The N-word at the time of Huck Finn

[Wilson Gray]

ANS needs to get together and formalize a new spelling of "pollack." I
suggest "polok." I've known several families that spelled their
surname "Pollack" [pal at k].

BTW, very interesing tread.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 12:10 PM,  <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  RonButters at AOL.COM
> Subject: Â  Â  Â The N-word at the time of Huck Finn
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Geoff's examples are not equally convincing--especially the first one, which=
> =20
> I don't understand (is the punctuation the same as in the original?). His=20
> three examples demonstrate only that there were SOME people--"white, black,=20
> enlightened, not enlightened" for whom the word "nigger" was a "low" word. B=
> ut we=20
> already knew that, and the lowness of the word is what made it so appropriat=
> e=20
> for Huck to use.=20
>
> The second example suggests that, as recalled in 1906, the word "nigger" was=
> =20
> considered "low" by a New York slave owner in 1811.=20
>
> The third, which comes from a landmark anti-slavery novel, pretty clearly=20
> indicates that Legree's use of the "low" word was intended to be seen as ind=
> eed=20
> instrumental in causing George's rash act. However, the passage does not=20
> indicate that the word had anything like the "obnoxious" social and psycholo=
> gical=20
> valence that it has today, nor does it necessarily indicate that the context=
> Â of=20
> its use--in an angry confrontation, in which the death of a human being was=20
> explicitly downplayed because of his race--would not have been seen as the m=
> ost=20
> important aspect of the spark that set off George. Legree could scarcely hav=
> e=20
> said "the colored gentleman," and in this context "Negro" or "darkie" or=20
> "pickaninny" would have scarcely been less insulting, and "colored man" or "=
> black=20
> man" would have been an implicit acknowledgment of the dead person's humanit=
> y.=20
> Moreover, the author's racial attitudes wer scarcely representative of white=
> =20
> people of her day.=20
>
> In general, we have to be extremely cautious in reading 21st century=20
> connotations of derogatoriness into 19th century utterances; it is difficult=
> Â not to=20
> project our own sense of words into the earlier context. Statements to the=20
> effect that "Ibsen was a member of that stupid race of people known as Norwe=
> gians"=20
> does not mean that "Norwegian" is a pejorative term; "Conrad was a member of=
> =20
> that stupid race of people known as Pollacks" does not in itself mean that=20
> "Pollack" is an insulting term, though we do know today that "Pollack" is a=20
> pejorative term.
>
>
> In a message dated 3/15/09 12:28:40 AM, nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU writes:
>
>
>> I think Ron=E2=80=99s right that Twain=E2=80=99s contemporary readers woul=
> d have given
>> Huck a pass for using the n-word, but it isn=E2=80=99t quite true that
>> 'nigger' was one of the "commonplace terms used by all people, white,
>> black, enlightened, not enlightened." There=E2=80=99s evidence that many o=
> f
>> the =E2=80=9Cgenteel=E2=80=9D Northern whites who constituted a large part=
> Â of Twain=E2=80=99s
>> audience considered n-word as =E2=80=9Clow=E2=80=9D or insulting by the ti=
> me of the
>> book=E2=80=99s publication in 1884, so that in their ears, Huck=E2=80=99s=20=
> use of the
>> word would have underscored the irony of his remorseful repudiation of
>> racism.
>>=20
>> The biographer of the abolitionist Wendell Phillips writes: "A certain
>> Univrersalist clergyman (whose name it would be cruel to give)
>> announced from his pulpit a meeting at which [the suffragist] Lucy
>> Stone was to speak in these words "To-night, at the Town Hall, a hen
>> will attempt to crow.'' This was wit in 1850, as the word " nigger'
>> was humanity!" (Wendell Phillips: the Agitator. By Carlos Martyn, c.
>> 1890, p. 237)
>> From a recollection (in Making of America) of her maternal
>> grandfather published in 1906, by a woman whose mother was born in
>> 1811: =E2=80=9CMy grandfather, whose stern, Puritan face looks down at me=20=
> from
>> an old oil portrait in my home, was a Presbyterian of the strictest
>> sort, more feared than loved by his children. This was before the
>> abolition of slavery in New York state, and my grandfather owned
>> several slaves. In this connection I have heard my aunts tell a most
>> laughable story. My grandfather was much more considerate of the
>> feelings of his slaves than of those of his children, and the members
>> of the family were strictly forbidden to use the word "nigger" when
>> speaking to or of a slave. The expression "colored gentleman" was
>> sometimes substituted for the obnoxious term. My Aunt Katherine, then
>> a little maid in her high chair at the table, concluded she wanted
>> some vinegar. But she didn't want to say "vin-nigger," lest she injure
>> the feelings of the waiter. So, turning to the ebony hued attendant
>> behind her she said very politely: "Please hand me the vin-colored-
>> gentleman.=E2=80=9D
>>=20
>> Finally, recall the passage from Uncle Tom=E2=80=99s Cabin where George Sh=
> elby
>> arrives too late to save Uncle Tom from his fatal beating by Simon
>> Legree=E2=80=99s overseers:
>>=20
>> =E2=80=9CBut, sir, this innocent blood shall have justice. I will proclaim
>> this murder. I will go to the very first magistrate, and expose you."
>> "Do!" said Legree, snapping his fingers, scornfully. " I'd like to see
>> you doing it. Where you going to get witnesses? how you going to prove
>> it? - Come, now!" George saw, at once, the force of this defiance.
>> There was not a white person on the place; and, in all southern
>> courts, the testimony of colored blood is nothing. He felt, at that
>> moment, as if he could have rent the heavens with his heart's
>> indignant cry for justice; but in vain. "After all, what a fuss, for a
>> dead nigger!" said Legree. The word was as a spark to a powder
>> magazine. Prudence was never a cardinal virtue of the Kentucky boy.
>> George turned, and, with one indignant blow, knocked Legree flat upon
>> his face; and, as he stood over him, blazing with wrath and defiance,
>> he would have formed no bad personification of his great namesake
>> triumphing over the dragon.
>>=20
>> George had already had ample provocation for striking Legree, but it=E2=
> =80=99s
>> notable that Stowe describes =E2=80=9Cnigger=E2=80=9D as the spark that se=
> ts him off.
>> In fact George (who speaks of the =E2=80=9Ccurse of slavery=E2=80=9D) neve=
> r uses the
>> word, whereas Legree (originally a Northerner) uses it all the time.
>> Whether or not a sympathetic ante-bellum Kentuckian like George would
>> actually have refrained from using the word, it=E2=80=99s a fair picture o=
> f
>> how it was regarded by abolitionist New Englanders like Stowe.
>>=20
>> Geoff Nunberg
>>=20
>>=20
>> > From: Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Date: March 13, 2009 8:41:13 AM PDT
>> > Subject: Re:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0 Re: [ADS-L] The N-word at the tim=
> e of Huck Finn
>> >
>> >
>> > Ron,
>> >
>> > Thanx for this response. I recognize the difficulties inherent in
>> > responding to a 19th century story with 20th or 21st century
>> > sensibilities and it is helpful to have it articulated--and some of my
>> > students did too!
>> >
>> > Barbara
>> >
>> > Barbara Need
>> > Chicago
>> >
>> > On 12 Mar 2009, at 10:25 AM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>> >
>> >> It seems to me that the question raised here is impossible to answer
>> >> because=3D
>> >> =3D20
>> >> it is premised on a late-twentieth-century view of race that simply
>> >> did not=3D20
>> >> exist in 19th-century America. The prevailing LIBERAL attitude was
>> >> patronizi=3D
>> >> ng=3D20
>> >> at best, and there was hardly a white person alive before 1950 who
>> >> did not h=3D
>> >> old=3D20
>> >> views of African-Americans that would not be viewed as racist today.
>> >> By=3D20
>> >> contemporary standards, Lincoln was a racist.
>> >>
>> >> There were no terms for black people that were not intrinsically
>> >> patronizing=3D
>> >> =3D20
>> >> at best. This is the attitude of Twain in HUCK FINN, though it is
>> >> a=3D20
>> >> benevolent, thoughtful attitude which does recognize Jim's intrinsic
>> >> worth a=3D
>> >> s a human=3D20
>> >> being--a kind of romantic rustic who is able to think outside the
>> >> box of=3D20
>> >> prevailing wisdom precisely because he is an outsider. When Twain
>> >> calls him=3D20=3D
>> >> "Nigger=3D20
>> >> Jim" he is simply using one of the commonplace terms used by all
>> >> people, whi=3D
>> >> te,=3D20
>> >> black, enlightened, not enlightened. His respect for the Jims of
>> >> this world=3D20
>> >> is clear. Given the prevailing attitudes towards black people at the
>> >> time--e=3D
>> >> ven=3D20
>> >> scientists--"nigger," "darky," etc. were just the terms that people
>> >> used.=3D20
>> >> There WERE no "racist" epithets, because the modern idea of racism
>> >> had not e=3D
>> >> ven=3D20
>> >> been invented yet, nor could be until people began to see that the
>> >> prevailin=3D
>> >> g=3D20
>> >> attitudes of the day towards race were wicked and evil--and until
>
>> >> others=3D20
>> >> resisted such new, enlightened attitudesl, which is what gives
>> >> racial slurs=3D20=3D
>> >> their=3D20
>> >> real meaning.
>> >
>> > Original question follows:
>> >
>> >>>>> At 3/11/2009 09:40 PM, Barbara Need wrote:
>> >>>>>> I am grading papers about racism in _Huck FInn_ and several
>> >>>>>> students
>> >>>>>> have said something implying that _nigger_ was offensive at
>> >>>>>> either
>> >>>>>> the
>> >>>>>> time the book is set or the time Twain was writing (or both). I
>> >>>>>> have
>> >>>>>> not found anything very useful in the archives. Do we know how
>> >>>>>> offensive the word was in the 19th century?
>>=20
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>=20
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