John Chinaman was a stock caricature of a Chinese laborer seen in cartoons of the 19th century. Also referenced by Mark Twain and popular American songs of the period, John Chinaman represented, in western society, a typical persona of China . He was typically depicted with a long queue and wearing an Asian conical hat .
140-510: John Chinaman minstrel songs from the 1850s presented Chinese men as effeminate and unmanly. Such songs frequently revolved around John Chinaman's failed pursuit of white women. American political cartoonist Thomas Nast , who often depicted John Chinaman, created a variant, John Confucius , to represent Chinese political figures. In Nast's cartoon "A Matter of Taste", published March 15, 1879 ( seen at right ), John Confucius expresses disapproval of Senator James G. Blaine for his support of
280-406: A balloon and wait for the world to rotate below. Highly musical and unable to sit still, they constantly contorted their bodies wildly while singing. Tambo and Bones's simple-mindedness and lack of sophistication were highlighted by pairing them with a straight man master of ceremonies called the interlocutor . This character, although usually in blackface, spoke in aristocratic English and used
420-534: A child, Douglass was exposed to a number of religious sermons, and in his youth, he sometimes heard Sophia Auld reading the Bible . In time, he became interested in literacy; he began reading and copying bible verses, and he eventually converted to Christianity . He described this approach in his last biography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass : I was not more than thirteen years old when, in my loneliness and destitution, I longed for some one to whom I could go, as to
560-711: A common target for male characters, although she usually proved capricious and elusive. After the Civil War, the wench emerged as the most important specialist role in the minstrel troupe; men could alternately be titillated and disgusted, while women could admire the illusion and high fashion. The role was most strongly associated with the song " Miss Lucy Long ", so the character many times bore that name. Actress Olive Logan commented that some actors were "marvelously well fitted by nature for it, having well-defined soprano voices, plump shoulders, beardless faces, and tiny hands and feet." Many of these actors were teen-aged boys. In contrast
700-688: A concert at the New York Bowery Amphitheatre , calling themselves the Virginia Minstrels . The minstrel show as a complete evening's entertainment was born. The show had little structure. The four sat in a semicircle, played songs, and traded wisecracks. One gave a stump speech in dialect, and they ended with a lively plantation song. The term minstrel had previously been reserved for traveling white singing groups, but Emmett and company made it synonymous with blackface performance, and by using it, signalled that they were reaching out to
840-603: A cruel and inhuman institution. However, in the 1850s, minstrelsy became more pro-slavery as political and satirical content was toned down or removed entirely. Most minstrels projected a greatly romanticized and exaggerated image of black life with cheerful, simple slaves always ready to sing and dance and to please their masters. (Less frequently, the masters cruelly split up black lovers or sexually assaulted black women.) The lyrics and dialogue were generally racist, satiric, and largely white in origin. Songs about slaves yearning to return to their masters were plentiful. Figures like
980-507: A den of hungry lions.' Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil. Once Douglass had arrived, he sent for Murray to follow him north to New York. She brought the basic supplies for them to set up a home. They were married on September 15, 1838, by a black Presbyterian minister, just eleven days after Douglass had reached New York. At first they adopted Johnson as their married name, to divert attention. As
1120-440: A difficult profession. When playing Southern towns, performers had to stay in character off stage, dressed in ragged "slave clothes" and perpetually smiling. Troupes left town quickly after each performance, and some had so much trouble securing lodging that they hired whole trains or had custom sleeping cars built, complete with hidden compartments to hide in should things turn ugly. Even these were no haven, as whites sometimes used
1260-707: A drunken black man in a 1769 staging of The Padlock . Later research by Cockrell and others disputes this claim. Eventually, similar performers appeared in entr'actes in New York City theaters and other venues such as taverns and circuses. As a result, the blackface " Sambo " character came to supplant the "tall-tale-telling Yankee " and "frontiersman" character-types in popularity, and white actors such as Charles Mathews , George Washington Dixon , and Edwin Forrest began to build reputations as blackface performers. Author Constance Rourke even claimed that Forrest's impression
1400-452: A father and protector. The preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson, was the means of causing me to feel that in God I had such a friend. He thought that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God: that they were but natural rebels against his government; and that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God through Christ. I cannot say that I had
1540-588: A free black seaman. Douglass crossed the wide Susquehanna River by the railroad's steam-ferry at Havre de Grace to Perryville on the opposite shore, in Cecil County , then continued by train across the state line to Wilmington, Delaware , a large port at the head of the Delaware Bay . From there, because the rail line was not yet completed, he went by steamboat along the Delaware River farther northeast to
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#17329059578311680-417: A graver ill than the treatment of black slaves—or by a less class-conscious rhetoric of "productive" versus "unproductive" elements of society. On the other hand, views on slavery were fairly evenly presented in minstrelsy, and some songs even suggested the creation of a coalition of working blacks and whites to end the institution. Among the appeals and racial stereotypes of early blackface performance were
1820-494: A great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography. Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as an enslaved person in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). Following
1960-518: A huge, horrible, repulsive form", and "an abomination in the sight of God". Of ministers like John Chase Lord, Leonard Elijah Lathrop, Ichabod Spencer , and Orville Dewey , he said that they taught, against the Scriptures, that "we ought to obey man's law before the law of God". He further asserted, "in speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of
2100-418: A means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker". He whipped Douglass so frequently that his wounds had little time to heal. Douglass later said the frequent whippings broke his body, soul, and spirit. The 16-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won
2240-414: A mere three troupes dominated the scene. A key cause was rising salary costs, which for the leading companies had risen from $ 400 a week in the 1860s to $ 2500 a week in 1912, far too high to be profitable in most cases, especially with the rise of motion pictures, which could easily outcompete the touring minstrel shows on ticket prices. Small companies and amateurs carried the traditional minstrel show into
2380-426: A much larger vocabulary. The humor of these exchanges came from the misunderstandings on the part of the endmen when talking to the interlocutor: Tambo and Bones were favorites of the audience, and their repartee with the interlocutor was for many the best part of the show. There was an element of laughing with them for the audience, as they frequently made light of the interlocutor's grandiose ways. The interlocutor
