Mammy African American Women

The second mythology placed on black women was that of Mammy. ”Mammy was the woman who could do anything, and do it better than anyone else.” (White, 47) Mammy was basically the super nanny of the plantation who lived in the house, she would oversee the kitchen, manage the household and at sometimes raised the white children. Mammy was also so respected that she often served as friend and advisor to the master and mistress. (White, 48) Mammy was often called around the clock to and was expected to be available for assistances and nursing at anytime. From the chapter it could even be concluded that Mammy was asexual, maternal, and virtuous with nonexistent sexuality, the complete opposite of Jezebel. The Mammy mythology is as misleading as the Jezebel image. The image

This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era.

All African-Americans have been portrayed in stereotypical roles since their arrival into American society for the entertainment and amusement of others. Many people find it difficult to appreciate the diversity of the African American women. So instead of trying to do this, they create identities based on negative stereotypes. There are several negative stereotypes associated with the African American woman. The Mammy archetype is the one chosen to be analyzed in this essay. Collins described the mammy as “-the faithful, obedient domestic servant. Created to justify the economic exploitation of house slaves and sustained to explain Black women’s long-standing restriction to domestic service…” (72) She is commonly seen trying to soothe

Patton, 1993). Hence, the Mammy in the white household is seen as an intelligent servant to the white family, solving wisely and even god-like every duty she has to fulfill. Unsurprisingly, she constantly balances between the white and the black community, being a spokesman for the black minority (cf. Atkinson 2004, 2). Although the black servant is a slave within a white household, the Mammy is portrayed as being content with her way of living, having a satisfying master-servant relationship and feeling not inferior, but rather seeing herself as a member of the family (cf. Jewell, 1993: 38). In acquiescence with Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, the image of the Mammy has been applied to create an atmosphere of racial harmony within the slave system (cf. 2008: 13). Hence, the role of the Mammy in the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century is established in effort to create an image of the Mammy contrasting to the stereotypical image of the African American slave, who is inferior to the white

African American women never receive the true recognition they deserve; and as women we need to know who we are, and why we are important to this nation and to the world. African American women have several contributions to the United States. Their contributions are in fashion, entertainment, art, literature, economics, education, and so much more. Throughout the years these contributions have increased and are continuing to skyrocket as the days go by. Many African American women have made history due to their hard work, and dedication and most of the time it goes unnoticed due to their skin tone and their sexuality. Black women also face several negative stereotypes. They are often seen as angry, ignorant, hostile human beings. It often makes it harder for them to be taken seriously. There are several factors to the stereotypes and are often false, and give black women a bad outlook. Black women are our fighters against slavery, representation of women’s suffrage, the majorettes for the march on civil rights, and the hardworking women in both world wars.

The term Jezebel, a seductive female slave concerned only with matters of the flesh, was used as a means of excusing miscegenation, the sexual exploitation of African American women, and the mulatto population (61). The term Mammy, the premier house servant with expertise in all domestic matters and known for the loving way she raised the master’s children, was used to symbolize race and sex relations at their best. The image of Mammy justified slavery for many white Southerners, for she reflected a positive idea that slaves somehow benefited from the institution of slavery (61).

During the antebellum South, many Africans, who were forced migrants brought to America, were there to work for white-owners of tobacco and cotton plantations, manual labor as America expanded west, and as supplemental support of their owner’s families. Harriet Jacobs’s slave narrative supports the definition of slavery (in the South), discrimination (in the North), sexual gender as being influential to a slave’s role, the significant role of family support, and how the gender differences viewed and responded to life circumstances.

Since the enslavement of blacks, black women have played an integral role in mothering America’s population, both literally and figuratively. During slavery, slave masters often impregnated slaves for two reasons: to further populate their own plantation or to prepare to sale them to make a profit. About 100 years later, though slavery had ended, a majority of black women found work by working as a maid, also known as “the help,” for wealthy white families. As part of their job, black women were often the sole caretakers of the children. In these jobs, black women in the South served as a cook, housekeeper, nursemaid, or some combination of the three. By analyzing the role of southern black women as mothers, two specific things are revealed: black southern mothers are forced to live a twofold-complicated life and they serve as the cornerstone for both white and black southern households. In recognizing these two things, there is a better understanding of the vital role that black women play in the American South.

