biracial people partnered with Africans to resist White supremacy. Others were no different from White racists in their thinking, discriminating against dark-skinned Blacks, and rationalizing the discrimination, and their elevated status, through notions of their own superiority. In the late eighteenth century, biracial people in Charleston barred dark-skinned people from their business network, the Brown Fellowship Society. In response, the Society of Free Dark Men appeared in that South Carolina town. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 299

Categorization

• XREF: This is an early instance of colorism/assimilationism operating within the Black community itself — internalized hierarchy, foreshadowing the three-way scheme Kendi applies throughout. — connects to: Skin color alone marked chattel slaves regardless of other social position — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1134
• DEFINE: The Brown Fellowship Society vs. Society of Free Dark Men is a concrete early case of color-based caste within the free Black population.