Did they call it "black powder" in the old days?

[B.L.E.]

I was trying to look up the word "black powder" in Websters one day and it doesn't exist.  Look up "gunpowder" and they give a description of an explosive consisting of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfer.
Likewise, most photos of antique powder containers I have seen are labeled "gunpowder" and not "black powder".

Is "black powder" a modern term for the explosive formerly known as gunpowder to set it apart from smokeless powder or did the term "black powder" actually exist in the pre-smokeless era?

[flintlock]

I'm reading the Lewis & Clark journals for about the 6th time...They simply called it powder...
This was in 1804-06...

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

imo black powder is a modern term.

back then, the word *powder* is all i see. Looking through some books ive read, "dupont powder" is reffered to a lot in the traders " to bring" list to rendezvous.

[Graybeard]

Real BLACK was the ONLY powder until smokeless came along. So back then it was just gun powder or cannon powder or just powder period. Then once smokeless came along a way had to be established to tell the new white or ligther powder from the original and at some point along the way it then became known as black powder.

That's kinda a misnomer really as quite a few smokeless powders are just as black in color these days. Still that's my understanding of the history of the name.