From 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' to 'Mandingo'

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling American novel of the 19th century after the Bible. It was no fault of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel that the Reconstruction era parodied it in tacky burlesques or that Black American critics like James Baldwin raged at its paternalism. Uncle Tom was not a cliché in 1852. It played a critical role in the build-up to the Civil War.

Nowadays it is possible to discover a steamy sexual sub-text running throughout the novel, which recalls that northern critiques about southern slavery at the time often focused on the white masters exploiting their female slaves for sex. A cynic would say that people always read into things what they want for themselves, which is why, eventually, we had Mandingo - the novel in 1957 and a big budget Hollywood film in 1975.

Like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mandingo the film has always been vilified - contemporary reviewers hated it - but times change and nowadays many critics have fiercely defended it. I lean toward the defenders myself. Just look at this fabulous poster!