2520-488: A national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York and gained fame for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to claims by supporters of slavery that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such
2660-588: A new, middle-class audience. The Herald wrote that the production was "entirely exempt from the vulgarities and other objectionable features, which have hitherto characterized Negro extravaganzas." In 1845, the Ethiopian Serenaders purged their show of low humor and surpassed the Virginia Minstrels in popularity. Shortly thereafter, Edwin Pearce Christy founded Christy's Minstrels , combining
2800-572: A northbound train of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad in Baltimore. The area where he boarded was formerly thought to be a short distance east of the train depot, in a recently developed neighborhood between the modern neighborhoods of Harbor East and Little Italy . This depot was at President and Fleet Streets, east of "The Basin" of the Baltimore harbor , on the northwest branch of
2940-401: A pattern that had been pioneered by Rice, minstrelsy united workers and "class superiors" against a common black enemy, symbolized especially by the character of the black dandy. In this same period, the class-conscious but racially inclusive rhetoric of " wage slavery " was largely supplanted by a racist one of "white slavery". This suggested that the abuses against northern factory workers were
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#17329059578313080-451: A physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again. Recounting his beatings at Covey's farm in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave , Douglass described himself as "a man transformed into a brute!" Still, Douglass came to see his physical fight with Covey as life-transforming, and introduced the story in his autobiography as such: "You have seen how a man
3220-534: A repertoire drawing heavily on Shakespeare. A rival theater company paid people to "riot" and cause disturbances at the theater, and it was shut down by the police when neighbors complained of the commotion. White, working-class Northerners could identify with the characters portrayed in early blackface performances. This coincided with the rise of groups struggling for workingman's nativism and pro-Southern causes, and faux black performances came to confirm pre-existing racist concepts and to establish new ones. Following
3360-474: A send-up of a popular play. Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. These were further divided into sub-archetypes such as the mammy , her counterpart the old darky , the provocative mulatto wench, and the black soldier. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the genuine black influence remains debated. Spirituals (known as jubilees ) entered
3500-498: A small part of the repertoire. This effect was amplified as minstrelsy featuring black performers took off in its own right and stressed its connection to the old plantations. The main target of criticism was the moral decay of the urbanized North. Cities were painted as corrupt, as homes to unjust poverty, and as dens of "city slickers" who lay in wait to prey upon new arrivals. Minstrels stressed traditional family life; stories told of reunification between mothers and sons thought dead in
3640-609: A speech in Elmira, New York , then a station on the Underground Railroad , in which a black congregation would form years later, becoming the region's largest church by 1940. Douglass also joined several organizations in New Bedford and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison 's weekly newspaper, The Liberator . He later said that "no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments [of
3780-514: A stir in variety shows, and Madame Rentz's Female Minstrels ran with the idea, first performing in 1870 in skimpy costumes and tights, the scantily clad women being the real attraction. Their success gave rise to at least 11 all-female troupes by 1871, one of which did away with blackface altogether. Ultimately, the girlie show emerged as a form in its own right. Mainstream minstrelsy continued to emphasize its propriety and "fun without vulgarity", but traditional troupes adopted some of these elements in
3920-554: A very distinct notion of what was required of me, but one thing I did know well: I was wretched and had no means of making myself otherwise. I consulted a good coloured man named Charles Lawson, and in tones of holy affection he told me to pray, and to "cast all my care upon God." This I sought to do; and though for weeks I was a poor, broken-hearted mourner, traveling through doubts and fears, I finally found my burden lightened, and my heart relieved. I loved all mankind, slaveholders not excepted, though I abhorred slavery more than ever. I saw
4060-516: A woman with "lips so large a lover could not kiss them all at once". They had huge feet and preferred "possum" and "coon" to more civilized fare. Minstrel characters were often described in animalistic terms, with "wool" instead of hair, "bleating" like sheep, and having "darky cubs" instead of children. Other claims were that blacks had to drink ink when they got sick "to restore their color" and that they had to file their hair rather than cut it. They were inherently musical, dancing and frolicking through
4200-429: Is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the 'quick round of blood,' I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said: 'I felt as one might feel upon escape from
4340-521: The Chesapeake Bay . Although this placed him only some 20 miles (32 km) from the Maryland–Pennsylvania state line, it was easier to continue by rail through Delaware, another slave state. Dressed in a sailor's uniform provided to him by Murray, who also gave him part of her savings to cover his travel costs, he carried identification papers and protection papers that he had obtained from
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4480-719: The Chinese Exclusion Act . Blaine is shown dining in "Kearney's Senatorial Restaurant"—a reference to Denis Kearney , the leader of a violent anti-Chinese movement in California . John Confucius asks, "How can Christians stomach such diet?" According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term first emerged with British sailors who, uninterested in learning how to pronounce the names of the Chinese stewards, firemen, and sailors who worked as part of their crews, came up with
4620-466: The Civil War , Douglass was an active campaigner for the rights of freed slaves and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass . First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, the book covers his life up to those dates. Douglass also actively supported women's suffrage , and he held several public offices. Without his knowledge or consent, Douglass became
4760-642: The Golden Rule . In this sense, Douglass distinguished between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of America" and considered religious slaveholders and clergymen who defended slavery as the most brutal, sinful, and cynical of all who represented "wolves in sheep's clothing". In What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? , an oration Douglass gave in the Corinthian Hall of Rochester, he sharply criticized
4900-763: The Patapsco River . Research cited in 2021, however, suggests that Douglass in fact boarded the train at the Canton Depot of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad on Boston Street, in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore, further east. Douglass reached Havre de Grace, Maryland , in Harford County , in the northeast corner of the state, along the southwest shore of the Susquehanna River , which flowed into
