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Mammy

Mammy is a figure based in historical fact but exaggerated in American cultural memory as an icon of the Old South. The stereotype of the mammy pays tribute to the plantation system by idealizing the relationships, real and imagined, that existed between black nannies and white children, and it continues to circumscribe perceptions of and attitudes toward black womanhood. Two popular figures who helped to crystallize the stereotype of the mammy during the early 20th century, and who continue to endorse a national nostalgia for the antebellum South, are Aunt Jemima, a pancake mix trademark, and Mammy of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind.

Nanny, Maid, Cook, and Friend—But Still Slave

In the antebellum South, the label mammy was applied to an enslaved black woman who served an upper-class white household as a caretaker of white children. The title, often used as a proper noun and as a replacement for the black woman's given name, indicated not only a slave woman's position as nanny, but also her responsibility to and intimate relationship with the white family. In some cases, the title was used to demonstrate the family's genuine attachment to this maternal figure. Mammies breastfed white infants, supervised white children, and served white adolescents and young adults as personal attendants. Unfortunately, mammies were often deprived of the right to care for their own children, who were either left on their own while their mothers labored for the care of white children, set to work themselves at young ages, or sold for the masters' profit. Other times, mammies were considered too valuable as round-the-clock caretakers and, thus, denied opportunities to marry and bear children themselves.

After the abolition of slavery, mammy figures continued to serve affluent white families as wet nurses and caretakers of children, as well as being cooks and domestic servants. Although these women were legally free, they continued to suffer as de facto slaves of the families for whom they labored. Like her predecessor in the times of slavery, a mammy of the early 20th century was often forced to neglect her own well-being and to leave her own children alone or in the care of another in order to meet the needs of the children and household of her employer.

Sustaining the Mammy Stereotype

As the nation grew increasing nostalgic about the antebellum Southern plantation system throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the stereotype of the mammy became more and more fixed. The mammy's most stereotypical attributes include her overlarge body, dark skin, lack of sexual appeal or drive, patience, self-deprecating sense of humor, acceptance of her inherent inferiority, devotion to white people, and willingness to put the needs of white children above those of her own offspring. Because of these characteristics, mammy figures are considered by many feminist and cultural theorists as limiting and problematic representations of African American womanhood and motherhood. A nostalgic attachment to the mammy figure suggests, these critics maintain, a difficulty in considering the development of healthy black female sexuality as well as the ability of a black woman to adequately care for her own children and attain professional status. The mammy stereotype, then, denigrates black women and negatively influences the treatment of black women in the sociopolitical sphere.

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