Black-Face Minstrelsy

I didn't know about Balck-Face Minstrelsy until I read this essay. I see, from what I read, that the shows involved some sense of mockery of the blacks. When you mimic someone, you are usually poking fun at him or her. This essay shows how Jim's character was taken from a white boy who plays a black in Minstrelsy. "Does MT's representation of Jim reinforce or complicate or subvert such prejudices?"

I think Mark Twain tries to "subvert such prejudices" in his depiction of Jim in Huckleberry Finn. If we were to be familiar with who Cort was, it may be true that ,as the author states, "when I(we) look at Kemble's representations of Jim, I(we) don't see a human being, but this same caricature." Using a stereotyped image of a black slave, Mark Twain may be reinforcing the prejudices against blacks. However in Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn often describes Jim to be different from other blacks. He sees him as a rather smart black.

Jim is not a typical submissive and foolish black, which is how they stereotyped the blacks. Though, As the "Ethiopian dialogues" reveal, he may seem stupid at times. He knows what he's doing, he has future plans and he can improvise quickly when danger aproaches. I think Mark Twain was more pro-black than racist and thus think he used the imagery of Jim against the prejudices.