This article outlines the status of the Baekjeong in the Joseon Dynasty, detailing the social hierarchy, severe discrimination, and partial reforms such as the Gabo Reforms, while noting the persistence of prejudice even after legal abolition.

This overview explains how the Baekjeong became the lowest-ranked outcast group in Joseon Korea and details the extensive legal and social discrimination they faced.
It also notes paradoxical aspects such as tax exemption and limited opportunities for capital accumulation, as well as the incomplete impact of late-nineteenth-century reforms.

2017-06-21
In Korea up to the Goryeo period, the term Baekjeong referred, as in China and Japan, to commoners without rank or title.
During the Joseon Dynasty, the social status system became more complex and was broadly divided into the king, the yangban, the jungin, the sangmin, and the cheonmin (also called the despised classes), with the Baekjeong placed at the very bottom of the cheonmin.
The Baekjeong, called baekjeong in Korean, came to denote the most discriminated group among the non-free classes, classified among the so-called seven categories of public outcasts and eight categories of private outcasts.
In 1423, in an effort to ease discrimination against slaughterers and similar occupations, they began to be referred to as Baekjeong, but commoners continued to discriminate against them, calling them “new Baekjeong,” and the term gradually came to refer exclusively to outcasts.
Regarding their origins, various theories have been proposed, including mythological origins, northern nomadic origins, and political criminal origins.
The discrimination suffered by the Baekjeong on the Korean Peninsula included prohibitions on family genealogies, restrictions on occupations, bans on intermarriage with commoners, residential segregation, denial of education, restrictions on names and surnames, exclusion from public spaces, and severe punishments for violations, sometimes including lynching without penalty for the perpetrators.
Because they were regarded as non-human, such killings were not punished.
The Baekjeong typically lived in remote areas outside towns and villages, engaging mainly in meat processing, leatherwork, and wicker crafts.
Although subject to strict controls on spending and movement, they were not registered in household records and were exempt from taxes and military levies, which in some cases allowed capital accumulation unique within Joseon society.
While there were rare instances of emancipation from Baekjeong status, discrimination largely persisted until the status system was abolished by the Gabo Reforms of 1894 under 高宗, after which some Baekjeong became state officials, though prejudice remained.
The above is based on Wikipedia.
To be continued.