Mammy archetype

The mammy archetype is one of the most well-known racial caricatures of Black women in the United States. The archetype is often portrayed as a middle-aged or older Black woman who cares for a White family at the expense of her own. The woman is usually overweight and wearing a headscarf, two elements that are meant to show her servitude and make her less attractive. The caricature was developed first during the Antebellum period to help promote the idea that enslaved African American women were happy to care for White families in favor of their own. The racist caricature became more well-known during the Jim Crow era, when racism and discrimination were the norm throughout the country, in particular in the South. The caricature persisted because it reinforced the political, social, and economic interests of White Americans, as well as the ideology of paternalism, the concept that African Americans benefited from White dominance.

Background

The archetype of a mammy was usually that of an older, overweight Black woman with large breasts and extremely dark skin wearing clothes and a head wrap indicating her servitude. The mammy was always portrayed as happy and jovial, often with a wide smile, to show her pleasure in caring for the White family.

The mammy caricature first developed during the Antebellum period in the Southern United States to help justify and normalize slavery. From the start, the caricature was based on a lie because many families owning enslaved people could not afford an enslaved mammy as a housekeeper and caregiver for children. Most enslaved people were forced to work in agriculture, often cotton production. Nevertheless, historical accounts show that some households were able to afford enslaved women to work in the house caring for children and running the household. These women were the basis for the caricature during slavery although women in these roles did not look like the caricature. Enslaved people were almost always thin because they were not given a proper amount of food. They were also usually young, as many enslaved women died before the age of fifty due to their harsh living conditions. Furthermore, enslaved mothers wanted to care for their own children but were unable to do so because they were either forced to work or their children were taken from them and sold.

One of the most important functions of the caricature during this time was to obfuscate the relationship between White enslavers and enslaved African American women. Many White southern men had sexual relationships with enslaved women. Though some of these relationships may have been consensual, the power dynamics between Black women and White men made refusal difficult or impossible. Southerners developed the mammy archetype to make people believe that White men were not attracted to enslaved women.

Overview

When slavery ended, the mammy caricature endured for other reasons. After Reconstruction, Southern White people used laws, media, and violence to economically, politically, and socially control African Americans. Jim Crow laws prevented African Americans from using the same facilities as White Americans and kept them from voting. White people who lynched Black people faced no repercussions. Furthermore, White people used racial caricatures in media to spread false narratives about Black people.

During this era, the mammy caricature again normalized a Black woman’s preference for caring for children who were not her own. It also helped Black women remain a symbol of servitude. The caricature also fostered the idea that Black women were suited only for domestic work. African American women had to work outside the home, unlike most White American women, because their families did not have enough money to survive on only one income. White business owners would not employ Black women, so many Black women had no other choice other than doing domestic work for White families. The caricature also continued to implicitly indicate that White men were not attracted to Black women.

White Americans used the media to convey the mammy caricature. One of the earliest examples was the character Aunt Chloe in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Mammy characters were often used in minstrel shows, which were racist plays featuring White people in blackface. Men often played the role of the mammy in such shows. Mammy characters were also common in literature and plays.

As film and television became important media in the country, the mammy caricature also spread to be featured in them. In the movie The Birth of a Nation (1915), the mammy character protects her White enslaver’s home from Union soldiers. Her portrayal showed the mammy caricature rewriting the racist legacy of the Confederacy. The 1939 film Gone with the Wind used a mammy character in much the same way.

The mammy caricature was also important in branding and advertising. In 1875, Aunt Sally, a mammy character, was used on baking powder. The mammy image became common and was featured on many products, including soap and food. One of the most famous examples of the mammy caricature in branding was Aunt Jemima. Two White men developed a self-rising flour and wanted to advertise it using a mammy character. They used the name Aunt Jemima from a popular minstrel show of the time. However, the men went bankrupt and sold the business. The R.T. Davis Company improved on the recipe and developed the Aunt Jemima character by hiring a real person, a formerly enslaved woman named Nancy Green, to play the character. Green and other women, including Anna Robinson, worked for the company, which was later sold to the Quaker Oats Company in 1926.

The caricature remained in use for decades. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the company updated the image of Aunt Jemima, making her thinner and better dressed. She also wore a headband instead of a head wrap and earrings. Although the company tried to update the image, the history and legacy of the mammy archetype were still inherent in the brand and image. In 2020, after protests broke out across the United States in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of a White police officer using excessive force and other issues of systemic racism, Quaker Oats and other companies announced that they would discontinue using mammy and other racist caricatures. Aunt Jemima branded items were rebranded under the Pearl Milling Company in June 2021, featuring an image of a nineteenth-century water mill instead of the long-used racist archetype.

Bibliography

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Kim, Brianna. “Collections Corner: Aunt Jemima.” African American Museum of Iowa, 2020, blackiowa.org/collections-corner-aunt-jemima. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

“Making Mammy: A Caricature of Black Womanhood, 1840–1940.” California African American Museum, caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2019/making-mammy-a-caricature-of-black-womanhood-18401940. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

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Rosenthal, Lisa, and Marci Lobel. “Stereotypes of Black American Women Related to Sexuality and Motherhood.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 3, 2016, pp. 414–27, doi:10.1177/0361684315627459. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.

Williams, Mariam. “A First Step for Black Women: Reclaiming the Aunt(y) Jemima, Mammy Stereotypes.” National Catholic Reporter, 6 Oct. 2014, www.ncronline.org/blogs/intersection/first-step-black-women-reclaiming-aunty-jemima-mammy-stereotypes. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.