The Mammy figure originated to support to position of Black people in society. It portrayed Black women as fulfilled in their place as a servant, and showed the white families as merciful and kind. It erased, or attempted to rewrite, the atrocities of slavery.
Mammy has been found in books, plays, and film. One of the earliest examples is in the 1915 film Birth of a Nation. The character Mammy, who is played by a white woman in blackface, is a loyal servant to a white family. She is shown to defend the white master from Union soldiers who come to arrest him for being involved in the KKK. Another example is Gone with the Wind, released in 1939. This movie has been accused of historical negationism, as it distorts and falsifies the past. One of the main components of this is Mammy, portrayed by Hattie McDaniel. Mammy is the servant of the main character, Scarlett. Mammy dotes on Scarlett and is happy with her role. This portrays slavery in a positive light and is a wildly inaccurate portrayal of how slaves were treated.