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Wow. This is a thing that was said.
Link to tweet
Actual history of Aunt Jemima per Wikipedia:
Aunt Jemima is based on the common enslaved "Mammy" archetype, a plump black woman wearing a headscarf who is a devoted and submissive servant.[8][9] Her skin is dark and dewy, with a pearly white smile. Although depictions vary over time, they are similar to the common attire and physical features of "mammy" characters throughout history.[10][11][12][13][14]
The term "Aunt" in this context was a southern form of address used with older enslaved peoples. They were denied use of courtesy titles.[15] A character named "Aunt Jemima" appeared on the stage in Washington, D.C., as early as 1864.[16]
Rutt's inspiration for Aunt Jemima was Billy Kersands' American-style minstrelsy/vaudeville song "Old Aunt Jemima", written in 1875. Rutt reportedly saw a minstrel show featuring the "Old Aunt Jemima" song in the fall of 1889, presented by blackface performers identified by Arthur F. Marquette as "Baker & Farrell".[4] Marquette recounts that the actor playing Aunt Jemima wore an apron and kerchief.[4][15]
However, Doris Witt at University of Iowa was unable to confirm Marquette's account.[17] Witt suggests that Rutt might have witnessed a performance by the vaudeville performer Pete F. Baker, who played characters described in newspapers of that era as "Ludwig" and "Aunt Jemima". His portrayal of the Aunt Jemima character may have been a white male in blackface, pretending to be a German immigrant, imitating a black minstrel parodying an imaginary black female slave cook.[17]
Beginning in 1894, the company added an Aunt Jemima paper doll family that could be cut out from the pancake box.[18] Aunt Jemima is joined by her husband, Uncle Rastus (later renamed Uncle Mose to avoid confusion with the Cream of Wheat character, while Uncle Mose was first introduced as the plantation butler). Their children, described as "comical pickannies": Abraham Lincoln, Dilsie, Zeb, and Dinah. The paper doll family was posed dancing barefoot, dressed in tattered clothing, and the box was labeled "Before the Receipt was sold." (Receipt is an archaic rural form of recipe.)[18] Buying another box with elegant clothing cut-outs to fit over the dolls, the customer could transform them "After the Receipt was sold." This placed them in the Horatio Alger rags-to-riches American cultural mythos.[18]
Rag doll versions were offered as a premium in 1909: “Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour/Pica ninny Doll/ The Davis Milling Company.” Early versions were portrayed as poor people with patches on the trousers, large mouths, and missing teeth. The children's names were changed to Diana and Wade. Over time, there were improvements in appearance. Oil-cloth versions were available circa the 1950s, with cartoonish features, round eyes, and watermelon mouths.[19]
Marketing materials for the line of products centered around the "Mammy" archetype, including the slogan first used at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois: "I's in Town, Honey".[9][17]
At that World's Fair, and for decades afterward, they made up legends about the mythical Aunt Jemima.[15][20] That she had been a slave on a fictional Col. Higbee's Louisiana plantation,[18][20][21] using a secret recipe "from the South before the Civil War", with their "matchless plantation flavor", she made the best pancakes in Dixie.[15][18] That she had revived a group of shipwrecked survivors with her flapjacks.[20] A typical magazine ad from the turn of the century shows a heavyset black cook talking happily while a white man takes notes; the ad copy says, "After the Civil War, after her master's death, Aunt Jemima was finally persuaded to sell her famous pancake recipe to the representative of a northern milling company."[20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima
The term "Aunt" in this context was a southern form of address used with older enslaved peoples. They were denied use of courtesy titles.[15] A character named "Aunt Jemima" appeared on the stage in Washington, D.C., as early as 1864.[16]
Rutt's inspiration for Aunt Jemima was Billy Kersands' American-style minstrelsy/vaudeville song "Old Aunt Jemima", written in 1875. Rutt reportedly saw a minstrel show featuring the "Old Aunt Jemima" song in the fall of 1889, presented by blackface performers identified by Arthur F. Marquette as "Baker & Farrell".[4] Marquette recounts that the actor playing Aunt Jemima wore an apron and kerchief.[4][15]
However, Doris Witt at University of Iowa was unable to confirm Marquette's account.[17] Witt suggests that Rutt might have witnessed a performance by the vaudeville performer Pete F. Baker, who played characters described in newspapers of that era as "Ludwig" and "Aunt Jemima". His portrayal of the Aunt Jemima character may have been a white male in blackface, pretending to be a German immigrant, imitating a black minstrel parodying an imaginary black female slave cook.[17]
Beginning in 1894, the company added an Aunt Jemima paper doll family that could be cut out from the pancake box.[18] Aunt Jemima is joined by her husband, Uncle Rastus (later renamed Uncle Mose to avoid confusion with the Cream of Wheat character, while Uncle Mose was first introduced as the plantation butler). Their children, described as "comical pickannies": Abraham Lincoln, Dilsie, Zeb, and Dinah. The paper doll family was posed dancing barefoot, dressed in tattered clothing, and the box was labeled "Before the Receipt was sold." (Receipt is an archaic rural form of recipe.)[18] Buying another box with elegant clothing cut-outs to fit over the dolls, the customer could transform them "After the Receipt was sold." This placed them in the Horatio Alger rags-to-riches American cultural mythos.[18]
Rag doll versions were offered as a premium in 1909: “Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour/Pica ninny Doll/ The Davis Milling Company.” Early versions were portrayed as poor people with patches on the trousers, large mouths, and missing teeth. The children's names were changed to Diana and Wade. Over time, there were improvements in appearance. Oil-cloth versions were available circa the 1950s, with cartoonish features, round eyes, and watermelon mouths.[19]
Marketing materials for the line of products centered around the "Mammy" archetype, including the slogan first used at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois: "I's in Town, Honey".[9][17]
At that World's Fair, and for decades afterward, they made up legends about the mythical Aunt Jemima.[15][20] That she had been a slave on a fictional Col. Higbee's Louisiana plantation,[18][20][21] using a secret recipe "from the South before the Civil War", with their "matchless plantation flavor", she made the best pancakes in Dixie.[15][18] That she had revived a group of shipwrecked survivors with her flapjacks.[20] A typical magazine ad from the turn of the century shows a heavyset black cook talking happily while a white man takes notes; the ad copy says, "After the Civil War, after her master's death, Aunt Jemima was finally persuaded to sell her famous pancake recipe to the representative of a northern milling company."[20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima
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