? on lamps

10 years ago

I am asking this question on behalf of a friend who is closing out her late father's house and having to trash/give away/sell all of the contents. She has 2 lamps she is not sure what to do with and I am hoping someone here might have some helpful info.
They are what she calls "slave lamps". Desk lamps with an Afriican American figure as main structure of the lamp. Obviously totally inappropriate in today's society (and rightfully so), and nothing she wants to keep. However she is wondering if most people would consider these offensive if she offered them for sale along with the rest of her father's stuff, or if there is even a market for them?
Thank you.

Abbey

Comments (8)

calliope
10 years ago
If they are portrayed in the same manner a person of any other race were portrayed you should remember that through our whole history there have been soldiers, artists, craftsmen and farmers, preachers, authors, and labourers who were African American just like anybody else. However, if they strike you as stereotypical or derogatory, I could understand your reluctance. I have some beautiful little busts I display on a shelf and some of them just happen to be black, right along with some who aren't. However, if they strike you as being inappropriate and rightfully so, I suspect you answered you own question.
abbey_cny
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you Calliope, I hadn't thought of it that way. I was just thinking in terms of the lamps representing slavery. I will pass that thought along to my friend, and let her make the decision.

Abbey
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Fori
10 years ago
I might be tempted to ask the folks at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia what they thought. You can also check their website to see if the lamps fall into a known offensive stereotype.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/
lazy_gardens
10 years ago
There are people - many of them darkly pigmented - who collect them.

I'd sell them on Etsy.
abbey_cny
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you Lazygardens for that info. I will suggest that to my friend. She feels rather awkward about selling them, as we both think many would find them offensive, but on the other hand if there are people who collect such items she would prefer to sell them rather than trash them.

Abbey
lazy_gardens
10 years ago
I have a will made by an ancestor, bestowing a couple of house slaves, Millie and Tillie to his son, right along with the pots and pans.

I have a bill of sale ... It's probably for my great-grandmother.

Good, bad, or ugly, it's history.
sunnyca_gw
10 years ago
Lazygardens, my great grandmother was white in Indiana & mother died of breast cancer, aunt took her & sold her to large family with provision she never learn to read or write(she already knew how) I've seen the contract. She escaped at 16 & became a poet & lived to 96 yrs old. So there were also some white slaves. I'm hoping to find that paper in with dad's stuff I just got.
calliope
10 years ago
Yes, there were white slaves too and some indentured servants found out the hard way that their indentures never ended.