{"id":129074,"date":"2021-05-16T06:48:05","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T10:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=129074"},"modified":"2021-05-16T06:48:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T10:48:05","slug":"we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/","title":{"rendered":"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>

By\u00a0Makeda Mikael<\/strong><\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

There are some \u00a0persons who objected to the term used in reference to the emancipation era and how the enslaved Africans and their children were called in those days.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The British went to great lengths to identify the percentage of white blood in certain children of the plantation, establishing mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, with levels of white privilege tied to the white blood.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Many of these privileged less-coloured children were educated abroad and ultimately were the first to replace the white overseer class left in Antigua, holding the top jobs.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Children of the negras on the other hand joined the small gang and followed their mothers and fathers into the cane-fields and vegetable gardens where even the very youngest labored pulling weeds.<\/p>\n

The different upbringing and ultimately inheritance over the last two centuries has created two levels of the haves and the have-nots, which is clearly defined by colour.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Miscegenation came into prominent conversations in the U.S. when some tried to find a way of accepting the mixing of blood in an attempt to pour oil on the Southern racist culture.<\/p>\n

Black people also had their names for the poor whites and not so white on the different islands like backra and mushay, while the black people and their children were called negras, half-breeds(light-skinned) and the black children were pickaninnies. And that in polite company!<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Whereas oppressed people cannot plan, the methods engaged by the British were geared to keeping the people on the island separated by levels of poverty and colour.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The light-skinned people moved into the positions held by the planter class and the overseer class while the black people settled into the bottom level of existence, which remains to this day.<\/p>\n

Caribbean life is drawn along the lines of skin colour, and the injection of East Indians into some island communities has only caused another step down for black people while Middle Eastern people are considered white and a step up.<\/p>\n

Most of all the systems are still kept in place by our leaders who seem to have the same mistrust and contempt for our African people as our ancestors suffered in days of old.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Makeda Mikael There are some \u00a0persons who objected to the term used in reference to the emancipation era and how the enslaved Africans and their children were called in those days. The British went to great lengths to identify the percentage of white blood in certain children of the plantation, establishing mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":129075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWe were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By\u00a0Makeda Mikael There are some \u00a0persons who objected to the term used in reference to the emancipation era and how the enslaved Africans and their children were called in those days. The British went to great lengths to identify the percentage of white blood in certain children of the plantation, establishing mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, with […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Antigua News Room\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"580\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"386\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5\"},\"headline\":\"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/\"},\"wordCount\":370,\"commentCount\":11,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/\",\"name\":\"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed - Antigua News Room\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg\",\"width\":580,\"height\":386,\"caption\":\"Makeda-Mikael\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/\",\"name\":\"Antigua News Room\",\"description\":\"News As It Happens\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Antigua Newsroom\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg\",\"width\":1260,\"height\":1260,\"caption\":\"Antigua Newsroom\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/AntiguaNewsRoom\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/antiguanewsroom\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5\",\"name\":\"Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"caption\":\"Editor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/author\/editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed - Antigua News Room","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed","og_description":"By\u00a0Makeda Mikael There are some \u00a0persons who objected to the term used in reference to the emancipation era and how the enslaved Africans and their children were called in those days. The British went to great lengths to identify the percentage of white blood in certain children of the plantation, establishing mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, with […]","og_url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/","og_site_name":"Antigua News Room","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom","article_published_time":"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":580,"height":386,"url":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AntiguaNewsRoom","twitter_site":"@AntiguaNewsRoom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/"},"author":{"name":"Editor","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5"},"headline":"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed","datePublished":"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/"},"wordCount":370,"commentCount":11,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/","url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/","name":"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed - Antigua News Room","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg","datePublished":"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-16T10:48:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:580\/h:386\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Makeda-Mikael.jpeg","width":580,"height":386,"caption":"Makeda-Mikael"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/we-were-called-negras-pickaninnies-and-half-breed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We were called negras, pickaninnies and half breed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/","name":"Antigua News Room","description":"News As It Happens","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization","name":"Antigua Newsroom","url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:1080\/h:1080\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_1584.jpeg","width":1260,"height":1260,"caption":"Antigua Newsroom"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom","https:\/\/x.com\/AntiguaNewsRoom","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/antiguanewsroom\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5","name":"Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","caption":"Editor"},"url":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/author\/editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/129075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/anr-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}