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The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925
How did African-American slaves view their white masters? As demons, deities or another race entirely? When nineteenth-century white Americans proclaimed their innate superiority, did blacks agree? If not, why not? How did blacks assess the status of the white race? Mia Bay traces African-American perceptions of whites between 1830 and 1925 to depict America's shifting attitudes about race in a period that saw slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction, and urban migration.
Much has been written about how the whites of this time viewed blacks, and about how blacks viewed themselves. By contrast, the ways in which blacks saw whites have remained a historical and intellectual mystery. Reversing the focus of such fundamental studies as George Fredrickson's The Black Image in the White Mind, Bay investigates this mystery. In doing so, she uncovers and elucidates the racial thought of a wide range of nineteenth-century African-Americans--educated and unlettered, male and female, free and enslaved.
Much has been written about how the whites of this time viewed blacks, and about how blacks viewed themselves. By contrast, the ways in which blacks saw whites have remained a historical and intellectual mystery. Reversing the focus of such fundamental studies as George Fredrickson's The Black Image in the White Mind, Bay investigates this mystery. In doing so, she uncovers and elucidates the racial thought of a wide range of nineteenth-century African-Americans--educated and unlettered, male and female, free and enslaved.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Mia Bay
21 books26 followersMia Bay is an American historian and currently the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Chair in American History at the University of Pennsylvania. She was previously a professor of history at Rutgers University and director of the Rutgers Center for Race and Ethnicity. A 2010 Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellow and 2009 National Humanities Fellow, she is the author of two books on African American history and a biographer of Ida B. Wells entitled To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 28, 2021
In 1756 right before being kidnapped, an African named Olaudah Equiano exclaimed that he feared that he would be “eaten by these white men with horrible looks, red faces, and long hair” (3). In 1779 in a petition to the New Hampshire legislature, 19 enslaved Black people wanted to know “from what authority” their captors assumed “power to dispose of their lives, freedom, and property,” arguing “we know that the God of Nature made us free” (16). In 1789 an unnamed formerly enslaved Black person questioned white people’s obsession with skin color maintaining, “In what single circumstance are we different from mankind? (16).
For hundreds of years white intellectuals sought to justify racism and the enslavement of Black people by arguing that white supremacy and chattel slavery were “divine ordained” and “natural.” But since the very beginning, Black people have produced counter-knowledge to debunk these racist fictions. Historian Dr. Mia Bay highlights the scholarship of 18th and 19th century free Black intellectuals who continually emphasized their humanity and challenged the legitimacy of racism amidst a climate of racist pseudoscience all around them.
Because the majority of enslaved Black people were denied access to forma lliteracy, Dr. Bay notes that Black discussion of white people is often sparse, and only really present from the 19th century on. Nonetheless, she locates primary accounts, folktales, and religious beliefs that circulated among enslaved Black communities that affirmed the “God-given humanity of Black people” (123) and understood slavery and the Southern caste system as a repudiation of the humanity of Black people” (154).
Free Black intellectuals in the 19th century found it difficult to find outlets for their writing against slavery. Ironically, Black people were often unwelcome in white-led abolition societies of the 1830s. For example, in 1835 the Ladies’ New York Antislavery Society opposed the “social mixing” of races and excluded Black members (32). Instead, Black intellectuals established their own community spaces and forums to protest the atrocities of slavery like the Freedom Journal which was first published in 1827.
From the 1820s, Black writers opposed scientific racism by creating their ethnology (race science), defending the ancestry and capacities of the Black race. John Russwurm, one of the first Black people to obtain a Bachelor’s degree, wrote an essay arguing that historically Black people were the first inventors of arts and sciences while white civilizations were still underdeveloped. Subsequent Black scholars would invoke the accomplishments of Black Egypt to “counter chargers that their race had always been a servile one” (35). In 1830 David Walker published a manifesto called Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World denouncing slavery and racial discrimination. He questioned whether whites might actually be the inferior race: “the whites have always been an unjust…bloodthirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority” (35). His work was banned in the South because he called for violent resistance to slavery.