5040-529: The endmen or cornermen . The interlocutor acted as a master of ceremonies and as a dignified, if pompous, straight man. He had a somewhat aristocratic demeanor, a "codfish aristocrat", while the endmen exchanged jokes and performed a variety of humorous songs. Over time, the first act came to include maudlin numbers not always in dialect. One minstrel, usually a tenor , came to specialize in this part; such singers often became celebrities, especially with women. Initially, an upbeat plantation song and dance ended
5180-511: The "Quaker City" of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, an anti-slavery stronghold. He continued to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York City . His entire journey to freedom took less than 24 hours. Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York City: I have often been asked, how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There
5320-497: The 1820s, blackface performers called themselves "Ethiopian delineators"; from then into the early 1840s, unlike the later heyday of minstrelsy, they performed either solo or in small teams. Blackface soon found a home in the taverns of New York's less respectable precincts of Lower Broadway , the Bowery , and Chatham Street . It also appeared on more respectable stages, most often as an entr'acte . Upper class houses at first limited
5460-564: The 20th century the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by the Vaudeville style of theatre. The form survived as professional entertainment until about 1910; amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools and local theaters. The genre has had a lasting legacy and influence and was featured in the British television series The Black and White Minstrel Show as recently as
5600-471: The 20th century, now with an audience mostly in the rural South, while black-owned troupes continued traveling to more outlying areas like the West. These black troupes were one of minstrelsy's last bastions, as more white actors moved into vaudeville. (Community amateur blackface minstrel shows persisted in northern New York State into the 1960s. The University of Vermont banned the minstrel-like Kake Walk as part of
5740-435: The Civil War and merged qualities of the slave and the dandy. He was acknowledged for playing some role in the war, but he was more frequently lampooned for bumbling through his drills or for thinking his uniform made him the equal of his white counterparts. He was usually better at retreating than fighting, and, like the dandy, he preferred partying to serious pursuits. Still, his introduction allowed for some return to themes of
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5880-1272: The Civil War. New entertainments such as variety shows, musical comedies and vaudeville appeared in the North, backed by master promoters like P. T. Barnum who wooed audiences away. Blackface troupes responded by traveling farther and farther afield, with their primary base now in the South and Midwest. By 1883 there were no resident minstrel troupes in New York, only performances by travelling troupes. Those minstrels who stayed in New York and similar cities followed Barnum's lead by advertising relentlessly and emphasizing spectacle. Troupes ballooned; as many as 19 performers could be on stage at once, and J. H. Haverly 's United Mastodon Minstrels had over 100 members. Scenery grew lavish and expensive, and specialty acts such as strongmen, acrobats, or circus freaks sometimes appeared. These changes made minstrelsy unprofitable for smaller troupes. Minstrel troupes, which previously had tended to be owned by performers, now tended to be owned by professional managers such as Haverly. Other minstrel troupes tried to satisfy different, less socially acceptable tastes. Female acts had made
6020-560: The Ethiopian Opera House and the like. Many amateur troupes performed only a few local shows before disbanding. Meanwhile, celebrities like Emmett continued to perform solo. The rise of the minstrel show coincided with the growth of the abolitionist movement. Many Northerners were concerned for the oppressed blacks of the South, but most had no idea how these slaves lived day-to-day. Blackface performance had been inconsistent on this subject; some slaves were happy, others victims of
6160-602: The Hardys, rescued him. His hand was broken in the attack; it healed improperly and bothered him for the rest of his life. A stone marker in Falls Park in the Pendleton Historic District commemorates this event. In 1847, Douglass explained to Garrison, "I have no love for America, as such; I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I? The Institutions of this Country do not know me – do not recognize me as
6300-499: The Northern dandy and the homesick ex-slave reinforced the idea that blacks did not belong, nor did they want to belong, in Northern society. Adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin sprang up rapidly after its publication (all were unlicensed by Harriet Beecher Stowe, who refused to sell the theatrical rights for any sum). While all incorporated some elements of minstrelsy, their content varied significantly, from serious productions retaining
6440-578: The act; later it was more common for the first act to end with a walkaround , including dances in the style of a cakewalk . The second portion of the show, called the olio , was historically the last to evolve, as its real purpose was to allow for the setting of the stage for act three behind the curtain. It had more of a variety show structure. Performers danced, played instruments, did acrobatics, and demonstrated other amusing talents. Troupes offered parodies of European-style entertainments, and European troupes themselves sometimes performed. The highlight
6580-473: The attitude of religious people who kept silent about slavery, and he charged that ministers committed a " blasphemy " when they taught it as sanctioned by religion. He considered that a law passed to support slavery was "one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty" and said that pro-slavery clergymen within the American Church "stripped the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throne of religion
6720-525: The audience, although the focus was usually on sending up unpopular issues and making fun of blacks' inability to make sense of them. Many troupes employed a stump specialist with a trademark style and material. The afterpiece rounded out the production. In the early days of the minstrel show, this was often a skit set on a Southern plantation that usually included song-and-dance numbers and featured Sambo- and Mammy-type characters in slapstick situations. The emphasis lay on an idealized plantation life and
6860-455: The banjo. The New Orleans Picayune wrote that a singing New Orleans street vendor called Old Corn Meal would bring "a fortune to any man who would start on a professional tour with him". Rice responded by adding a "Corn Meal" skit to his act. Meanwhile, there had been several attempts at legitimate black stage performance, the most ambitious probably being New York's African Grove theater, founded and operated by free blacks in 1821, with
7000-580: The barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roast in the fire and eat. That boy did not wear pants like you do, but a tow linen shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned to spell from an old Webster's spelling-book and to read and write from posters on cellar and barn doors, while boys and men would help him. He would then preach and speak, and soon became well known. He became Presidential Elector, United States Marshal, United States Recorder, United States diplomat, and accumulated some wealth. He wore broadcloth and didn't have to divide crumbs with
7140-422: The book is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches, and dialogues, to assist students in learning reading and grammar. He later learned that his mother had also been literate, about which he would later declare: I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any love of letters I possess, and for which I have got—despite of prejudices—only too much credit, not to my admitted Anglo-Saxon paternity, but to
