It's pretty stupid and pathetic to insult someone for not knowing every random antiquated racist term ever used. The only reason anybody in AZ remembers is that it was a feature word in one of Ev Mecham's many faux pas. Get off the high horse, your family history is nobody else's fault.
Actually, upon reflection, it was my family member that made me familiar with the "n"-word.
I did pick up "pickaninny" from "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The book was on my great-grandparents' shelf for decades.
It has been so misconstrued throughout the years. Even Abraham Lincoln knew its import. When he was introduced to Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said, "So you're the little lady who started this great big war."
Words from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" have had a HUGE role in our country's history. I'm sorry many don't know it.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
''Uncle Tom's Cabin''
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Boston edition
Author Harriet Beecher Stowe
Illustrator Hammatt Billings (1st edition)
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher National Era (as a serial) & John P. Jewett and Company (in two volumes)
Released 20 March 1851
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN NA
Uncle Tom's Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly is a novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe which treats slavery as a central theme. The novel had a profound effect on the world's view of African-Americans and slavery, so much so in the latter case that people have said the book laid the groundwork for the American Civil War.[1]
Stowe was a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Academy and an active abolitionist. She first published this book on March 20, 1852. The story focuses on the tale of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whose life the other characters—both fellow slaves and slave owners—revolve. The novel depicts the harsh reality of slavery while also showing that Christian love and faith can overcome even something as evil as enslavement of fellow human beings.
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible)[2] and is credited with helping to fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone. The book's impact was so great that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the American Civil War, Lincoln is often quoted as having declared, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."[3]
The book also created and spread several common stereotypes about blacks, many of which endure to this day. These include the affectionate, dark-skinned mammy; the Pickaninny stereotype of black children; and the Uncle Tom, or dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his white master or mistress. In recent years, the negative associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have to a large degree overshadowed the historical impact of the book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom's_Cabin