"a coloured man" meaning?

[sallyyorks]

I don't think 'Coloured' was a term that was used in England in the 18th century.

This is a long list of parish entries, mainly from three churches, of Black and Asian people in London at the dates 1570's to the early 1900's.
I haven't read all of them, there are over 500 records listed, but the most commonly used term by far seems to be 'Black'. I couldn't see the term 'coloured' being used at all in the records but, as I said, it is a really long list and I only skimmed through it

Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section
Black and Asian people discovered in records held by the Manuscripts Section
https://www.history.ac.uk/gh/baentries.htm

[majm]

Here's an example of the term 'men of colour' appearing in the government newspaper in the British penal colony of New South Wales in the 1820s ...

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2184224/495215  Sydney Gazette 14 July 1825 page 5 reporting on an extract from the The Courier Francais

" The Courier Français, in its No. of March 2,has given some very incorrect statements respecting the situation of the men of colour from Martinique, now in Senegal.We can assure our readers that none of those persons have been subjected to confinement ; that on the contrary, all exercised their professions at liberty; that the Government of Senegal, has been ..... that lastly, the letters from that Government do not mention that we have to deplore the death of so much as one of the men of colour in question."


JM

[deebel]

mea culpa

deebel

[deebel]

a reply on a question in  the House on Rhodesia recorded in Hansard vol 738 20 December 1966

Mr. Bowden
 
The estimated population of Rhodesia at 31st December, 1965 was Africans 4,080,000, Europeans 224,000, coloureds 13,000 and Asians 8,100.

[Ruskie]

The trouble is, the use and meanings of words can change over the decades/centuries and probably varies by country and even within specific countries.

I think you would need to find the source and see if that tells you more...

[deebel]

Bowden was Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs in Wilson's Labour Government therefore as he was responding to a question in the House his reply presumably is based on the UK Governments analysis and categorisation of the population of Rhodesia at the time.

I am not suggesting that the word describes any particular category of peoples; simply that it illustrates the fact that the term "coloured" was used to separately identify population which was not African, European nor Asian in that particular case.

Of course Ruskie makes a good point as my scan of the Hansard online noted an MP posing a question regarding the South Africa police asking the minister to advise the numbers of Males, Females,Cadets and Coloureds in the force. Yet another person's analysis however the question may well have been driven by how in fact the force was actually categorised at that time

[JohninSussex]

So you think the language used by a parish clerk in the early 1800s (which is the question we're addressing) could be influenced by the language used by a government minister in the 1960s.

Too much Doctor Who methinks.

[deebel]

So you think the language used by a parish clerk in the early 1800s (which is the question we're addressing) could be influenced by the language used by a government minister in the 1960s.

Too much Doctor Who methinks.

I will take the comment in the "tongue in cheek" way it was obviously intended. 

[mike175]

I would suggest that in official records there may well have been recognised standard terms for different races or skin colours. However, the original post mentions an article, presumably in a newspaper or periodical, so I don't think you can draw any definitive conclusions from the actual word used, except that he was probably not white European 

So far in my own research the only similar reference I have come across was to "... a Negro girl from the Hall ..." in a 1600s baptism register in Essex, sadly not an ancestor of mine. Well, it would have made an interesting change from "Ag Lab" 

Mike.