Mammy Statues, Power, and the Importance of Framing

Faithful slave statuary was popularized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter explores how these statues were often linked to political power and participation. Statues to honor mammies were often framed in the same breath as withholding minority suffrage rights. Mammy statues provided physical representations of accepted and idealized behaviors and paths for persons of color. The chapter explores how expectations of behavior reinforce power dynamics. This chapter discusses the several faithful slave memorials leading up to the attempt to authorize one in Washington, D.C. It also outlines how the bill for this statue overlapped with testimony about immigration restrictions and eugenics displays in Congress.