GESM111 - Ethiopian Minstrelsy

Describe the dynamics of Ethiopian Minstrelsy

• blackface theattrical entertainment - portraying black speech, music, dance, life

• white performers used burnt cork to darken their faces

• later, black performers also worked in the entertainment

Who was Daddy Rice? What were his contributions?

• Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice - white performer who popularized blackface
  • “father” of blackface minstrelsy
• popularized song-and-dance character jim crow in 1830s.
• heavily set back african americans
• had a story mocking a disabled black worker

Who was James Bland?

• james bland was a black composer and minstrel performer
• demonstrates black musicians participation in commerical entertainment shaped by racial restrictions
• to stay afloat they were forced to participated in racially degrading systems

Discuss the two personas of Zip Coon and Jim Crow

• jim crow: caricature of rural southern black laborer
  • exaggerated dance, speech, ignorance
• zip coon: caricature of northern urban black fancy dandy who dressed elegantly and claimed sophistication
  • portrayed as foolish, misused illiterate language, bad manners
• both mocked black people and reinforced racial hierarchy

Discuss Stephen Foster and his compositions

• Stephen foster wa sa white american songwriter
  • “Oh! Susanna”, “Camptown Races”, Old Folks at Home”
  • popularized minstrel music thru his influence
• made some black characters sympathetic, however,
  • still constrained black characters within common stereotypes

Who compiled “Slave Songs of the United States?”

• William Francis Allen
• Charles Pickard Ware
• Lucy McKim Garrison
  • compiled Slave Songs of the United States
  • 136 songs - important early published record of african song and spiritual