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#17329059578317280-416: The book's antislavery message like that of George Aiken 's, to minstrel show parodies which generally excised characters such as the cruel master Simon Legree, retaining only the "plantation frolics", differing from earlier minstrel shows only in name, to outright condemnation of Stowe as uninterested in the suffering of the white working class. " Tom shows " continued into the 20th century, continuing to blend
7420-503: The breakup of the plantation family. Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey , c. February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer , abolitionist , orator, writer, and statesman. He became the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century. After escaping from slavery in Maryland in 1838, Douglass became
7560-411: The cars for target practice. Their salaries, though higher than those of most blacks of the period, failed to reach levels earned by white performers; even superstars like Kersands earned slightly less than featured white minstrels. Most black troupes did not last long. In content, early black minstrelsy differed little from its white counterpart. As the white troupes drifted from plantation subjects in
7700-422: The character of Othello being traditionally played by an actor in black makeup, the minstrel show as such has later origins. By the late 18th century, blackface characters began appearing on the American stage, usually as "servant" types whose roles did little more than provide some element of comic relief. Lewis Hallam is frequently cited as the first actor to perform in blackface based on an impression he did of
7840-519: The cheaper side of outdoor shows for the paying masses. Such traveling medicine shows also employed a Negro band and minstrels, including both men and women. Museums were set up to appeal to the low income audience, housing freak shows, wax sculptures, as well as exhibits of exoticism, mingled with magic, and necessarily live performance. African Americans were most often displayed as savages, cannibals, or natural freaks. Although white theatrical portrayals of black characters date back to as early as 1604,
7980-412: The comic aspects of minstrelsy with the more serious plot of the novel. Minstrelsy's racism (and sexism) could be vicious. There were comic songs in which blacks were "roasted, fished for, smoked like tobacco, peeled like potatoes, planted in the soil, or dried up and hung as advertisements", and there were multiple songs in which a black man accidentally put out a black woman's eyes. On the other hand,
8120-666: The couple. Douglass responded to the criticisms by saying that his first marriage had been to someone the color of his mother, and his second to someone the color of his father. The couple settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts (an abolitionist center, full of former enslaved people), in 1838, moving to Lynn, Massachusetts , in 1841. After meeting and staying with Nathan and Mary Johnson , they adopted Douglass as their married name. Douglass had grown up using his mother's surname of Bailey; after escaping slavery he had changed his surname first to Stanley and then to Johnson. In New Bedford,
8260-623: The dandy, known frequently as Zip Coon, from the song Zip Coon . "First performed by George Dixon in 1834, Zip Coon made a mockery of free blacks. An arrogant, ostentatious figure, he dressed in high style and spoke in a series of malaprops and puns that undermined his attempts to appear dignified." The white actors who portrayed these characters spoke an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular English. The blackface makeup and illustrations on programs and sheet music depicted them with huge eyeballs, very wide noses, and thick-lipped mouths that hung open or grinned foolishly; one character expressed his love for
8400-431: The darkeys be" and they could not be "bought and sold". In plantation material, aged black characters were rarely reunited with long-lost masters like they were in white minstrelsy. African Americans formed a large part of the black minstrels' audience, especially for smaller troupes. In fact, their numbers were so great that many theater owners had to relax rules relegating black patrons to certain areas. The reasons for
8540-423: The day he arrived, Sophia saw to it that Douglass was properly fed and clothed, and that he slept in a bed with sheets and a blanket. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him "as she supposed one human being ought to treat another." Douglass felt that he was lucky to be in the city, where he said enslaved people were almost freemen , compared to those on plantations. When Douglass
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#17329059578318680-428: The direct pathway from slavery to freedom." Under her husband's influence, Sophia came to believe that education and slavery were incompatible and one day snatched a newspaper away from Douglass. She stopped teaching him altogether and hid all potential reading materials, including her Bible, from him. In his autobiography, Douglass related how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing
8820-485: The dogs under the table. That boy was Frederick Douglass. At the age of 6, Douglass was separated from his grandparents and moved to the Wye House plantation , where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer and Edward Lloyd was his unofficial master. After Anthony died in 1826, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas's brother Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia Auld in Baltimore . From
8960-492: The endmen and dressed themselves in lavish finery and powdered wigs. They decorated the stage with elaborate backdrops and performed no slapstick whatsoever. Their brand of minstrelsy differed from other entertainments only in name. Other troupes followed to varying extents, and pre-war style minstrelsy found itself confined to explicitly nostalgic "histories of minstrelsy" features. Social commentary continued to dominate most performances, with plantation material constituting only
9100-455: The faces of at least the endmen. One commentator described a mostly uncorked black troupe as "mulattoes of a medium shade except two, who were light. ... The end men were each rendered thoroughly black by burnt cork." The minstrels themselves promoted their performing abilities, quoting reviews that favorably compared them to popular white troupes. These black companies often featured female minstrels. One or two African-American troupes dominated
9240-559: The fact that the minstrel show broached the subjects of slavery and race at all is perhaps more significant than the racist manner in which it did so. Despite these pro-plantation attitudes, minstrelsy was banned in many Southern cities. Its association with the North was such that as secessionist attitudes grew stronger, minstrels on Southern tours became convenient targets of anti-Yankee sentiment. Non-race-related humor came from lampoons of other subjects, including aristocratic whites such as politicians, doctors, and lawyers. Women's rights
9380-530: The first African American nominated for vice president of the United States, as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket. Douglass believed in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides, as well as, after breaking with William Lloyd Garrison , in the anti-slavery interpretation of the U.S. Constitution . When radical abolitionists, under
9520-401: The first act of the show with a military high-stepping , brass band burlesque, a practice adopted after Callender's Minstrels used it in 1875 or 1876. Although black minstrelsy lent credence to racist ideals of blackness, many African-American minstrels worked to subtly alter these stereotypes and to poke fun at white society. One jubilee described heaven as a place "where de white folks must let
