Free people of color
When talking about the colonies in the New World, the term free people of color was used for people who had both European, and African, and sometimes native American parents, but who were not slaves. This term applied to many people in Louisiana (which was known as 'New France' at the time), and the Caribbean islands. In the colonies, these people were classified in various ways, usually depending on what they looked like. The term became popular in the late 17th century. In the thirteen colonies, these people were sometimes called free negroes.
The term did not apply to freed slaves, which were usually known as affranchi, in French.
Free People Of Color Media
Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants, oil painting by Agostino Brunias, Dominica, c. 1764–1796.
Free woman of color with quadroon daughter. Late 18th-century collage painting, New Orleans.
Free West Indian Dominicans, c. 1770
This short article about the United States can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.