This pancocojams post presents excerpts from various online articles about 19th Century blackface minstrelsy and Black (African American) entertainers who performed in blackface.
The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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ARTICLE EXCERPTS
This excerpts are presented in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
EXCERPT #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface
"Blackface is a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the "dandified coon".[1] In 1848, blackface minstrel shows were an American national art of the time, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience.[2] Early in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became a form in its own right, until it ended in the United States with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.[3]
History
Blackface was an important performance tradition in the American theater for roughly 100 years beginning around 1830. It quickly became popular elsewhere, particularly so in Britain, where the tradition lasted longer than in the U.S., occurring on primetime TV, most famously in The Black and White Minstrel Show, which ended in 1978,[4] and in Are You Being Served?'s Christmas specials in 1976[5] and finally in 1981.[6] In both the United States and Britain, blackface was most commonly used in the minstrel performance tradition, which it both predated and outlasted. Early white performers in blackface used burnt cork and later greasepaint or shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation. Later, black artists also performed in blackface.
Stereotypes embodied in the stock characters of blackface minstrels not only played a significant role in cementing and proliferating racist images, attitudes, and perceptions worldwide, but also in popularizing black culture.[7] In some quarters, the caricatures that were the legacy of blackface persist to the present day and are a cause of ongoing controversy.
[...]
Black minstrel shows
By 1840, black performers also were performing in blackface makeup. Frederick Douglass generally abhorred blackface and was one of the first people to write against the institution of blackface minstrelsy, condemning it as racist in nature, with inauthentic, northern, white origins.[55] Douglass did, however, maintain: "It is something to be gained when the colored man in any form can appear before a white audience."[56]
When all-black minstrel shows began to proliferate in the 1860s, they often were billed as "authentic" and "the real thing". These "colored minstrels"[57] always claimed to be recently freed slaves (doubtlessly many were, but most were not)[58] and were widely seen as authentic. This presumption of authenticity could be a bit of a trap, with white audiences seeing them more like "animals in a zoo"[59] than skilled performers. Despite often smaller budgets and smaller venues, their public appeal sometimes rivalled that of white minstrel troupes. In March 1866, Booker and Clayton's Georgia Minstrels may have been the country's most popular troupe, and were certainly among the most critically acclaimed.[60]
These "colored" troupes—many using the name "Georgia Minstrels"[61]—focused on "plantation" material, rather than the more explicit social commentary (and more nastily racist stereotyping) found in portrayals of northern blacks.[62] In the execution of authentic black music and the percussive, polyrhythmic tradition of pattin' Juba, when the only instruments performers used were their hands and feet, clapping and slapping their bodies and shuffling and stomping their feet, black troupes particularly excelled. One of the most successful black minstrel companies was Sam Hague's Slave Troupe of Georgia Minstrels, managed by Charles Hicks. This company eventually was taken over by Charles Callendar. The Georgia Minstrels toured the United States and abroad and later became Haverly's Colored Minstrels.[60]
From the mid-1870s, as white blackface minstrelsy became increasingly lavish and moved away from "Negro subjects", black troupes took the opposite tack.[63] The popularity of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and other jubilee singers had demonstrated northern white interest in white religious music as sung by blacks, especially spirituals. Some jubilee troupes pitched themselves as quasi-minstrels and even incorporated minstrel songs; meanwhile, blackface troupes began to adopt first jubilee material and then a broader range of southern black religious material. Within a few years, the word "jubilee", originally used by the Fisk Jubilee Singers to set themselves apart from blackface minstrels and to emphasize the religious character of their music, became little more than a synonym for "plantation" material.[64] Where the jubilee singers tried to "clean up" Southern black religion for white consumption, blackface performers exaggerated its more exotic aspects.[65]
African-American blackface productions also contained buffoonery and comedy, by way of self-parody. In the early days of African-American involvement in theatrical performance, blacks could not perform without blackface makeup, regardless of how dark-skinned they were. The 1860s "colored" troupes violated this convention for a time: the comedy-oriented endmen "corked up", but the other performers "astonished" commentators by the diversity of their hues.[66] Still, their performances were largely in accord with established blackface stereotypes.[67]
These black performers became stars within the broad African-American community, but were largely ignored or condemned by the black bourgeoisie. James Monroe Trotter — a middle-class African American who had contempt for their "disgusting caricaturing" but admired their "highly musical culture"—wrote in 1882 that "few ... who condemned black minstrels for giving 'aid and comfort to the enemy'" had ever seen them perform.[68] Unlike white audiences, black audiences presumably always recognized blackface performance as caricature, and took pleasure in seeing their own culture observed and reflected, much as they would half a century later in the performances of Moms Mabley.[69]
Despite reinforcing racist stereotypes, blackface minstrelsy was a practical and often relatively lucrative livelihood when compared to the menial labor to which most blacks were relegated. Owing to the discrimination of the day, "corking (or blacking) up" provided an often singular opportunity for African-American musicians, actors, and dancers to practice their crafts.[70] Some minstrel shows, particularly when performing outside the South, also managed subtly to poke fun at the racist attitudes and double standards of white society or champion the abolitionist cause. It was through blackface performers, white and black, that the richness and exuberance of African-American music, humor, and dance first reached mainstream, white audiences in the U.S. and abroad.[10] It was through blackface minstrelsy that African American performers first entered the mainstream of American show business.[71] Black performers used blackface performance to satirize white behavior. It was also a forum for the sexual double entendre gags that were frowned upon by white moralists. There was often a subtle message behind the outrageous vaudeville routines:
The laughter that cascaded out of the seats was directed parenthetically toward those in America who allowed themselves to imagine that such 'ni&&er'* showtime was in any way respective of the way we live or thought about ourselves in the real world.[72]:5, 92–92, 1983 ed.[...]
