San Antonio College Library

Her bright eyes and jolly face gaze upon us from the covers of old cookbooks, syrup bottles, salt and pepper shakers, and cookie jars. She is a prominent figure in literature, movies and folk art. She is Mammy. But who is Mammy, and where did she come from? And why is she nearly always represented as a large, dark woman with a sonorous and soothing voice, raucous laugh, infinite patience, self-deprecating wit, and implicit understanding and acceptance...

Micki McElya argues that the figure of the loyal slave has played a powerful role in modern American politics and culture. Loving, hating, pitying or pining for 'mammy' became a way for Americans to make sense of shifting economic, social, and racial realities and some black people's contentment with servitude.