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.