Posted by Dave W on January 21, 1999 at 20:38:25:
In Reply to: Re: AR's bad language (NB: some offensive language) posted by Tim Johns on January 20, 1999 at 15:33:05:
What is not clear to me from the specific examples quoted from AR's writings are what his racial attitudes actually were.
Looking in my English dictionary, I read that today "nigger" is a derogatory term, but seems to have its root in the latin for black (presumably the same origin for the name : Nigeria).
For piccaninny, the dictionary gives no mention of it being a derogatory term, and gives explanation: "a little child, a Negro child"; with origin pequenino (Portuguese, diminutive of pequono, little) or possibly pequeno nino (Spanish, little child).
Although one can say today that the words AR uses are offensive etc, were they commonly used in that same sense when he wrote them?