about the term for half and half people. a mulatto wouldve been sonsidered as someone who was black and white..in latin american especaily in the spanish colonies they broadened it to include people who were african,spanish,and Amerindian. sometime later in the US they kind of lumped wuadroons and octoroons into the mulatto categroy but would still make note of the percentage...later on you were just lumped into the black category. the word is somehwat offensive since its descriptive of a mule ( a half donkey half horse animal)