Although, Aunt Jemima may look different, with her silky lace collar and chic pearl earrings, the mammy image is still boldly ingrained in the minds of many, further perpetuating the southern romantic image of the old plantation days. Racism and discrimination towards Black in America may have changed since Aunt Jemima's original publication, yet, even in her subtleties, Aunt Jemima is still just a "slave in a box."" .
Black Face Minstrelsy and the Birth of Aunt Jemima.
Chris L. Rutt, a reporter for the St. Joseph Gazette, and Charles G. Underwood, a mill owner who purchased the Pearl Milling Company in 1888, developed the Aunt Jemima icon in 1889, which has left a permanent trademark on American culture for more than 100 years. After purchasing the Peal Milling Company, Rutt and Underwood found difficulties in choosing an original product that would attract a wide variety of consumers. What did everyone love to eat? What consisted of a lot of flour that was not too difficult to make? Pancakes! If Rutt and Underwood could create self-rising pancakes, this would be a novel and exclusive idea bound for success. Rutt and Underwood experimented with a combination of ingredients such as hard wheat flour, corn flour, phosphate of lime and salt such that when milk was added and the batter cooked, pancakes would rise (Foxworth, 64). Purd Wright, the local librarian was the first to taste the new "Self-Rising Pancake Flour- in Rutt's kitchen. The golden brown pancakes laid on the kitchen table laced with melted butter and thick syrup dripping from the pancake stacks ready to be tasted. Wright enthusiastically exclaimed, "I ate the fist perfected Aunt Jemima pancake, and it is good!- (Foxworth, 64). Right and Underwood quickly began to package the self-rising pancake flour, but were at a moot point in developing a name that would make the product easily recognizable. "Self-Rising Pancake Flour,"" was simply not a catchy slogan that would attract and lure American housewives to the shopping aisles.
