Mammy archetype

A mammy, also spelled mammie, is a Southern United States archetype for a black woman who worked as a nanny and/or general housekeeper that, often in a white family, nursed the family's children. The word mammy originated as an alteration of mamma, meaning mother.

History

One of the earliest fictionalized versions of the mammy figure was Aunt Chloe in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was first published in 1852. As the mammy figure progressed into the 20th century, the persona was sacrificed to the demands of the white majority, who widely mythologized the figure. Memoirs that describe the roles of mammies from the 1890s to the 1920s downplayed the mammy's relationship with her family.

The background of the Mammy figure was the history of slavery in the United States. African American female slaves 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. Out of these circumstances arose the image of the mammy.