ABSTRACT
The popularized image of mammy by whites was one of the most defining popular images of black women from the slavery period into the first two decades of the twentieth century. With few exceptions these white interpretations of black women were demeaning, depicting African American women as the antithesis of womanhood according to Euro-American standards of beauty.3 The image of mammy was so deeply rooted in the portrayal of black women in the United States that while originating in the South, it became the icon that was adopted by writers and artists alike when they sought to evoke an image of black motherhood.
