Minstrel Props

Bibliography and source index

"Blackface! - The History of Racist Blackface Stereotypes." Blackface! - The History of Racist Blackface Stereotypes. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2010. <http://black-face.com/>.

"History of Minstrel Shows: Introduction." Old Time Radio Catalog: Classic Radio | Golden Age of Radio -. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Aug. 2010. <http://www.otrcat.com/minstrel-shows-1-introduction.html>.

Mahar, William J.. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture (Music in American Life Series). Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Print.

Mercier, Denis. "From Hostility to Reverence - 100 Years of African-American Imagery in Games." Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2010. <http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/links/games/>.

PBS. "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow | PBS." PBS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/>.

Pilgrim, David. "What Was Jim Crow?." Ferris State University: Michigan College Campuses in Big Rapids MI, Grand Rapids MI, Off Campus Locations Across Michigan. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2010. <http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm>.

Strausbaugh, John. Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture. New York: Tarcher, 2006. Print.

T., W., and Jr. Lhamon. Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop. New Ed ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. Print.

Minstrel Shows

Minstrel shows originated in the U.S. and involved a white performer, almost always male, performing in blackface. Performances included singing, dancing comedy sketches, and skits which portrayed African Americans in stereotypical and often degrading ways. Minstrel shows span a long period in American history beginning around the 1820's and continuing until the 1950's. The following is a collection of posters, sheet music covers, and photos portraying various minstrel groups.

"The Cherry Pickers" ; Thatcher, Primrose & West's Consolidated Mammoth Minstrels, late 1800's

Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843

Poster for Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels

Commercial Club Minstrels, Belvidere, Ohio, 1910

Later minstrel shows, like the one shown here, reduced the the wearing of black makeup in oreder to appear more refined. In this particular photo, only a few performers on either end are in blackface.

A very early illustration of the Harmoneons Carolina Minstrels from the cover of a piece of sheet music published in 1845. The group was unusual for their inclusion of a woman performer.

The following is a passage from a website on the history of minstrel shows which discusses some of the social impacts of American minstrel shows:

"Music was a central aspect of the minstrel show.  For many white northerners, the minstrel shows were their only glimpse into black southern slave life, music, food, and culture.  Though skewed and unrealistic, the performances brought issues of slavery to the hearts and minds of white Americans. Popular musical instruments such as the banjo, tambourine, and bones (like spoons) taken from Black-American culture were fashionable due to the popularity of minstrel shows.  The melody, lyrics, and structure of many songs used in minstrelsy were assimilated from slave spirituals and African-American cultural expression.  Some shows, like Ethiopian Serenaders, attempted to keep to clean and inoffensive material.  The focus of their show was to feature talent rather than slapstick and bawdy jokes.   However, most shows featured grossly distorted characters of African-Americans being stereotyped as lazy, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky.  Skit and song subjects often featured a grossly inaccurate depiction of slave life and using a humorous view of the mistreatment of slaves.  A common song theme featured a runaway or freed slave missing his master." (http://www.otrcat.com/minstrel-shows-3-civil-war.html)

Origins of Jim Crow

Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel character portrayed by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice. Rice was a struggling actor in New York. Conflicting accounts describe Rice coming across either an "old Black slave who walked with difficulty" or a "ragged Black stable boy" who were singing this song:


"Come listen all you galls and boys,
I'm going to sing a little song,
My name is Jim Crow.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."


In 1828 Rice performed as stage as the character Jim Crow, "an exaggerated, highly stereotypical Black character." Rice darkened his skin with burnt cork and performed song and dance routines throughout the U.S. and England and Ireland. Jim Crow became a "stock character" in minstrel shows along with other characters like Jim Dandy and Zip Coon.


The term "Jim Crow" eventually became an offensive label for back people. But, by the end of the 19th century, the term became synonymous with the state and local laws enacted to oppress Blacks from 1876 to 1965.


The following is a collection of images depicting the character Jim Crow. Notice the character's the upturned left foot. This is evidence of the character's distinctive dance step called "rocking de heel," supposedly inspired by an old black man who limped while he tended horses.

Jim Crow songbook, published 1839, Ithaca, New York




The following is an excerpt taken from a PBS website on blackface minstrelsy where Dale Cockrell comments on the performances of Thomas D. Rice:


"In probably the summer of 1830, Thomas Dartmouth Rice, who was called "Daddy" Rice, a sort of minor character actor out of New York City, was in Louisville, Kentucky. And he had the idea of dressing in shabby attire, which he may or may not have borrowed from an African American that he met in the streets of Louisville, and going on stage, and it was the kind of entr'acte between parts of a play, he got on stage and did this extraordinary and extravagant dance to this tune called "Jim Crow." And the tune featured not only an extraordinary dance but an extraordinary moment of elevation in which his body kind of exploded off the stage, turned around, wheeled around and jumped Jim Crow, with the exclamation on the "jump." And T. D. Rice, in that moment of exploding off the stage, took us into a completely new realm of popular culture where white audiences (and Thomas Dartmouth Rice is himself a white actor who put on blackface to pretend to be that African-American on the street of Louisville), and in that moment, whites in the audience as well as white actors appropriated an aspect of African-American culture and changed the face of popular culture."

Beyond Jim Crow

Racial stereotypes continued to appear in all areas of media beyond just minstrel shows. Comics, cartoons, television shows, movies are all genres where that have taken part in questionable race portrayals. Her is an excerpt from a website devoted to the history of blackface which discusses some of these current portrayals:

"In Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee addresses the legacy of blackface minstrelsy, and raises the question of who is wearing the blackface now. Many of the Black characters in television comedies today are derived from the same racist stereotypes of blacks that have existed since the days of minstrel shows. The FOX Television sitcom, South Central (1994) was, in the words of Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Blackwell, "the Amos 'n' Andy of 1994." The Parent 'Hood (1995-2000), a program aimed at family viewers, relied on working class coon and mammy caricatures for a good portion of its humor. 180 years after "Daddy" Rice donned blackface makeup and sang Jump Jim Crow for white audiences, Black families in television comedies remain negative, stereotypical portrayals that White television producers and distributors believe the majority of the American public imagines Black families to be."

For an extensive index on images, videos, and objects portraying racial stereotypes follow this link: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/menu.htm.

This is a video found on youtube of a collection of racist imagery used by a teacher for educational purposes.