The watermelon stereotype is an anti-Black racist trope originating in the Southern United States. It first arose as a backlash against African American emancipation and economic self-sufficiency in the late 1860s. After the American Civil War, in several areas of the south, former slaves grew watermelon on their own land as a cash crop to sell.
Watermelon has been a popular summer treat for over 3500 years. According to New Scientist, an ancient DNA analysis of a leaf found in an Egyptian tomb nearly two centuries ago confirmed it belonged to a genuine watermelon plant. By comparing the DNA of this leaf with six of watermelon's closest relatives, researchers found that a white, sweet melon currently growing in Sudan is the most similar wild relative of watermelon. Modern-day watermelons originate from the Sudanese Kordofan melon (C. lanatus), which is the closest known relative of domesticated watermelons which were a well known staple in ancient Kemet and even have heiroglyphs depicting the fruit in some tombes of Kemetan royalty. The findings rewrite the history of this sweet summer treat, which it appears came to modern tables by way of Africa.
Even though the original melon had white flesh and a bitter taste, genetic analysis showed that specific genes, such as those linked to the early yellow and later red color and sweetness of watermelon flesh, bore a strong resemblance to those found in present-day watermelon varieties. This indicates that watermelon had already been cultivated and become tasty as early as 3500 years ago!
The stereotype of African Americans having a particular fondness for watermelon originated from a specific historical context and was used for a particular political agenda. This stereotype gained prominence after slaves were granted their freedom during the Civil War. Freed black individuals cultivated, consumed, and traded watermelons, turning the fruit into a representation of their liberty. In response to the threat posed by the newfound freedom of black people, Southern whites transformed the fruit into a symbol of perceived negative traits such as dirtiness, laziness, immaturity, and unwelcome presence in public spaces. This racist stereotype then spread widely in American popular culture, to the extent that its original historical significance was obscured.
Watermelon was one of the first anti-black propaganda campaigns to successfully convince white people that blacks were not capable of being free! Slaves were usually careful to enjoy watermelon according to the code of behavior established by whites. When an Alabama overseer cut open watermelons for the slaves under his watch, he expected the children to run to get their slice. One boy, Henry Barnes, refused to run, and once he did get his piece he would run off to the slave quarters to eat out of the white people’s sight. His mother would then whip him, he remembered, “fo’ being so stubborn.” The whites wanted Barnes to play the part of the watermelon-craving, juice-dribbling pickaninny. His refusal undermined the tenuous relationship between master and slave.
The watermelon stereotype conveyed the notion that black individuals were unprepared for freedom. In the 1880 election period, Democrats alleged that the predominantly black South Carolina state legislature, which had governed during Reconstruction, had squandered public funds on watermelons for their personal consumption. This false narrative was even incorporated into history textbooks. In D. W. Griffith's racist film The Birth of a Nation, which premiered in 1915, a scene depicting emancipation featured a watermelon banquet, portraying deceitful northern whites urging the newly freed slaves to abandon work and indulge in watermelon instead.
The song titled "Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!" is considered one of the most racist in America. It was released in March 1916 by Columbia Records and was written by actor Harry C. Browne. The song perpetuates the offensive stereotype of black individuals as mindless creatures eagerly consuming watermelon. Browne adapted the well-known melody of the 19th-century song "Turkey in the Straw," which has roots in the traditional British song "The (Old) Rose Tree." This tune was introduced to America by Scots-Irish immigrants settling along the Appalachian Trail, who added lyrics reflecting their new environment. Interestingly, it was the black population in the Appalachians who shared survival knowledge with these newcomers, including information on food, remedies, and cultural practices like bottle trees rooted in Yoruban religion and slave traditions. Notably, the initial coal miners in the region were enslaved black individuals, a historical fact often overlooked in American education. Even the music of the mountains and bluegrass genre was influenced by the musical traditions of plantation slaves.
According to nutritionist Maria Carzon, watermelon contains approximately 20 calories per 100 grams and is rich in water, fiber, potassium, phosphorus, as well as vitamins A and C. Watermelon helps with hydration, benefits the central nervous system and the endocrine system, and contributes to protecting the pineal gland and the levels of neuroprotective fluids surrounding the brain and spinal cord, which may be adversely affected by processed foods.
the origins of the racist watermelon trope and its relationship to white Americans' attitudes toward emancipation. The trope had antecedents in Orientalist depictions of the growing, selling, and eating of watermelons, but the fruit was not associated with African Americans until after emancipation. Freed people used watermelons to enact and celebrate their freedom, they became profitable and allowed farmers to become land owners and find prosperity, they rejoiced and embraced the economic benefits of the crop especially their newfound property rights. This provoked a backlash among white Americans, who then made the fruit a symbol of African Americans' supposed uncleanliness, childishness, idleness, and unfitness for the public square. The trope spread in U.S. print culture throughout the late 1860s and supported the post-emancipation argument that African Americans were unsuited for citizenship.
The most luscious watermelon the Deep South has ever produced was once so coveted, 19th-century growers used poison or electrocuting wires to thwart potential thieves, or simply stood guard with guns in the thick of night. The legendary Bradford was delectable — but the melon didn't ship well, and it all but disappeared by the 1920s. The story of the Bradford begins on a prison ship during the American Revolutionary War. It was 1783, and the British had captured an American soldier named John Franklin Lawson and shipped him off to the West Indies to be imprisoned. Aboard the prison ship, the Scottish captain gave Lawson a wedge of watermelon that was so succulent, he saved every seed. When he got home to Georgia, Lawson planted the seeds and grew a popular watermelon. Around 1840, Nathaniel Napoleon Bradford of Sumter County, S.C., crossed the Lawson with the Mountain Sweet. By the 1860s, the Bradford watermelon was the most important late-season melon in the South.
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