Visual Representations of Black Samson

Abstract Since the mid-nineteenth century, visual images of Black Samson have developed in editorial cartoons, film, paintings, comic books, graphic novels, and television alongside traditions about him in American literature and music. Similar to his literary representations, some artists from different racial backgrounds have created Black Samson figures that address various social and political controversies in the United States. From his nineteenth-century appearance in Harper’s Weekly to his twenty-first-century appearance on the History Channel, visual representations of Black Samson in popular culture have continued to shape Black Samson into a racially polarizing American icon. In this chapter, we trace the use of Black Samson figures in the visual arts from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.