n the nineteenth century, sexual relations between two people of different races, or miscegenation, bore a distinctly derogatory connotation. As evidenced by the quadroon slave child who fans Désirée’s own baby, interracial relations did occur with relative frequency, but such children often ended up as slaves under the theory that even one drop of African or “black” blood made a person black rather than white. At the same time, many biracial people who happened to inherit pale skin and European rather than African features were able to assimilate at least temporarily into white society, “passing” for white if they chose. In Armand’s case, he did not even have to hide because he did not know his status. Some people who passed as white, like Armand, even successfully entered the Southern “ruling” class, which was not only putatively white but also rich from owning plantation lands. Meanwhile, whereas most people fell on one side of the social divide between black and white, those of mixed descent lived on the border of social acceptability. Thus, the quadroon boy serving the quadroon master is ironic but also representative of the biracial group as a demographic sector of the population.