A critical survey examines how Black Americans have been depicted in U.S. fiction, tracing recurring stereotypes—from the contented slave to the brute, the quaint figure, and the mulatto hero—and linking those portrayals to the social and political forces that produced them. Organized by period and theme, it reviews pro‑slavery and antislavery narratives, Reconstruction writing, regional and southern realism, folk‑influenced literature, urban scenes, and historical fiction, assessing how authors reflected and reinforced public attitudes. The study critiques reductive generalizations, highlights realist and folk resources, and urges fuller recognition of complex human experience in fictional representation.