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Gender and Race in Antebellum Popular Culture

Gender and Race in Antebellum Popular Culture

Hardcover

Anthropology19th Century United States History

ISBN10: 1107043689
ISBN13: 9781107043688
Publisher: Cambridge
Published: Jul 21 2014
Pages: 326
Weight: 1.30
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
In the decades leading to the Civil War, popular conceptions of African American men shifted dramatically. The savage slave featured in 1830s' novels and stories gave way by the 1850s to the less-threatening humble black martyr. This radical reshaping of black masculinity in American culture occurred at the same time that the reading and writing of popular narratives were emerging as largely feminine enterprises. In a society where women wielded little official power, white female authors exalted white femininity, using narrative forms such as autobiographies, novels, short stories, visual images, and plays, by stressing differences that made white women appear superior to male slaves. This book argues that white women, as creators and consumers of popular culture media, played a pivotal role in the demasculinization of black men during the antebellum period, and consequently had a vital impact on the political landscape of antebellum and Civil War-era America through their powerful influence on popular culture.

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19th Century United States History