Feb 16,2009 00:00 In light of the recent fuss over the
merchandising of two dolls that just happened to be named
Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha — much to the displeasure of the
first lady — and February being Black History month, it seems
like a good moment to look back at the extensive and rich
history of African-American dolls. The earliest American black
dolls — and certainly those played with by slave children — were
handmade and quite crude, constructed from any available
material —bodies from cloth, wood, cornhusks, chicken bones and
even bottles filled with sand, and heads made from a sock or a
nut. Rag dolls fashioned from scraps of cloth were the most
prevalent, and were dressed in calico, muslin, or feedbag cloth.
Many were made to resemble mammies, often holding white babies.
In the pre-Civil War period, manufactured dolls' heads were made
from papier mache, and then attached to bodies handmade of wood,
leather or cloth, with carved wooden arms and legs. These dolls
were painted black and had exag