Addy's Style: What Was It Like Creating The Iconic Doll from the Civil War Era?

Essence magazine, a lifestyle magazine targeted towards African American women, just released a new article about Addy Walker, the first African American Girl doll who has become iconic for her story and her style. The article included interviews from Connie Porter, the author of the Addy books, concerning the creation of Addy and how they worked the pattern of each doll having a new outfit to go with each book to Addy's unique circumstance being a newly-freed girl from enslavement.

Explaining why American Girl went with the Civil War era for their first African American doll, Porter explained, "If you were to paint a picture of (the Civil Rights era, Harlem Renaissance, etc.), you’d have to begin with segregation, the fight for basic rights, and the Great Migration. So, we knew we had to take it all the way back to the root of all these things. And that is why when we meet Addy, she’s enslaved.”

So much thought went into every detail of Addy's collection, including the dress she comes in, which is gifted to her by Miss Caroline, an abolitionist white woman. Porter explained, “The dress is symbolic of what had to happen in America in order for slavery to end. Black people stood up, of course, but white people had to stand up, too. Whether part of the abolitionist movement, or those conscripted into the army in the North, many people, Black and white, had to say, ‘This is the country we want, and this is the price that we have to pay to get it.’ Just like with the situation we’re in now as a country, where we will also have to make those decisions.”

If you want to read about the rest of Addy's outfits and how they were created, you can check out the rest of the Essence magazine article, written by Jaha Nailah Avery, at https://www.essence.com/fashion/addy-walkers-dress-is-a-political-statement/.