Question

1) How did white Southerners perceive slaves in racist stereotype "Sambo?"

Answer 1

Sambo, the typical plantation slave, was docile but irresponsible, loyal but lazy, humble but chronically given to lying and stealing; his behavior was full of infantile silliness and his talk inflated with childish exaggeration. His relationship with his master was one of utter dependence and childlike attachment; it was indeed this childlike quality that was the very key to his being. Although the merest hint of Sambo's “manhood” might fill the Southern breast with scorn, the child “in his place,” could be both exasperating and loveable8 (p. 82).