http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/the-young-white-faces-of-slavery/?_php=true&_type=blogs&nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20140131&_r=0
Harriet Beecher Stowe used nearly-white slave characters for heroine Eliza and her son, in UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, as did Francis Watkins Harper in her novel IOLA LEROY.