How far has the portrayal of black Americans in fiction, film and television shaped perceptions of black
Americans by the white majority in the period 1850 – 2009?
SUPPORTING ARGUMENT:
1.Uncle tom’s cabin
What is it?
anti-slavery novel
by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe
in 1852
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of
that century, following the Bible
The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can
overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings.
How did this book shape perceptions?
+ve:
"helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" (1861-65) + Lincoln declared, "So this is the little lady
who started this great war."
many writers have credited this novel with focusing Northern anger at the injustices of slavery and
the Fugitive Slave Law and helping to fuel the abolitionist movement. Union general and politician
James Baird Weaver said that the book convinced him to become active in the abolitionist
movement.
Black reactions; Federick Douglass praised it
-Ve:
The effectiveness of the book was stopped by southern literature – so called Anti-Tom literature
generally took a pro-slavery viewpoint, arguing that the issues of slavery as depicted in Stowe's book
were overblown and incorrect. The novels in this genre tended to feature a benign white patriarchal
master and a pure wife, both of whom presided over childlike slaves in a benevolent extended family
style plantation. Ie. Mary Henderson Eastman’s: Aunty Phillis’s Cabin (1852)
The book and the plays it inspired helped popularize a number of stereotypes about black people for
example Douglass, did criticise how Uncle Tom had taken the whippings rather than be assertive
back.
2.Birth of a Nation
What is it?
1915
American silent epic drama film
directed and co-produced by D. W. Griffith
The screenplay is adapted from the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon Jr. Griffith
The film chronicles the relationship of two families in the American Civil War and Reconstruction era
over the course of several years: the pro-Union Northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy
, Southern Camerons. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is
dramatized.
By 1922 it had been watched by more than five million people. It was the first blockbuster.
How did this shape perceptions?
Was a commercial success, though it was highly controversial for its portrayal of black men (many
played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women,
and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force (almost romanticised them)
There were widespread African-American protests against The Birth of a Nation, such as in in
Philadelphia – Booker T. Washington criticised the demonstrations as giving the film free publicity.
The NAACP spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to ban the film as it caused an upsurge in
lynching. Black riots stopped screeings in several cities
“The film argues that giving black people rights was a terrible, terrible error, that they did all sorts of
horrible things that actually they didn’t do, and that the noble Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was this wonderful
saviour that saved America,”
The film is credited with reviving the racist KKK, who adopted it as a recruitment tool. “The Ku Klux
Klan had been kind of a dead organisation by 1915, but when the film [came out and became a hit]
the KKK was refounded, capitalised on [the film’s success] and in the 1920s became a massive
organisation at the peak of nativist fervour in the United States,”
3. To kill a Mockingbird
What is it?
Harper Lee published in 1960
Shaped perceptions:
To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its
protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism. The characterise
became an inspiration for generations of justice crusaders. His model of peaceful but persistent
resistance resonate with activists such as MLK who said “ nonviolence could symbolise the gold
badge of heroism rather then the white feather of cowardice.”
The book arrived at the right moment to help the south and the nation grapple with the racial
tensions’, that resulted from ‘the accelerating civil rights movement’. The fact that a white person
from the south wrote a book like this was very unusual – infact it was very much like an act of
protest itself.
The novel remains as a testament to the ways fiction can expose a society’s sin, alter consciousness
and advance the gradual work of social change.
4.Roots
What is it?
television miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Historically, television executives are reluctant to use blacks in mainstream appealing roles out of
fear that b1ack characters would offend the large white audience.
How did it shape perspectives?
Americans by the white majority in the period 1850 – 2009?
SUPPORTING ARGUMENT:
1.Uncle tom’s cabin
What is it?
anti-slavery novel
by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe
in 1852
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of
that century, following the Bible
The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can
overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings.
How did this book shape perceptions?
+ve:
"helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" (1861-65) + Lincoln declared, "So this is the little lady
who started this great war."
many writers have credited this novel with focusing Northern anger at the injustices of slavery and
the Fugitive Slave Law and helping to fuel the abolitionist movement. Union general and politician
James Baird Weaver said that the book convinced him to become active in the abolitionist
movement.
Black reactions; Federick Douglass praised it
-Ve:
The effectiveness of the book was stopped by southern literature – so called Anti-Tom literature
generally took a pro-slavery viewpoint, arguing that the issues of slavery as depicted in Stowe's book
were overblown and incorrect. The novels in this genre tended to feature a benign white patriarchal
master and a pure wife, both of whom presided over childlike slaves in a benevolent extended family
style plantation. Ie. Mary Henderson Eastman’s: Aunty Phillis’s Cabin (1852)
The book and the plays it inspired helped popularize a number of stereotypes about black people for
example Douglass, did criticise how Uncle Tom had taken the whippings rather than be assertive
back.
2.Birth of a Nation
What is it?
1915
American silent epic drama film
directed and co-produced by D. W. Griffith
The screenplay is adapted from the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon Jr. Griffith
The film chronicles the relationship of two families in the American Civil War and Reconstruction era
over the course of several years: the pro-Union Northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy
, Southern Camerons. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is
dramatized.
By 1922 it had been watched by more than five million people. It was the first blockbuster.
How did this shape perceptions?
Was a commercial success, though it was highly controversial for its portrayal of black men (many
played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women,
and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force (almost romanticised them)
There were widespread African-American protests against The Birth of a Nation, such as in in
Philadelphia – Booker T. Washington criticised the demonstrations as giving the film free publicity.
The NAACP spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to ban the film as it caused an upsurge in
lynching. Black riots stopped screeings in several cities
“The film argues that giving black people rights was a terrible, terrible error, that they did all sorts of
horrible things that actually they didn’t do, and that the noble Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was this wonderful
saviour that saved America,”
The film is credited with reviving the racist KKK, who adopted it as a recruitment tool. “The Ku Klux
Klan had been kind of a dead organisation by 1915, but when the film [came out and became a hit]
the KKK was refounded, capitalised on [the film’s success] and in the 1920s became a massive
organisation at the peak of nativist fervour in the United States,”
3. To kill a Mockingbird
What is it?
Harper Lee published in 1960
Shaped perceptions:
To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its
protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism. The characterise
became an inspiration for generations of justice crusaders. His model of peaceful but persistent
resistance resonate with activists such as MLK who said “ nonviolence could symbolise the gold
badge of heroism rather then the white feather of cowardice.”
The book arrived at the right moment to help the south and the nation grapple with the racial
tensions’, that resulted from ‘the accelerating civil rights movement’. The fact that a white person
from the south wrote a book like this was very unusual – infact it was very much like an act of
protest itself.
The novel remains as a testament to the ways fiction can expose a society’s sin, alter consciousness
and advance the gradual work of social change.
4.Roots
What is it?
television miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Historically, television executives are reluctant to use blacks in mainstream appealing roles out of
fear that b1ack characters would offend the large white audience.
How did it shape perspectives?