9660-519: The first totally black-owned black vaudeville show, The Rabbit's Foot Company , which performed with an all-black cast that elevated the level of shows with sophisticated and fun comedy. It successfully toured mainly the Southwest and Southeast, as well as in New Jersey and New York City. The Christy Minstrels established the basic structure of the minstrel show in the 1840s. A crowd-gathering parade to
9800-487: The generic nickname of "John". This article relating to the history of the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a fictional character is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Minstrel show The minstrel show , also called minstrelsy , was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for
9940-468: The great mission of the slave's redemption from his chains". In addition, he called religious people to embrace abolitionism, stating, "let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to
10080-412: The guidance of their Northern friends." White curiosity proved a powerful motivator, and the shows were patronized by people who wanted to see blacks acting "spontaneously" and "naturally." Promoters seized on this, one billing his troupe as "THE DARKY AS HE IS AT HOME, DARKY LIFE IN THE CORNFIELD, Canebrake , BARNYARD, AND ON THE LEVEE AND FLATBOAT." Keeping with convention, black minstrels still corked
10220-603: The guise of the female impersonator. A well-played prima donna character, as popularised by the performer Francis Leon, was considered to be critical to success in the postwar period. This new minstrelsy maintained an emphasis on refined music. Most troupes added jubilees, or spirituals , to their repertoire in the 1870s. These were fairly authentic religious slave songs borrowed from traveling black singing groups. Other troupes drifted further from minstrelsy's roots. When George Primrose and Billy West broke with Haverly's Mastodons in 1877, they did away with blackface for all but
10360-453: The happy slaves who lived there. Nevertheless, antislavery viewpoints sometimes surfaced in the guise of family members separated by slavery, runaways, or even slave uprisings. A few stories highlighted black trickster figures who managed to get the better of their masters. Beginning in the mid-1850s, performers did burlesque renditions of other plays; both Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights were common targets. The humor of these came from
10500-586: The hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." So deep was this influence that in his last autobiography, Douglass said "his paper took a place in my heart second only to The Bible ." Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass and had written about his anti- colonization stance in The Liberator as early as 1839. Douglass first heard Garrison speak in 1841, at a lecture that Garrison gave in Liberty Hall, New Bedford. At another meeting, Douglass
10640-568: The inept black characters trying to perform some element of high white culture. Slapstick humor pervaded the afterpiece, including cream pies to the face, inflated bladders, and on-stage fireworks. Material from Uncle Tom's Cabin dominated beginning in 1853. The afterpiece allowed the minstrels to introduce new characters, some of whom became quite popular and spread from troupe to troupe. The earliest minstrel characters took as their base popular white stage archetypes—frontiersmen, fishermen, hunters, and riverboatsmen whose depictions drew heavily from
10780-417: The instruments they played: Brudder Tambo (or simply Tambo ) for the tambourine and Brudder Bones (or Bones ) for the bone castanets or bones . These endmen (for their position in the minstrel semicircle) were ignorant and poorly spoken, being conned, electrocuted, or run over in various sketches. They happily shared their stupidity; one slave character said that to get to China, one had only to go up in
10920-477: The latter was such a common name that he wanted one that was more distinctive, and asked Nathan Johnson to choose a suitable surname. Nathan suggested " Douglass ", after having read the poem The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott , in which two of the principal characters have the surname " Douglas ". Douglass thought of joining a white Methodist Church , but was disappointed, from the beginning, upon finding that it
11060-486: The library, images of angels and Jesus are displayed, as well as interior and exterior photographs of Washington's Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church . Throughout his life, Douglass had linked that individual experience with social reform, and, according to John Stauffer , he, like other Christian abolitionists, followed practices such as abstaining from tobacco, alcohol and other substances that he believed corrupted body and soul. Douglass stated himself that he
11200-468: The marriage. Upon her death, Assing bequeathed Douglass a $ 13,000 trust fund (equivalent to $ 441,000 in 2023), a "large album", and his choice of books from her library. The marriage of Douglass and Pitts provoked a storm of controversy, since Pitts was both white and nearly 20 years younger. Many in her family stopped speaking to her; his children considered the marriage a repudiation of their mother. But feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated
11340-408: The mid-1870s however, black troupes placed a new emphasis on it. The addition of jubilee singing gave black minstrelsy a popularity boost as the black troupes were rightly believed to be the most authentic performers of such material. Other significant differences were that the black minstrels added religious themes to their shows while whites shied from them, and that the black companies commonly ended
11480-426: The mid-1970s. Generally, as the civil rights movement progressed and gained acceptance, minstrelsy lost popularity. The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech . The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or
11620-460: The minstrel shows were extremely popular, being "consistently packed with families from all walks of life and every ethnic group", they were also controversial. Integrationists decried them as falsely showing happy slaves while at the same time making fun of them; segregationists thought such shows were "disrespectful" of social norms as they portrayed runaway slaves with sympathy and would undermine slavery. Minstrel shows were popular before slavery
11760-514: The mood of a bereaved nation. Troupes performed skits about dying soldiers and their weeping widows, and about mourning white mothers. " When This Cruel War Is Over " became the hit of the period, selling over a million copies of sheet music. To balance the somber mood, minstrels put on patriotic numbers like " The Star-Spangled Banner ", accompanied by depictions of scenes from American history that lionized figures like George Washington and Andrew Jackson. Social commentary grew increasingly important to
11900-491: The most popular black troupe in America, and the words Callender and Georgia came to be synonymous with the institution of black minstrelsy. J. H. Haverly, in turn, purchased Callender's troupe in 1878 and applied his strategy of enlarging troupe size and embellishing sets. When this company went to Europe, Gustave and Charles Frohman took the opportunity to promote their Callender's Consolidated Colored Minstrels. Their success
12040-485: The most popular song on this subject. Less frequently, the old darky might be cast out by a cruel master when he grew too old to work. After the Civil War, this character became the most common figure in plantation sketches. He frequently cried about the loss of his home during the war, only to meet up with someone from the past such as the child of his former master. In contrast, the trickster, often called Jasper Jack, appeared less frequently. Female characters ranged from
