{"id":93067,"date":"2015-12-23T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=93067"},"modified":"2015-12-21T11:57:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T16:57:09","slug":"addy-walker-american-girl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/23\/addy-walker-american-girl-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Addy Walker, American Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Addymeet2\"<\/a>

From the cover of Meet Addy<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n

The role of black dolls in American culture.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1864, a nine-year-old slave girl was punished for daydreaming. Distracted by rumors that her brother and father would be sold, she failed to remove worms from the tobacco leaves she was picking. The overseer didn\u2019t whip her. Instead, he pried her mouth open, stuffed a worm inside, and forced her to eat it.<\/p>\n

This girl is not real. Her name is Addy Walker; she is an American Girl doll, one of eight historical dolls produced by the Pleasant Company who arrive with dresses, accessories, and a series of books about their lives. Of all the harrowing scenes I\u2019ve encountered in slave narratives, I remember this scene from Meet Addy<\/em><\/a>, her origin story, most vividly. How the worm\u2014green, fat, and juicy\u2014burst inside Addy\u2019s mouth. At eight years old, I understood that slavery was cruel\u2014I knew about hard labor and whippings\u2014but the idea of a little girl being forced to eat a worm stunned me. I did not yet understand that violence is an art. There\u2019s creativity to cruelty. What did I know of its boundaries and edges? Read More >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year! The role of black dolls in American culture. In 1864, a nine-year-old slave girl was punished for daydreaming. Distracted by rumors that her brother and father would be sold, she failed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20653],"tags":[18268,18267,2878,4340,18272,18273,10828,881,18269,18271,17303,6661,18274,18270,3829],"class_list":["post-93067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2015","tag-addy","tag-addy-walker","tag-american-girl","tag-beloved","tag-booker-t-washington","tag-brown-v-board-of-education","tag-dolls","tag-james-baldwin","tag-mattel","tag-pickaninnies","tag-race","tag-racism","tag-slavery","tag-the-pleasant-company","tag-toni-morrison"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAddy Walker, American Girl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brit Bennett on the evolution of black dolls.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/23\/addy-walker-american-girl-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Addy Walker, American Girl by Brit Bennett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 23, 2015 \u2013 We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. 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