Daily AncestorMulatto
Mulatto was a census color category in 1850 to 1890 and 1910 to 1920 for people with both African and European ancestry, written M or Mu.
In 1850 and 1860 enumerators wrote M for mulatto in the color column. In 1870 and 1880 the word was generic and included quadroons, octoroons and anyone with any perceptible trace of African ancestry. In 1890 it had a narrower meaning, three-eighths to five-eighths black ancestry, and in 1900 there was no mulatto class at all.
The 1910 and 1920 schedules used Mu. In 1930 the category was dropped and such persons were counted as Negro. The same person can be marked differently from one census to the next, so compare several years.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Mulatto." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/census-terms/mulatto. Last checked 2026-10-03.