Through The Eyes Of CHASE…

“The quadroon girl is sold at the sand…”

During the 19th century in the south, the word quadroon was used to describe African American slaves who were racially mixed. This was basically what they called an offspring of a biracial couple. The couple had to be one where at least one parent was white and the other black or both parents were black and white. The definition of a quadroon is a person who is one-quarter black. Knowing the meaning of this word reminds you that slavery did in fact go on during this period of time and Whitman includes this in his work.