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-The first reference to the concept of Ringwraiths occurs in HoME 6, 'The Return of the Shadow', where Gildor tells Bingo that the Black Riders are 'Servants of the Lord of the Ring - [people?] who have passed through the Ring'. Note the sadly-unclear word 'people' - not 'men'. Deliberate use of a gender-neutral term?
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No, a race-neutral term. At that very early stage (before even The Shadow of the Past, or alternatively the earliest draft of what would become that chapter) Tolkien envisioned the "people who have passed through the Ring" as including Men, Elves and Dwarves. He specifically mentioned how horrifyingly powerful "elf-wraiths" were.