The society of the free people of color consisted of many people, who were descended from the original white plantation owners and their slave mistress. These plantation owners gave their mulatoo or creole children their freedom and liberated them from slavery, also provied a home for them to be raised in as well as an education, which many times the mixed blood children were sent to France and other countries to be educated, and then after the demise of their white father, these mixed blood children were left land, slaves, silver, livestock, furniture, silver, and money, which many times they employed to make more money for themselves and their families.
These mixed blood children of the original white plantation owners were called, the creoles of color, which meant that they were the second generation descended from their white European father and their black African mother, like their white counterparts, who were also called creole meaning they were the second generation descended from their white parents. NO matter what color of the skin the original parents were, the second generation was always thought of as creole, which is derived from the Spanish word, Crillo, meaning pure, and the term creole just was a term employing the meaning of pure bloodlines from other countries and signifing proudly that these people were aware of their heritage.

These mixed blood children were educated in France and other European countries as well as schools in the Northern part of the United STates in later plantation or antebellum times. Many creoles of color pursued educations which led to careers in medicine, law, engineering, and many creoles of color were founders of products that we, Americans, proudly still use today.

The mixed people, who became plantation owners, owned large plantations, had herds of livestock, grew crops of sugar cane, cotton, tobacco, corn, and other agricultural products. All plantatio owners had to be skillful businessmen in order to make all those business transactions required to keep their plantation up and in running order. Also, these mixed blooded plantation owners owned slaves, and sold and purchased slaves just like the white plantation owners. Many free men of color actually purchased their wife, and children in slavery and later gave them their freedom from slavery or liberated them, and sometimes free women of color purchased their children from slavery. Also, during hard economic times, some free women of color actually sold their children into slavery to get money to live on and later purchased these same children back.

The free people of color, who were plantatio owners, had good relations with the white plantation owners as they oftentimes transacted business together, such as purchasing tracts of land, slaves, livestock, crops, horses, carts, agricultural products, and other products. Many times at succession sales of free people of color, both plantation owners and business people or those engaged in trades as a profession, the white planters would attend and make several purchases as well as the free people of color attending the succession sales of white people and making similar purchases.

I think that the true defination of people of color just means that their bloodlines consist of a parent, who was not of the Causcian race, and it could be Indian, African, or even a parent from the countries of the Far EAst or the Near East as well as Africa.

The important point to always remember is that we no matter what color we are have all worked together to make history, regardless of our bloodlines.