ash-cat, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

ash-cat n.

[UK dial. ashcat, anyone, usu. a child, who sits near the fire, poking at the ashes]

(US)

1. (also ash-cat sam) a dirty, dishevelled child; thus a general insult irrespective of age.

1867		G.W. Harris Sut Lovingood’s Yarns 19: I say, you durn’d ash cats, jis’ keep yer shuts on, will ye?
1868		‘Mark Twain’ letter in Chicago Republican 23 Aug. n.p.: You Connecticut son of a thief! You New Hampshire ash-cat! You in-terior son of a skunk!
1879		Yorkville Enquirer (SC) 27 Nov. 1/1: ‘I say, you durned ash-cats, jis keep yer shuts on, will ye?’.
1910		C. Harris Eve’s Husband 120: He came home late at night looking like an ash-cat Sam .

2. a thin, wasted, ragged black person [the tendency of black flesh tones, when unhealthy, to seem grey].

1854		Harris in Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 447/3: I say, you durned ash cats, just keep yer shirts on, will ye? [DA].
1909		South Atlantic Quarterly 8.47: The description [...] is graphic; so is [...] the description of an ill-stead, ill-fed, thin and ragged negro, outcast, a creature of the streets and byways, as an ash-cat.