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Summary Civil Rights and Race Relations in America - Portrayal of Civil Rights in Fiction and Film
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History - Civil Rights and Race Relations in America - Portrayal of Civil Rights in Fiction and Film
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Civil Rights 1850-2009Portrayal of Civil Rights in Fiction and Film
Literature
Literature in general
- Impact
o Had capacity to impact change – in 1850 the USA was one of the most literate societies in the world (most white adults
could read/write).
o Black characters have been portrayed both sympathetically and unsympathetically even within the same work.
As the 20th century progressed, sympathetic portrayals became more frequent although demeaning and unrealistic
stereotypes remained.
- Negative Impact
o Can perpetuate negative stereotypes. Black poet and critic Sterling Brown divided the full range of black characters in
American literature into 7 categories:
Contented slave; wretched freemen; comic Negro; Brute; tragic mulatto; local colour Negro; exotic primitive.
Racial stereotyping connotes to the majority population that the negative actions of a few minorities sum up
the collective values of the whole minority community.
It is also internalised by the group portrayed in the negative imagery.
o This was shown in an experiment used in the case of Brown vs. Board where black students were shown
almost identical dolls who differed in skin colour and said that the white doll had positive qualities that
the black doll didn’t.
- Little/No Impact
o Can be seen as just reflecting views that were held at the time rather than shaping change.
o Also reflecting changing attitudes:
Before the CW there were sympathetic abolitionist visual and literary propaganda like the highly influential anti-
slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
But the fate of UT in subsequent plays and illustrations showed the developing fear of and hostility towards
freed black males.
Late 19th and early 20th century triumph of white supremacy reflected in and encouraged by Birth of a Nation
o It is difficult to quantify and measure the degree of change produced by fiction/film on a society as a whole.
*Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) – Harriet Beecher Stowe*
- Portrayal
o HBS married an abolitionist and together they helped to hide runaway slaves from Kentucky and heard their stories first
hand.
o The book was published originally in serial form in an anti-slavery newspaper.
o First plot focuses on Tom, a strong, religious AA slave living with his wife and three young children.
He protects his family by choosing not to run away but is sold to another plantation in LA where he meets Topsy, a
young black girl, and Eva, the daughter of Tom’s next owner.
Eva and Tom share a love of the Bible, but she dies young because of illness.
Tom is taken by Simon Legree, a cruel and violent white slave owner and his religious beliefs enabled him to
survive as a slave.
The novel ends when Tom escapes but is whipped to death by Legree for not revealing the hiding place of 2
female runaway slaves.
o Second plot focuses on slaves Eliza Harris, her son Harry, and husband George
At the start of the novel George has run away, Eliza escapes across the frozen Ohio river to freedom in the north
with her son Harry. They are helped by abolitionists and she reunites with her husband in Canada.
o The book published in 1852 contained illustrations (many of which emphasised Tom’s Christianity through Christ-like
imagery and a cover picture of Jesus Christ).
o Uncle Tom’s Cabin lent itself to a nationwide debate on racial politics that continued to this day.
- Positive Impact
o Immediate best-seller: 10,000 copies sold in USA in first week and 2 million in 10 years.
Most popular book in the 19th century after the bible.
Series of theatrical productions in the 1850s and these with the book gave an enormous impetus to the abolitionist
cause of the 1850s.
The plays were seen by around 3 million people.
Popularity of the book lasted into the 20th century.
o Positive portrayal of black characters and condemnation of slavery was important in heightening horror against slavery
in the North and generating sympathy for slaves.
o Novel was able to personalise issue of slavery in a way that political speeches and church sermons could not.
This was helped by the presentation of the slaves as pious Christians.
o President Lincoln borrowed the book from the Library of Congress and in 1862 he allegedly told Stowe that she was the
woman who wrote the book that started the Civil War.
- Negative Impact
o The book created stereotypes and phrases which have influenced race relations long after publication like “Uncle Tom”
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, Civil Rights 1850-2009
o As performances of the plays went on, versions became less anti-slavery and even pro-slavery. Many also portrayed
black people in a demeaning fashion.
o After Reconstruction the illustrations in the book changed.
o Uncle Tom’s Cabin provoked about 20 novels where Southerners portrayed slavery as a benign institution like Aunt
Phillis’s Cabin.
- Little/No Impact
o Released in an anti-slavery newspaper initially – so only being read by people who already support the message.
And radical members of the abolitionist movement felt the portrayal of slavery and treatment of black slaves was
not strong enough to encourage people to support the end of slavery.
o The book was detested in the Southern States so had limited impact there.
Many pro-slavery groups disliked the attack on the institution of slavery as they believed it was sanctioned by the
Old Testament. They claimed the story was one-sided and showed slave owners in a bad light.
o The fact that illustrations changed after Reconstruction reflects a growing uneasiness about the potential activities of AA
men (around Eva the white girl) and therefore suggests the content and interpretation was influenced by its social
context rather than the other way around.
o A majority of the sales were after the reprint in 1862 indicating that its influence on abolition and the CW has been
exaggerated.
o The book has a limited impact now as it is very much a product of its time.
Ain’t I a Woman? (1853) – Sojourner Truth
- Portrayal
o ST was an AA abolitionist and women’s rights activist born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom
in 1826.
During the CW she helped recruit black troops for the Union Army and after she unsuccessfully tried to secure
land grants for former slaves.
o Her best-known speech was delivered impromptu at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention : “Ain’t I a Woman?”
- Positive Impact
o She was able to bring factions together at a time when cooperation between white abolitionists and AA was limited.
o Her speeches were proof that AA were not content with slavery and were effective in drawing crowds to antislavery
meetings and opening eyes to the injustice and irrationality of slavery.
o W E B Du Bois credited her as “one of the seven who made slavery impossible”
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) and My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) –
Frederick Douglass
- Positive Impact
o FD wrote his Narrative to “prove” his identity as a slave (which was doubted due to his eloquence) and to bring his
eloquent indictment of slavery to a wider audience.
o It was probably the best-selling of all the fugitive slave narratives.
5,000 copies sold within 4 months of its first printing.
A Fool’s Errand (1879) – Albion W Tourgee
- Portrayal
o Not strictly autobiographical but draws on Tourgee’s own experience in the South.
o Comfort Servosse, a Northerner of French ancestry moves to a Southern state for his health and in the hopes of making
his fortune. Servosse is caught up in a variety of experiences that make apparent the deep misunderstandings between N
and S and expresses opinions on the South’s intolerance, Reconstruction and other issues.
- Positive Impact
o Total sales have been estimated as 200,000 (remarkable in the 1880s for a book of this kind).
Uncle Remus (1881) – Joel Chandler Harris
- Portrayal
o Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of AA folktales adapted and compiled in book
form. Harris produced 7 Uncle Remus books.
o The animal stories were conveyed in such a manner that they were not seen as racist by many among the audiences of
the time.
By mid-20th century however the dialect and “old Uncle” stereotype were considered demeaning by many AA
people.
o The stories were set on a former slave-owning plantation and portrayed in a passive manner.
Various Plantation tales (1881 onwards)
- Negative Impact
o Rose tinted recollections of slavery characterised so-called ‘plantation tales’ which usually featured ex-slaves who
referred to the enslavement years as good old times.
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