Emily Brontë variously describes the foundling in her book as a “dark-skinned gipsy,” a “Lascar” (or South Asian laborer) and possibly even a slave, whose “owner” cannot be found before he’s adopted by the father of his eventual romantic obsession. Given that the author’s father, Patrick Brontë, had ties to the abolitionist movement, it’s certainly likely that Heathcliff’s racial ambiguity matters.