The Need for a Definition of Who was a Mulatto
I am of opinion
& do conceive that ye sd Act being Penal is Coercive or restrictive no
further then the very letter thereof, and being wholly unacquainted with the Appellations
given to ye issue of such mixtures, cannot resolve whether the issue begotton
on a White woman by a Mulatto man can properly be called a Mulatto, that name
as I conceive being only appropriated to the Child of a Negro man begotten upon
a white woman, or by a white man upon a negro woman, and as I am told the issue
of a Mulatto by or upon a white Person has another name viz that of, Mustee;
wch if so, I conceive it wholly out of the the Letter (tho it may be
conjectured to be within ye intent) of the sd act, The which (as abovesd being
Penal) is, as I conceive not to be contrued beyond ye letter thereof.
S. Thomson, A G
Upon consideration
of which Report, and that the Petitionrs Case is matter of Law, It is therefore
ordered that the Petition of the said Bunch and Slayden be referred till next
General Court for Mr Attorney to argue the reasons of his opinion before his
Excellcy and ye Council.