The converging of the races allegedly created an individual who displayed many of the “superior” intellectual and emotional characteristics of Caucasian heritage while suffering under the burden of black “inferiority.” These individuals were known as the tragic mulattos, they were split between identities and were forced to settle for a lower place in the social order. Similarly to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the near-white characters were depicted as rebellious by “nature” and were motivated to seek freedom as fugitives from slavery. Although some mulattoes lived tragic lives for having light skin, the majority enjoyed essential advantages over darker blacks. The irrelevant reasoning supporting these advantages was simply that
