Uncle Tom's Cabin
Neal Trujillo, Oscar Ibanez
Thesis
In the 19th century the incorporation of African Americans affected the home life of many white Americans. With the addition of African Americans to society they began to alter the societal views of the youth of white families despite the adult views of slaves and blacks.
Book
Shows a young white girl playing with a black man without any care for his color.
Book
The young black children are innocently playing on the lawn of a white family, however, the adult white male is angered by their presence on his land.
Jigsaw Puzzle
The jigsaw puzzle depicts the two reactions from society of adults and children towards the blacks.
Advertisement
A young white girl is on top of a black man's shoulders advertising together without issue for a popular commodity.
Film
A white female and a black man are walking together in public without regard to societal views
Song
The song "Little Eva" by Caroline Moseley depicts the black man as a guardian rather than an inferior savage.
Neal's thoughts
a) The images covey an idea that whites treated African Americans differently depending on their own age and gender. The youth of white families tend to interact a lot more socially with the slaves and even create connections and friendships with them while the adults act as authorities and cause fear in the blacks.
b) It was most surprising that the young white females felt very comfortable with the black man (Uncle Tom) even though their parents taught them that slaves were irrelevant to the lifestyle they lived.
Oscar Thoughts
More subtle ideas conveyed by the images are the thoughts that the children of the time, despite their parents feeling of superiority to the slaves and black as a people and would try to avoid interaction except for discipline, the children felt none of this as the played and iinteracted with blacks without reserve. Its very surprising that despite the socialization of the children teaching then that slaves were inferior as well as free blacks, they still play with and have fun with them as if they were equal.