what is a mammy

A mammy is a U.S. historical stereotype depicting black women who work in a white family and nurse the familys children. The mammy character is often visualized as a fat, dark-skinned woman with a motherly personality. The mammy figure is an idealized figure of a caregiver: amiable, loyal, maternal, non-threatening, obedient, and submissive. The mammy stereotype was created by white Southerners to redeem the relationship between black women and white men within slave society in response to the antislavery attack from the North during the ante-bellum period. The mammy image was used to sell almost any household item, especially breakfast foods, detergents, planters, ashtrays, sewing accessories, and beverages. The mammy figure demonstrates deference to white authority and is usually portrayed as an older woman, overweight, and dark-skinned. The mammy stereotype is a racist caricature divorced from the reality of US race relations during slavery and afterwards.