Historical Note
"Negroes"
The term negroes is important because it gives us an idea about when the book is set and again that fact that racial division is a large part of this book. The word Negro can either be an adjective that is dated and often offensive, the term relates to black people. It can also be a noun that is dated and often offensive the term means, a member of a dark-skinned group of peoples, originally native to Africa, south of the Sahara. The word Negro was adopted from Spanish and Portuguese, the word is first recorded from the mid-16th century. Throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries it remained a standard term and it was used by prominent black American campaigners such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois in the early 20th century. However, since the civil rights movements of the 1960’s the term black was favoured over Negro as a term to express racial pride, and the word Negro has dropped out of favour as it now seems dated and often offensive.
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