African American women, at their earliest times were objectified and stereotyped beginning in slavery. They were characterized as, “a sexual object for the master’s pleasure or a “mammy’ figure that devotes all her time to her master’s family instead of her own” (Francois 2). Black women suffered the devaluing of their female bodies. They were constantly sexually exploited, demoralized, and dehumanized by their masters. In the book, “Celia, A Slave,” by Melton Alonza McLaurin, the author discusses a case regarding a African American slave who killed her master and went to trail, in which the outcome resulted in a sentence to death by hanging.

Majority of African-Americans, about 89% of all black ethnicity, lived in slavery from the 1700’s to about 1863. (Mintz, “Facts about the Slave Trade and Slavery”). A fictional African-American is Nanny, a woman who grew up in times when slavery was very popular. She passes on her experiences and stories to her granddaughter, Janie, which affects her decisions and choices in life. Janie Crawford receives Nanny’s advice and multiple traits in her adolescent years. Everything she had accomplished in life was based on what Nanny thought was best for her, only because she didn’t want Janie to be submissive like she was in her time of slavery. Janie, the protagonist of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is shown to be complex by her dialogue, thoughts, and actions. Janie was both serene and gleeful yet turbulent and upset.

Who and what that gets included, altered, or deleted to fit into an acceptable version of American history is often due to the different views, options, memories, sources, and perceived importance by the historians themselves. These variations, modifications and conflicting perceptions can spin into stereotypes that can be mistaken as fact, instead of fiction. One of Southern history’s most common know stereotype is of the black Mammy. This paper will discuss the depiction of the African-American slave mythological figure - Mammy, and also her opposing character, Jezebel. Mammy’s origins are deeply embedded in the antebellum American South. Historians and scholars state clearly that the Mammy and Jezebel characters are and were fictional, but how and why they evolved, and also the degree of their roles, slightly differs from historian to historian. This paper will primarily look at the works of historians Jessie Parkhurst (1938), John Blassingame (1972), Eugene Genovese (1974), Catherine Clinton (1982), Deborah Gray White (1985), Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (1988), Jo-Ann Morgan (1995), and Kimberly Wallace-Sanders (2008).

The “Jezebel” identity that formed was strongly linked with sex and sensuality. Regarded and a promiscuous and a hypersexual woman, “Jezebel” was made out of African culture and because black woman are the center of population growth. Gray argues that women faced a very unique challenge as a “Jezebel” and were labeled so The jezebel was the complete opposite of a Victorian lady. On the opposite side of the relationship, southern whites created the “Mammy” character: the ever loving servant figure and surrogate mother for both blacks and whites. As a race mixing character, “Mammy” becomes a figure which helps justify the slave system. It’s thought this because after all, the white ‘master’ race spawned the sweet Mammy. As Gray puts it, “Mammy helped endorse the service of black woman in Southern household” (61).Murphy

Deborah Gray White’s book Ar’n’t I a Woman talks about the female slaves that are in the South. In the book, she was letting her readers know about the different kinds of women identities there were in the South and that black women were the source of population growth. Two of them that she names in the book is “Jezebel and Mammy.” The “Jezebel” woman identity that she describes in the book is of a woman that is in connection with sexuality and sex. The “Mammy” character that she describes in the book is of a woman that can do anything and do it better than anyone else. She was also seen as what White calls the “premier house servant and all others were her subordinates.” The Mammy character was completely dedicated to the white family and the children of that family. Also, the mammy character was the slave masters most “favored slave.”

In Patricia Hill Collins’ “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images,” she illustrates four main stereotypes that Black women face. The first controlling image applied to African American women is “The Mammy.” The mammy is the faithful, obedient servant to the white family and the stereotype attempts to hide the fact that black women who work for white families are being exploited. By loving and caring for her white “children” more than her own, the mammy symbolizes the dominant group’s perceptions of the ideal black female relationship to elite white male power. The smiling mammy signals her agreement with the situation, seemingly accepting her subordination (Collins, 71). Next is the image of the Black matriarch (Collins, 73). According to the stereotype, they spend too much time away from home, are overly aggressive and unfeminine, and allegedly emasculate their lovers and husbands. This stereotype attempts to control conduct by punishing black women for assertiveness and hides the oppression by making it seem that black women are naturally this way (Collins, 74-75).

This character of the "color mammy" existed long before the founding of this country and while people of color were considered less than human, basically like animals as we have seen widely throughout the semester, it is also true that it was these women who cared for the house and that basically raised the children of white women. Although time passed and slavery ended the matter of the fact is that this stereotype of "mammies" followed them for many years and after and this is what can be seen in "The imitation of life", the behavior of Delilah and Bea were these consciously or unconsciously they were acting archaic which characterized the last decades and which African American women were trying to fix. In the 1920s one could observe the