Dr. Bay argues that while white scholars were obsessed with perceived racial differences in physical features, Black scholars didn’t really dwell on white appearance. Instead, they questioned “white people’s innate morality and human sensibility” (78). Black intellectuals were largely unconvinced of the fiction that races were biologically different and in fact argued that Black and white people were identical under the skin (significantly before white scholars began to debunk biological racism in the 20th century). In 1837 Hosea Easton wrote: “Analyze a Black man, or anatomize him, and the result of the research is the same as analyzing or anatomizing a white man” (84).
Instead of focusing on white appearance, Black intellectuals focused on white behavior. Journalist Ida B. Well’s exposed the double standard of white society calling itself “civilized” all the while sanctioning violent lynching. Journalist John Edward Bruce called Euro-Americans “modern barbarians, dignified by the title of White citizen” (103).
For hundreds of years white intellectuals sought to justify racism and the enslavement of Black people by arguing that white supremacy and chattel slavery were “divine ordained” and “natural.” But since the very beginning, Black people have produced counter-knowledge to debunk these racist fictions. Historian Dr. Mia Bay highlights the scholarship of 18th and 19th century free Black intellectuals who continually emphasized their humanity and challenged the legitimacy of racism amidst a climate of racist pseudoscience all around them.
Because the majority of enslaved Black people were denied access to forma lliteracy, Dr. Bay notes that Black discussion of white people is often sparse, and only really present from the 19th century on. Nonetheless, she locates primary accounts, folktales, and religious beliefs that circulated among enslaved Black communities that affirmed the “God-given humanity of Black people” (123) and understood slavery and the Southern caste system as a repudiation of the humanity of Black people” (154).
Free Black intellectuals in the 19th century found it difficult to find outlets for their writing against slavery. Ironically, Black people were often unwelcome in white-led abolition societies of the 1830s. For example, in 1835 the Ladies’ New York Antislavery Society opposed the “social mixing” of races and excluded Black members (32). Instead, Black intellectuals established their own community spaces and forums to protest the atrocities of slavery like the Freedom Journal which was first published in 1827.
From the 1820s, Black writers opposed scientific racism by creating their ethnology (race science), defending the ancestry and capacities of the Black race. John Russwurm, one of the first Black people to obtain a Bachelor’s degree, wrote an essay arguing that historically Black people were the first inventors of arts and sciences while white civilizations were still underdeveloped. Subsequent Black scholars would invoke the accomplishments of Black Egypt to “counter chargers that their race had always been a servile one” (35). In 1830 David Walker published a manifesto called Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World denouncing slavery and racial discrimination. He questioned whether whites might actually be the inferior race: “the whites have always been an unjust…bloodthirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority” (35). His work was banned in the South because he called for violent resistance to slavery.
Dr. Bay argues that while white scholars were obsessed with perceived racial differences in physical features, Black scholars didn’t really dwell on white appearance. Instead, they questioned “white people’s innate morality and human sensibility” (78). Black intellectuals were largely unconvinced of the fiction that races were biologically different and in fact argued that Black and white people were identical under the skin (significantly before white scholars began to debunk biological racism in the 20th century). In 1837 Hosea Easton wrote: “Analyze a Black man, or anatomize him, and the result of the research is the same as analyzing or anatomizing a white man” (84).
Instead of focusing on white appearance, Black intellectuals focused on white behavior. Journalist Ida B. Well’s exposed the double standard of white society calling itself “civilized” all the while sanctioning violent lynching. Journalist John Edward Bruce called Euro-Americans “modern barbarians, dignified by the title of White citizen” (103).
May 3, 2023
How did African American slaves view their white masters? As demons, deities, or another race entirely? When nineteenth-century white Americans proclaimed their innate superiority, did blacks agree? If not, why not? How did blacks assess the status of the white race? Mia Bay traces African American perceptions of whites between 1830 and 1925 to depict America's shifting attitudes about race in a period that saw slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction, and urban migration. Reversing the focus of such fundamental studies as George Fredrickson's The Black Image in the White Mind, Bay uncovers the racial thought of a wide range of nineteenth century African Americans- educated and unlettered, male and female, free and enslaved
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November 24, 2009
I really like this book. Bay does a great job of presenting both the theoretical framework of 19th century ethnology and black folk thought through slave narratives. I wish she would have included the blues idiom in her final chapter. Otherwise, this is a wonderfully meticulous work.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews