The N-word at the time of Huck Finn
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Mar 16 13:22:53 UTC 2009
At 8:29 AM -0400 3/16/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>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
Yeah, I was thinking those aforementioned "Pollack" slurs were a
reflection of the widespread prejudice against abstract
expressionists.
LH
>
>
>
>On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 12:10 PM, <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>> Sender: ? ? ? American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: ? ? ? RonButters at AOL.COM
>> Subject: ? ? ? 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=
>> ? 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=
>> ? 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=
>> ? 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
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>=20
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> **************
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>>
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>>
>
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