12180-519: The motto "No Union with Slaveholders", criticized Douglass's willingness to engage in dialogue with slave owners, he replied: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland . The plantation was between Hillsboro and Cordova ; his birthplace
12320-453: The motto "Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren." In his 1848 "Letter to Thomas Auld", Douglass denounced his former slaveholder for leaving Douglass's family illiterate: Your wickedness and cruelty committed in this respect on your fellow-creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon my back, or theirs. It is an outrage upon
12460-436: The native genius of my sable, unprotected, and uncultivated mother —a woman, who belonged to a race whose mental endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in disparagement and contempt. When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he "gathered eventually more than thirty male slaves on Sundays, and sometimes even on weeknights, in a Sabbath literacy school." In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a]s
12600-497: The night with no need for sleep. Thomas "Daddy" Rice introduced the earliest slave archetype with his song " Jump Jim Crow " and its accompanying dance. He claimed to have learned the number by watching an old, limping black stable hand dancing and singing, "Wheel about and turn about and do jus' so/Eb'ry time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow." Other early minstrel performers quickly adopted Rice's character. Slave characters in general came to be low-comedy types with names that matched
12740-530: The number of such acts they would show, but beginning in 1841, blackface performers frequently took to the stage at even the classy Park Theatre , much to the dismay of some patrons. Theater was a participatory activity, and the lower classes came to dominate the playhouse. They threw things at actors or orchestras who performed unpopular material, and rowdy audiences eventually prevented the Bowery Theatre from staging high drama at all. Typical blackface acts of
12880-565: The period were short burlesques , often with mock Shakespearean titles like " Hamlet the Dainty ", " Bad Breath, the Crane of Chowder ", " Julius Sneezer " or " Dars-de-Money ". Meanwhile, at least some whites were interested in black song and dance by actual black performers. Nineteenth-century New York slaves shingle danced for spare change on their days off, and musicians played what they claimed to be "Negro music" on so-called black instruments like
13020-513: The pleasure of the grotesque and its infantilization of blacks. These allowed—by proxy, and without full identification—childish fun and other low pleasures in an industrializing world where workers were increasingly expected to abandon such things. With the Panic of 1837 , theater attendance suffered, and concerts were one of the few attractions that could still make money. In 1843, four blackface performers led by Dan Emmett combined to stage just such
13160-596: The popularity of this openly racist form of entertainment with black audiences have long been debated by historians. Perhaps they felt in on the joke, laughing at the over-the-top characters from a sense of "in-group recognition". Maybe they even implicitly endorsed the racist antics, or they felt some connection to elements of an African culture that had been suppressed but was visible, albeit in racist, exaggerated form, in minstrel personages. They certainly got many jokes that flew over whites' heads or registered as only quaint distractions. An undeniable draw for black audiences
13300-452: The purpose of comically portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. There were also some African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of African descent. Blackface minstrelsy
13440-468: The refined singing of the Ethiopian Serenaders (epitomized by the work of Christy's composer Stephen Foster ) with the Virginia Minstrels' bawdy schtick. Christy's company established the three-act template into which minstrel shows would fall for the next few decades. This change to respectability prompted theater owners to enforce new rules to make playhouses calmer and quieter. Minstrels toured
13580-403: The religious organizations of our land. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States ... Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend [Robert R. Raymonde]". He maintained that "upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in
13720-488: The repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy. During the 1830s and 1840s at the height of its popularity, it was at the epicenter of the American music industry. For several decades, it provided the means through which American whites viewed black people. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it afforded white Americans more awareness, albeit distorted, of some aspects of black culture in America. Although
13860-492: The rest of his life he searched in vain for the name of his true father." Douglass's genetic heritage likely also included Native American. Douglass said his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and, after he escaped to the North in September 1838, he took the surname Douglass , having already dropped his two middle names. He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother: The opinion
14000-451: The same circuits as opera companies, circuses, and European itinerant entertainers, with venues ranging from lavish opera houses to makeshift tavern stages. Life on the road entailed an "endless series of one-nighters, travel on accident-prone railroads, in poor housing subject to fires, in empty rooms that they had to convert into theaters, arrest on trumped up charges, exposed to deadly diseases, and managers and agents who skipped out with all
14140-495: The same gracious manner ... but in my former visits to this place I had failed to meet them". Douglass and Anna Murray had five children: Rosetta Douglass , Lewis Henry Douglass , Frederick Douglass Jr. , Charles Remond Douglass , and Annie Douglass (died at the age of ten). Charles and Rosetta helped produce his newspapers. Anna Douglass remained a loyal supporter of her husband's public work. His relationships with Julia Griffiths and Ottilie Assing , two women with whom he
14280-528: The scene for much of the late 1860s and 1870s. The first of these was Brooker and Clayton's Georgia Minstrels , who played the Northeast around 1865. Sam Hague 's Slave Troupe of Georgia Minstrels formed shortly thereafter and toured England to great success beginning in 1866. In the 1870s, white entrepreneurs bought most of the successful black companies. Charles Callender obtained Sam Hague's troupe in 1872 and renamed it Callender's Georgia Minstrels. They became
14420-534: The segregated railroad coach. In 1843, Douglass joined other speakers in the American Anti-Slavery Society 's "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month tour at meeting halls throughout the eastern and midwestern United States . During this tour, slavery supporters frequently accosted Douglass. At a lecture in Pendleton, Indiana , an angry mob chased and beat Douglass before a local Quaker family,
14560-399: The sexually provocative to the laughable. These roles were almost always played by men in drag (most famously George Christy , Francis Leon and Barney Williams ), even though American theater outside minstrelsy was filled with actresses at this time. Mammy or the old auntie was the old darky's counterpart. She often went by the name of Aunt Dinah Roh after the song of that title. Mammy
14700-420: The show. Performers criticized Northern society and those they felt responsible for the breakup of the country, who opposed reunification, or who profited from a nation at war. Emancipation was either opposed through "happy plantation" material, or mildly supported with pieces that depicted slavery in a negative light. Eventually, direct criticism of the South became more biting. Minstrelsy lost popularity during
