Name variations in my mother's paternal line

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Well, this was a curious finding. One of the things I've noticed in my search of my mother's maiden name is the many different spellings out there. From her grandfather to her, it was spelled Postell. When he was a child, it was spelled Pustal (in Philadelphia 1850 census). HIS grandfather came from Weaverthorpe in Yorkshire, England, where it was, and still is, spelled Postill. And in Delaware where they all initially settled, they've been spelling it Pustill from the 1820s through the present. But, along the way, I noticed that those who added an S at the end, whether it was spelled Postles or Postels, were generally people of color. I still have to look because it's not a guarantee ALL will be that, but so far, mine haven't included the S. So, when I found a marriage record for a William Postler (transcribers are notoriously unable to read 19th century cursive), I went looking using the bride's name and found the spouse's name was Postles. Then I found a birth record for their first child and, since race is more often included on birth records than on marriage records, I opened it. Usually, POC of African descent were designated as C or B (although recently, a transcriber seemed to think C meant CHINESE), but this record surprised me considerably. Here is the transcription of the original record on FamilySearch (no image was available)... Name Haner Jane Postles Sex Female Christening Place Delaware, United States Birth Date 10 Apr 1882 Birthplace Wilmington, Delaware Race Brown Color Folks I had to smile. They weren't lying and they weren't using known pejoratives. They wrote what they saw. It was kind of nice to see a break from legally prescribed racial designations.