New image for Little Black Sambo

But now, the 19th-century text by Helen Bannerman is to be re-released by a New York publisher, while critics call for the book to be reclaimed as a positive image of black people.

The re-release of the book, with fresh illustrations, by Handprint Books has angered some black critics, while drawing praise from the prestigious Kirkus Reviews.

Bannerman, from Edinburgh, wrote The Story of Little Black Sambo in 1899, to entertain her children as they travelled through India at the time of the Empire.

The story became popular in the United States but, after successive reprints in the Forties and Fifties, the title character was transformed into a stereotype through racist illustrations, while the word "sambo" was widely used a racist slur.

Christopher Franceschelli, the publisher, said the new illustrations avoid the racial caricatures that pervaded earlier releases and have the potential to wipe away any racial stereotypes.

He said: "I came to the books with some of the same instinctively liberal misgivings, but seeing these magnificent illustrations made me re-read the text. These renderings transcend the stereotype and turn it on its head."

The book offered an opportunity for readers to enjoy a story about a heroic black child, rather than focus on racial imagery, he added.

"If we don’t look back at what has happened, if we can’t confront this creatively, we are doomed to repeat this.

"Black was almost the only adjective possible in identifying a child of colour and had all the bias that a colonial, imperialist, educated British or Scotswoman would have brought to it, but without the obvious edge of, ‘By saying "black" I have belittled or foreshortened’."

But critics say these old associations are so hurtful they bury any redeeming value the book may have.

David Pilgrim, the director of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, at Ferris State University in Michigan, said: "I don’t know what the value would be. It’s going to open new wounds. In terms of promoting race relations, it won’t help."

Bannerman was born Brodie Cowan Watson in Edinburgh, in 1863, the daughter of a minister and army chaplain.

She was educated by her father until the age of ten, and was then sent to school in Scotland, studying French and German, and later graduated from St Andrew's University. After marrying a surgeon serving in the British Army of India, she spent 30 years in the country.

The Story of Little Black Sambo tells of a boy who outwits a group of tigers bent on devouring him by giving them his red coat, blue trousers and purple shoes, then getting them to quarrel among themselves over who looks the grandest.

Despite decades of protest that it contains racist caricatures and a derogatory name, sales of the book Amazon rank well above many children’s classics.

Although historians generally agree Bannerman probably chose the name in ignorance, the word "sambo" has a long history as a racial slur. The book itself, when reprinted in many pirated editions, often became an overtly racist tract.

Sambo was variously depicted as a jungle denizen, a simpleton or as a slave boy in the American South. Images of the character were screened on to ashtrays, put into cartoons, and made the centre of target games.

Bannerman depicted Sambo as a fuzzy-headed boy with big red lips and bulging eyes - images consistent with 19th-century portrayals of black people. The names she used for her characters - Sambo’s parents are called Mumbo and Jumbo - also drew reproach.

Julius Lester, a US author, said: "Very unconsciously, with no malice aforethought, [Bannerman] was reflecting her times.

"The fact that she was hurting black people never entered her mind - which doesn’t let her off the hook. This is a wonderful story, but one that has caused a lot of pain."

In 1996, HarperCollins issued a version of the book in the UK called The Story of Little Babaji which renamed the mother and father Mamaji and Papaji.

In a letter to The Times newspaper in 1972, Bannerman’s son, Robert, said: "My mother would not have published the book had she dreamt for a moment that even one small boy would have been made unhappy thereby."