14840-462: The song popularized by George Washington Dixon, although others had pretentious names like Count Julius Caesar Mars Napoleon Sinclair Brown. Their clothing was a ludicrous parody of upper-class dress: coats with tails and padded shoulders, white gloves, monocles, fake mustaches, and gaudy watch chains. They spent their time primping and preening, going to parties, dancing and strutting, and wooing women. The black soldier became another stock type during
14980-544: The soul—a war upon the immortal spirit, and one for which you must give account at the bar of our common Father and Creator. Sometimes considered a precursor of a non-denominational liberation theology , Douglass was a deeply spiritual man, as his home continues to show. The fireplace mantle features busts of two of his favorite philosophers, David Friedrich Strauss , author of The Life of Jesus , and Ludwig Feuerbach , author of The Essence of Christianity . In addition to several Bibles and books about various religions in
15120-406: The tall tale—and added exaggerated blackface speech and makeup. These Jim Crows and Gumbo Chaffs fought and boasted that they could "wip [their] weight in wildcats" or "eat an alligator". As public opinion toward blacks changed, however, so did the minstrel stereotypes. Eventually, several stock characters emerged. Chief among these were the slave, who often maintained the earlier name Jim Crow, and
15260-414: The theater often preceded the performance. The show itself was divided into three major sections. During the first, the entire troupe danced onto stage singing a popular song. Upon the instruction of the interlocutor , a sort of host, they sat in a semicircle. Various stock characters always took the same positions: the genteel interlocutor in the middle, flanked by Mr Tambo and Mr Bones , who served as
15400-520: The troupe's money." The more popular groups stuck to the main circuit that ran through the Northeast; some even went to Europe, which allowed their competitors to establish themselves in their absence. By the late 1840s, a Southern tour had opened from Baltimore to New Orleans. Circuits through the Midwest and as far as California followed by the 1860s. As its popularity increased, theaters sprang up specifically for minstrel performance, often with names such as
15540-488: The war. Women's rights, disrespectful children, low church attendance, and sexual promiscuity became symptoms of decline in family values and of moral decay. Of course, Northern black characters carried these vices even further. African-American members of Congress were one example, pictured as pawns of the Radical Republicans . By the 1890s, minstrelsy formed only a small part of American entertainment, and, by 1919,
15680-614: The winds." During his visits to the United Kingdom between 1846 and 1848, Douglass asked British Christians never to support American churches that permitted slavery, and he expressed his happiness to know that a group of ministers in Belfast had refused to admit slaveholders as members of the Church. On his return to the United States, Douglass founded the North Star , a weekly publication with
15820-455: The winter Carnival in 1969.) In the 1840s and '50s, William Henry Lane and Thomas Dilward became the first African Americans to perform on the minstrel stage. All-black troupes followed as early as 1855. These companies emphasized that their ethnicity made them the only true delineators of black song and dance, with one advertisement describing a troupe as "SEVEN SLAVES just from Alabama, who are EARNING THEIR FREEDOM by giving concerts under
15960-543: The world in a new light, and my great concern was to have everybody converted. My desire to learn increased, and especially did I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the Bible. Douglass was mentored by Rev. Charles Lawson, and, early in his activism, he often included biblical allusions and religious metaphors in his speeches. Although a believer, he strongly criticized religious hypocrisy and accused slaveholders of " wickedness ", lack of morality, and failure to follow
16100-577: The writings of the men with whom he worked. Douglass continued, secretly, to teach himself to read and write. He later often said, "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom." As Douglass began to read newspapers, pamphlets, political materials, and books of every description, this new realm of thought led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator , an anthology that he discovered at about age 12, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. First published in 1797,
16240-521: Was segregated . Later, he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church , an independent black denomination first established in New York City, which counted among its members Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman . He became a licensed preacher in 1839, which helped him to hone his oratorical skills . He held various positions, including steward , Sunday-school superintendent , and sexton . In 1840, Douglass delivered
16380-689: Was a teetotaler . According to David W. Blight , however, "Douglass loved cigars" and received them as gifts from Ottilie Assing . Douglass praised the agnostic orator Robert G. Ingersoll , whom Douglass met in Peoria, Illinois , stating, "Genuine goodness is the same, whether found inside or outside the church, and that to be an 'infidel' no more proves a man to be selfish, mean and wicked than to be evangelical proves him to be honest, just and human. Perhaps there were Christian ministers and Christian families in Peoria at that time by whom I might have been received in
16520-477: Was abolished, sufficiently so that Frederick Douglass described blackface performers as "...the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens." Circus sideshows included Negro performers, minstrels were exhibited in museums, Wild West shows , and in musical ensembles. Black people were also part of traveling medicine shows , which were on
16660-436: Was about 12, Sophia Auld began teaching him the alphabet . Hugh Auld disapproved of the tutoring, feeling that literacy would encourage enslaved people to desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard. "'Very well, thought I,'" wrote Douglass. "'Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.' I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood
16800-472: Was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing. ... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant. ... It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. ... I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she
16940-415: Was another serious subject that appeared with some regularity in antebellum minstrelsy, almost always to ridicule the notion. The women's rights lecture became common in stump speeches. When one character joked, "Jim, I tink de ladies oughter vote", another replied, "No, Mr. Johnson, ladies am supposed to care berry little about polytick, and yet de majority ob em am strongly tached to parties." Minstrel humor
17080-517: Was born in February 1818. Though the exact date of his birth is unknown, he chose to celebrate February 14 as his birthday, remembering that his mother called him her "Little Valentine ." Douglass's mother, enslaved, was of African descent and his father, who may have been her master, apparently of European descent; in his Narrative (1845), Douglass wrote: "My father was a white man." According to David W. Blight 's 2018 biography of Douglass, "For
17220-522: Was gone. After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother Betsy Bailey, who was also enslaved, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who was free . Betsy would live until 1849. Frederick's mother remained on the plantation about 12 miles (19 km) away, visiting Frederick only a few times before her death when he was 7 years old. Returning much later, about 1883, to purchase land in Talbot County that
