Susan Gillman notes that limited language and classifications existed in the United States to distinguish between levels of miscegenation.  She describes the more specific categories within other countries (including South Africa).  The "caste" system in the United States during this era divided people into two groups, white or black.

According to Gillman, "the novel's satire of racial classification by fractions of blood mirrors the problems in American race relations during both the antebellum period in which the novel is set and the 1890s when it was written" (87).  America produced at this time the "pure white slave," much like Roxy and her child (Twain quoted in Gillman, 89).

For information on the one-drop rule, see the links section.