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30 maj 2023 · According to Wallace-Sanders, mammy as cultural figure begins to proliferate between the 1820’s and 1935, even though this surrogate relationship has existed as long as slavery has been a reified institution in the United States, forcing Black women and men in close proximity to slave owners and their families on plantation homes.
Some scholars see the mammy figure as rooted in the history of slavery in the United States. Enslaved African American women were tasked with the duties of domestic workers in white American households. Their duties included preparing meals, cleaning homes, and nursing and rearing their owners' children.
From slavery through the Jim Crow era, the mammy image served the political, social, and economic interests of mainstream white America. During slavery, the mammy caricature was posited as proof that black people -- in this case, black women -- were contented, even happy, at being enslaved.
Mammy began in slavery--or at least in the minds of slavery's defenders. She was idealized by the defenders of slavery and then segregation as evidence of the humanity of the system.
As the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Civil War approached, the exclusively white Daughters of the Confederacy petitioned the U.S. Congress to authorize the use of public land to build a new public memorial in Washington, DC: a “monument to the faithful colored mammies” of the Old South.
The mammy stereotype emerged during the slavery era, where enslaved women often cared for white children while being denied their own familial bonds. This stereotype perpetuated the idea that Black women were naturally suited for domestic work and caregiving roles, reinforcing their economic exploitation.
Mammy began in slavery—or at least in the minds of slavery’s defenders. She was idealized by the defenders of slavery and then segregation as evidence of the humanity of the system. “Up to the age of ten we saw as much, perhaps more, of the mammy than of the mother. …
