Creation of Stereotypes Through Uncle Tom's Cabin

Creation of Stereotypes Through Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Definition of stereotype (from Wikipedia, but I think this is a good explanation)

Such scholars as Patricia A. Turner note "stereotyping objects in popular culture that depict blacks as servile, primitive, or simpleminded and explains how the subtle influences of such seemingly harmless images reinforce anti-black attitudes".

Despite the notoriety Uncle Tom’s Cabin has received over the past 150 years, modern scholars argue the novel is condescending and racist regarding Stowe’s black characters.  They cite they way Stowe portrays their speech, appearances, and behavior as evidence for perpetuating and popularizing stereotypes among the black community and Americans at large.

This is a significant claim because Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the #2 selling novel in the world (next to the Bible) during the 19^th Century.  Because of the mass distribution and following of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (plus the illustrations and plays associated with it) it played a significant role in indoctrinating these stereotypes into the minds of Americans young and old. 

Characters and stereotypes associated in the novel:

“Tragic Mulatto”

– this is a character of mixed race (in this case black and white) who is depicted as sad and internally struggling because they do not completely fit in with the “white world” or “black world” spheres. 

Characters: Cassy, Eliza, and Emmeline

Text example:

“Again he stopped before Susan and Emmeline. He put out his heavy, dirty hand, and drew the girl towards him; passed it over her neck and bust, felt her arms, looked at her teeth, and then pushed her back against her mother, whose patient face showed the suffering she had been going through at every motion of the hideous stranger.

The girl was frightened, and began to cry.”

Mammy

- dark skinned, affectionate female character.  The term “mammy” originated in the South as a variant of the word “mother” and referred to a black woman (typically a slave) who worked for a family and nursed their children.  Additionally in the South it was thought to be blasphemous to refer to someone as “God Mother” or “God Father” so the titles Aunt and Uncle are used to show respect to unrelated elders. 

Characters: Mammy – cook at St. Clare Plantation

Text:

“Poor old Prue's child was all that she had, -- and yet she had to hear it crying, and she couldn't help it! Papa, these poor creatures love their children as much as you do me. O! do something for them! There's poor Mammy loves her children; I've seen her cry when she talked about them. And Tom loves his children; and it's dreadful, papa, that such things are happening, all the time!" - Eva

"O, Miss Eva, don't see how I can live without ye, no how!" said the faithful creature. "'Pears like it's just taking everything off the place to oncet!" and Mammy gave way to a passion of grief. - Mammy

Pickaninny

refers to children of black descent, typically with racial slur connotation. 

Character: Topsy

According to Robin Bernstein who describes the meaning in the context of the United States, the pickaninny is characterized by three qualities: "the figure is always juvenile, always of color, and always resistant if not immune to pain"

Text:

   "How old are you, Topsy?"

   "Dun no, Missis," said the image, with a grin that showed all her teeth.

   "Don't know how old you are? Didn't anybody ever tell you? Who was your mother?"

   "Never had none!" said the child, with another grin.

   "Never had any mother? What do you mean? Where were you born?"

   "Never was born!" persisted Topsy, with another grin, that looked so goblin-like, that, if Miss Ophelia had been at all nervous, she might have fancied that 


…….

   "You mustn't answer me in that way, child; I'm not playing with you. Tell me where you were born, and who your father and mother were."

"Never was born," reiterated the creature, more emphatically; "never had no father nor mother, nor nothin'. I was raised by a speculator, with lots of others. Old Aunt Sue used to take car on us."

Uncle Tom

Some argue he was too eager to please the white people and would bow down to any white man.  This however did not result from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but from staged performances of the novel that Stowe had no control over. 

Text:

“Mas’r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give ’em freely, as the Lord gave his for me.”

Conclusion:

During the 1960’s (The Black Power Movement) some blacks argued that Uncle Tom committed racial betrayal and made the slaves out to be worse than the owners.  While I have not formed a concrete opinion or argument yet, I believe Uncle Tom’s Cabin is without a doubt a vital tool in exploring race relations in America.

Questions:

11)  Do you think Uncle Tom’s Cabin perpetuates stereotypes of black Americans? If so, how?  Does this stereotype overshadow the novel as an abolitionist tool?

22) Are there white stereotypes present in the novel as well? 

33) Even with the presence of stereotypes do you believe Uncle Tom's Cabin still played a vital role in shaping the minds of readers about the moral and political implications of racism?