Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also ebon, son of ebony) a black person.

1801		Sporting Mag. Oct. XIX 14/1: In the morning [...] my goddess of ebony [i.e. a black prostitute] off.
1837		‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. June 631: Give way, you bit of ebony [...] or Jumbee ’ull have you stock and fluke.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Dec. 2/4: [of lascars] [headline] Captain Dring and ‘His Dock’ Full of Ebony.
1850		G.A. Sala House That Paxton Built [pic. caption of US slave-owner seated on two slaves] American Planter’s Arm Chair made of ebony — a very free and easy invention supported on slavery.
1852		H.B. Stowe Uncle Tom 6: Black Sam, as he was commonly called, from his being about three shades blacker than any other son of ebony on the place.
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash I 274: Come, don’t you be so hard on jet; you ebony!
1877		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 782: Ebony, a common term for a Negro.
1895		Outing (N.Y.) XXVI 428/2: John’s ‘whoopee’ had caused a little ebon [...] to set open the gates [DA].
1932		P.G. Cressey Taxi-Dance Hall 35: On the ebony – A taxi-dance hall or taxi-dancer countenancing social contacts with men of races other than white.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 25: blacked ebony A mulatto.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 57: One of the marcelled ebonies was saying in a lilting voice, ‘I positively did not even look at her man.’.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 210: Your rich ebonys skin ’em worse than the peckerwoods and the pore whites ever did.
1983		(con. 1850s) I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 46: Color Allusions, Other than ‘Black’ and ‘Negro’: [...] ebony [1850s].
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 151: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] My people, my people... Yes, yes, y’all. Eight-ball-black. Brown. Bronze. Beige. Ebony.

2. (US black) the quintessence of black sensibility.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].