Minstrelsy White male performers in blackface later black performers as well Draws on romantic notions of slavery Slaves are happy loyal childlike and dependent on whites Allegedly based on authentic slave performances Exaggerated physicality Makeup dance Highly stereotyped dialect Origins Begins in 1820s First truly American form of performance T D Rice father of minstrelsy 1828 Jump Jim Crow Virginia Minstrels Christy Minstrels 1840s Create entire evening of entertainment Solidify formal structure Minstrel Shows Music Popular all over America but particularly in the North Mostly white working class male audiences Banjo tambourine percussion aka bones Stephen Foster Old Folks at Home Swanee River Camptown Races Begins as a comic afterpiece to another show so popular that he uses it more and more often Dance savage or cakewalk Format of a Minstrel show Variety many different short unrelated pieces Minstrel Line Semi circle jokes dance songs Interlocutor Olio short comic pieces often including stump speech Afterpiece longer skit often parody of popular story e g Uncle Tom s Cabin Characters Interlocutor straight man not in blackface Tambo and Bones musicians General stereotypes Sambo happy lazy stupid often musical laughing also known as Jim Crow Zip Coon Northern free slave tries to mimic white ways but gets them wrong often delivers stump speech Mammy fat sexless looks after white children Uncle Tom Older man loyal to white masters Frequently accepted as authentic by white audiences Black Performers More prominent post Civil War Forced to black up play derogatory stereotypes Couldn t participate in entertainment industry in any other way Were able to gain fame money Bert Williams 1874 1922 Popular entertainer famous enough to be able to do some less racist work Blackface outside Minstrel shows Frequently used for non white characters through mid 20th century e g Othello in Shakespeare s Othello Often used in even relatively sympathetic depictions of black people
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