Thanks to any NYHIST-L subscribers who can provide an explanation of the term "yellow boys" as used in New York City ca. 1764. Explanation follows:

The New York Mercury  for March 26, 1764, contains a news report about the arrival in New York City of fourteen Indians captured by a force of Mohawks sent out by Sir William Johnson to destroy hostile Indian towns in the Chemung Valley. One of the prisoners was Capt. Bull, the son of Teedyuscung (d. 1763), a spokesman for the Delaware Indians in their negotiations with Pennsylvania and with Johnson. The article contains the following text:  "The most famous Capt. Bull . . . is among the Tribe of Yellow Boys.  He has confess'd the killing and scalping Abundance of our back Inhabitants. . . ." Bull and the other Indians were jailed in New York City and later released on Johnson's orders.

What is the meaning, in this context, of the term "Yellow Boys"?  The Encyclopedia of New York City, ed. Jackson, does not have an entry or reference for this term. Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles, ed. Mitford M. Mathews (1951), p. 1903, has an entry for "yellow boy" ("yellow man," etc.) as follows: "In designations, usually contemptuous and slang, of Negroes and Indians of a brown or mulatto color." The earliest example of usage of the term is dated 1814, and refers to a man without reference to a specific racial or ethnic group. The usage examples for "yellow" man or woman or boy referring to African-Americans are all later, starting 1830s.


Jim Folts
New York State Archives