blue skinn.

1777 N.-Y. Gaz. & Weekly Mercury 9 June 3/2 Strangers should be informed, that in this province, the epithet Blue-skin was that by which, in the infancy of the rebellion those ingrates were distinguished from Royalists, or real patriots.

1783 P. M. Freneau Poems (1786) 349 A republican—under your wing—Let him stand where he is..And he'll turn a true Blue-Skin.

1788 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 2) Blue skin, a person begotten on a black woman by a white man.

1835 Knickerbocker July 22 ‘I say, blue-skin,’ squeaked little Martin, as the negro was about to raise his gun.

1843 J. S. Robb Streaks Squatter Life 111 ‘What, Missus dar, too!’ shouted the nigger..and off the cussed blueskin started fur the house.

1919 in J. B. Sanborn 131st U.S. Infantry x. 204 Where you all goin', blue skin?

1997 L. Cauffiel Dark Rage v. 60 Saw the guy was a nigger. ‘I don't need a valet.’ ‘But here you have to valet park,’ he persisted. ‘Well, then, where is the nonvalet parking?’ The blue skin laughed.

1790 R. Tyler Contrast ii. ii. 30 It is no shame, my dear Blueskin, for a man to amuse himself with a little gallantry.

1830 A. Royall Southern Tour I. 7 We laughed enough at my race from Betsy Chase and the Blueskins.

1869 P. T. Barnum Struggles & Triumphs i. 35 The congregation would sit and shiver till they really merited the title the profane gave them of ‘blue skins’.

1987 H. L. Horowitz Campus Life iii. 59 Yale students called anyone reporting to the faculty on fellow students a ‘Blue Skin’.

2004 W. A. McDougall Freedom Just Around Corner (2005) 506 She called them [sc. missionaries] Holy Rollers, Holy Willies, Blackcoats, and Blueskins engaged in ‘vile speculations to amass money’.