Sam Gamgee’s Brown Hands

There are a couple places in the book that describe Sam as having darker skin. I’ll just list them below, and then move on to commentary:

“Sam sat propped against the stone, his head dropping sideways and his breathing heavy. In his lap lay Frodo’s head, drowned deep in sleep; upon his white forehead lay one of Sam’s brown hands, and the other lay softly upon his master’s breast.” -TT: The Stairs of Cirith Ungol

“Sam drew out the elven-glass of Galadriel again. As if to do honor to his hardihood, and to grace with splendor his faithful brown hobbit-hand that had done such deeds, the phial blazed forth suddenly, so that all the shadowy court was lit with a dazzling radiance like lightning.” -RotK: The Tower of Cirith Ungol

When I originally described Sam as non-white in my Racism in Middle Earth series, I actually got quite a few messages from people arguing that I’d interpreted these passages incorrectly. That Sam’s hands were brown because they were dirty, or because he’d simply been tanned by time spent gardening in the sun. And while both of these are possible explanations, there’s enough evidence of racial diversity among hobbits that I think it’s just as likely that Sam simply isn’t white. (When describing the three main groups of hobbits, Tolkien says “The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless… The Stoors were broader, heavier in build; their feet and hands were larger… The Fallohides were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer than the others.”) Also, for the record, Sam described one of the soldiers from Harad as having a “brown hand”, and the Haradrim are universally accepted as non-white by readers, so I’m really not sure where the confusion is here…

Finally, I definitely don’t think Sam was a slave. Sam’s family traditionally worked for the Baginses, and because the Baginses were one of the old “genteel” families of the Shire, you definitely get some classism with Frodo and Sam’s relationship, but nothing approaching slavery. Sam’s introduction in the book reflects this:

Old Ham Gamgee, commonly known as the Gaffer… spoke with some authority, for he had tended the garden at Bag
End for forty years, and had helped old Holman in the same job before that. Now that he was himself growing old and stiff in the joints, the job was mainly carried on by his youngest son, Sam Gamgee. Both father and son were on very friendly terms with Bilbo and Frodo.

SOURCES: LotR