17360-402: Was highly musical and none-too-bright, but he had favorable aspects like his loving nature and the sentiments he raised regarding love for the aged, ideas of old friendships, and the cohesiveness of the family. His death and the pain it caused his master was a common theme in sentimental songs. Alternatively, the master could die, leaving the old darky to mourn. Stephen Foster's "Old Uncle Ned" was
17500-482: Was likely his grandmother's cabin east of Tappers Corner and west of Tuckahoe Creek . In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it." In successive autobiographies, he gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817. However, based on the extant records of Douglass's former owner, Aaron Anthony, historian Dickson J. Preston determined that Douglass
17640-445: Was lovable to both blacks and whites, matronly, but hearkening to European peasant woman sensibilities. Her main role was to be the devoted mother figure in scenarios about the perfect plantation family. The wench , yaller gal or prima donna was a mulatto who combined the light skin and facial features of a white woman with the perceived sexual promiscuity and exoticism of a black woman. Her beauty and flirtatiousness made her
17780-507: Was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man." Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him from his owner, but was unsuccessful. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love with Anna Murray , a free black woman in Baltimore about five years his senior. Her free status strengthened his belief in the possibility of gaining his own freedom. Murray encouraged him and supported his efforts by aid and money. On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding
17920-462: Was meaningful to him, he was invited to address "a colored school": I once knew a little colored boy whose mother and father died when he was six years old. He was a slave and had no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in a hovel, and in cold weather would crawl into a meal bag head foremost and leave his feet in the ashes to keep them warm. Often he would roast an ear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many times has he crawled under
18060-411: Was professionally involved, caused recurring speculation and scandals. Assing was a journalist recently immigrated from Germany, who first visited Douglass in 1856 seeking permission to translate My Bondage and My Freedom into German. Until 1872, she often stayed at his house "for several months at a time" as his "intellectual and emotional companion." Assing held Anna Douglass "in utter contempt" and
18200-439: Was responsible for beginning and ending each segment of the show. To this end, he had to be able to gauge the mood of the audience and know when it was time to move on. Accordingly, the actor who played the role was paid very well in comparison to other non-featured performers. There were many variants on the slave archetype. The old darky or old uncle formed the head of the idyllic black family. Like other slave characters, he
18340-557: Was simple and relied heavily on slapstick and wordplay. Performers told riddles: "The difference between a schoolmaster and an engineer is that one trains the mind and the other minds the train." With the advent of the American Civil War , minstrels remained mostly neutral and satirized both sides. However, as the war reached Northern soil, troupes turned their loyalties to the Union. Sad songs and sketches came to dominate in reflection of
18480-445: Was simply seeing fellow African Americans on stage; black minstrels were largely viewed as celebrities. Formally educated African Americans, on the other hand, either disregarded black minstrelsy or openly disdained it. Still, black minstrelsy was the first large-scale opportunity for African Americans to enter American show business. Black minstrels were therefore viewed as a success. Pat H. Chappelle capitalized on this and created
18620-436: Was so good he could fool blacks when he mingled with them in the streets. Thomas Dartmouth Rice 's successful song-and-dance number, " Jump Jim Crow ", brought blackface performance to a new level of prominence in the early 1830s. At the height of Rice's success, The Boston Post wrote, "The two most popular characters in the world at the present are [Queen] Victoria of the United Kingdom and Jump Jim Crow ." As early as
18760-525: Was such that the Frohmans bought Haverly's group and merged it with theirs, creating a virtual monopoly on the market. The company split in three to better canvas the nation and dominated black minstrelsy throughout the 1880s. Individual black performers like Billy Kersands , James A. Bland , Sam Lucas , Martin Francis and Wallace King grew as famous as any featured white performer. Racism made black minstrelsy
18900-517: Was the funny old gal , a slapstick role played by a large man in motley clothing and large, flapping shoes. The humor she invoked often turned on the male characters' desire for a woman whom the audience would perceive as unattractive. The counterpart to the slave was the dandy , a common character in the afterpiece. He was a Northern, urban black man trying to live above his station by mimicking white, upper-class speech and dress—usually to no good effect. Dandy characters often went by Zip Coon , after
19040-541: Was the daughter of Gideon Pitts Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass's. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), Pitts worked on a radical feminist publication named Alpha while living in Washington, D.C. She later worked as Douglass's secretary. Assing, who had depression and was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer, committed suicide in France in 1884 after hearing of
19180-457: Was the first uniquely American form of theater, and for many minstrel shows emerged as brief burlesques and comic entr'actes in the early 1830s in the Northeastern states . They were developed into full-fledged art form in the next decade. By 1848, blackface minstrel shows were the national artform, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. By the turn of
19320-786: Was unexpectedly invited to speak. After telling his story, Douglass was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. A few days later, Douglass spoke at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society 's annual convention, in Nantucket . Then 23 years old, Douglass conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his life as a slave. While living in Lynn, Douglass engaged in an early protest against segregated transportation. In September 1841, at Lynn Central Square station , Douglass and his friend James N. Buffum were thrown off an Eastern Railroad train because Douglass refused to sit in
19460-444: Was vainly hoping that Douglass would separate from his wife. Douglass biographer David W. Blight concludes that Assing and Douglass "were probably lovers". Though Douglass and Assing are widely believed to have had an intimate relationship, the surviving correspondence contains no proof of such a relationship. Anna died in 1882. In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts , a white suffragist and abolitionist from Honeoye, New York . Pitts
19600-563: Was when one actor, typically one of the endmen, delivered a faux-black-dialect stump speech , a long oration about anything from nonsense to science, society, or politics, during which the dim-witted character tried to speak eloquently, only to deliver countless malapropisms, jokes, and unintentional puns. All the while, the speaker moved about like a clown, standing on his head and almost always falling off his stump at some point. With blackface makeup serving as fool's mask, these stump speakers could deliver biting social criticism without offending
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