Other forms: quadroons
In the 19th century, the term quadroon was used to describe a person who was one-quarter black and three-quarters white. In other words, a quadroon had one grandparent of African descent.
The word quadroon is seen today as being deeply offensive and completely obsolete. In the southern states of the US, particularly before the Civil War, a white person might have used the term to describe someone of mixed race, particularly if the person had one white and one racially mixed parent. The word comes from the Spanish cuarteron, "one who has a fourth," from cuarto, "fourth."