Sacatra

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Sacatra was a term used in the French Colony of Saint-Domingue to describe the descendant of one black and one griffe parent, [1] a person whose ancestry is 78ths black and 18th white. It was one of the many terms used in the colony's racial caste system to measure one's black blood. [2]

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The etymology of sacatra is uncertain; Félix Rodríguez González linked it to the Spanish sacar ("take out") and atrás ("behind"); [3] thus, a sacatra is a slave who is not kept in the house or at the front as a lighter-skinned servant might be.

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References

  1. "Sacatra". Wordnik.
  2. "The Kingdom of This World". msu.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  3. Gonzáles, Félix Rodríguez (26 June 2017). Spanish Loanwords in the English Language: A Tendency towards Hegemony Reversal. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN   9783110890617 via Google Books.
  4. "Nancy Naomi Carlson and Catherine Maigret Kellogg translating Suzanne Dracius". Drunken Boat. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
  5. Hopkinson, Nalo (2004). The Salt Roads. New York: Warner US. p. 2. ISBN   978-0446677134.