Representations of Black Supplication

"From Uncle Tom to Colin Kaepernick:
Representations of Black Supplication"
This course explores the history and contemporary
uses of the figure of the supplicant Black man. It
traces the figure's late 18th, early 19th century
emergence through white abolitionist writings and
colonial memoirs and contemporary artwork and
discourse. Particular attention is paid to the
influence of Josiah Wedgewood's "Am I Not a Man
and a Brother" anti-slavery medallion and the
characters of Jim in Twain's Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Tom in Stowe's Uncle
Tom's Cabin. We examine the influence of these and
other depictions of Blackness on contemporary
representations of Blackness, the "peaceful
protest" and "Civil Rights," through the speeches
of American politicians and performances by Black
athletes. Students ask what purpose does the
disarmed, vulnerable, pleading slave figure serve
and how successful has it been in achieving
change. Do representations of Black supplication
reproduce the master-slave relationship? Is the
appeal to sympathy effective in colonialism? We
compare these figures of supplication to the
reality of Black anti-colonial revolt.