The minstrel show was appropriated by the black performer from the original white shows, but only in its general form. Blacks took over the form and made it their own. The professionalism of performance came from black theater. Some argue that the black minstrels gave the shows vitality and humor that the white shows never had. As the black social critic LeRoi Jones has written:
It is essential to realize that ... the idea of white men imitating, or caricaturing, what they consider certain generic characteristics of the black man's life in America is important if only because of the Negro's reaction to it. (And it is the Negro's reaction to America, first white and then black and white America, that I consider to have made him such a unique member of this society.)[75]
The black minstrel performer was not only poking fun at himself but in a more profound way, he was poking fun at the white man. The cakewalk is caricaturing white customs, while white theater companies attempted to satirize the cakewalk as a black dance. Again, as LeRoi Jones notes:
If the cakewalk is a Negro dance caricaturing certain white customs, what is that dance when, say, a white theater company attempts to satirize it as a Negro dance? I find the idea of white minstrels in blackface satirizing a dance satirizing themselves a remarkable kind of irony—which, I suppose is the whole point of minstrel shows.[75]"-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
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EXCERPT #2
From http://black-face.com/minstrel-shows.htm History of Minstrel Shows
..."One of the first Blacks to perform in blackface for White audiences was William Henry Lane, the inventor of tap dancing who was known to audiences as Master Juba. When Blacks began to work as minstrels in the mid-1840s, becoming established as performers by the 1860s, their contribution ironically did little to alter the tradition. Indeed, it only reinforced the racist Black stereotypes already ingrained both in the theater and in the society.
Initially, Blacks were able to participate in minstrel shows only by declaring themselves "real coons." To meet the expectations of both White and Black audiences, Black minstrels donned burnt cork to blacken their already dark skin and performed comedy routines using the traditional caricatures and racist stereotypes."...
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EXCERPT #3
From http://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-blackface-97987
The problem with blackface, June 11, 2018 Philip S. S. Howard, Assistant Professor of Education, McGill University
"...By impersonating Black people, their dress, their music and their dance (however bastardized), white performers were able to make money doing the things that Black people themselves were unable to make a living doing. Even when Black minstrel troupes emerged, they were not paid as well as white minstrels."...
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EXCERPT #4
from https://www.vox.com/2014/10/29/7089591/dont-get-whats-wrong-with-blackface-heres-why-its-so-offensive What's Wrong With Blackface-Here's Why It's so Offensive" By Jenée Desmond-Harrisjenee. Oct 29, 2014, 1:30pm EDT
..."Blackface is much more than just dark makeup used to enhance a costume.
Its American origins can be traced to minstrel shows. In the mid to late nineteenth century, white actors would routinely use black grease paint on their faces when depicting plantation slaves and free blacks on stage.
To be clear, these weren't flattering representations. At all. Taking place against the backdrop of a society that systematically mistreated and dehumanized black people, they were mocking portrayals that reinforced the idea that African-Americans were inferior in every way.
The blackface caricatures that were staples of Minstrelsy (think: Mammy, Uncle Tom, Buck, and Jezebel) took a firm hold in the American imagination, and carried over into other mediums of entertainment.
Blackface has also been seen in Vaudeville Shows and on Broadway. Yes, black actors sometimes wore blackface, too, because white audiences didn't want to see them on the stage without it.
We have blackface performances to thank for some of the cartoonish, dehumanizing tropes that still manage to make their way into American culture.”...
-snip-
The sentences given in bold font are found in the original article.
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EXCERPT #5
From http://exploringsam.tumblr.com/post/63903779101
Minstrel Shows; 2013
..."I have decided to first write about the minstrel shows that appeared in South Africa in the mid-1800s. When starting my research, it became evident that most of the music was a fusion of traditional styles and imported ones. Not only did the colonisers bring over guns and bibles, but also an entire culture. One of the most important leisure activities they brought over was attending minstrel shows. These shows originated in America as a form of entertainment including comic skits, dancing, music, and other acts performed by white people in blackface (make-up used to create a stereotyped caricature of a black person).
One well-known example of an American group is Christy’s Minstrels who toured in South Africa between July 1890 and June 1898. These shows were popular with both the white and black population, and often sung of spirituals of the American South....
By the 1860s, black American troupes began to tour the country. One of the most famous troupes was Orpheus McAdoo and Virginia Jubilee Singers. Orpheus McAdoo, who was born in North Carolina and studied at Hampton Institute in Virginia, decided to form his own tour company, and eventually toured through Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Their tour through South Africa lasted for a staggering nineteen months, starting in 1889. When they first arrived, McAdoo wrote a letter home, noticing how strong the prejudice was: “the native to-day is treated as badly as ever the slave was treated in Georgia.” He quickly became a model for South Africans, showing them what Africans in America could achieve. Many African choirs soon appeared, modeling themselves off McAdoo’s group. The first African minstrel group performed in South Africa in 1880, but by the 1900s many appeared in the cities and rural areas. Regular meetings and competitions between choirs became popular – this led to an entire sub-culture that still exists in South Africa today.
The Dutch colonists considered New Year to be a big annual feast. To celebrate, all slaves would get a day off on the second of January, and were allowed to celebrate in their own manner. Even after slavery was abolished in 1834, the second of January was still a day of celebration that united the “creole culture” and has become known as Kaapse Klopse. The festival started to attract international guests, with both Christy’s Minstrels and Orpheus McAdoo and Virginia Jubilee Singers performing at the festival while touring. As mentioned before, the Christy’s Minstrels were Caucasian men and women who used blackface to impersonate African American slaves – this influenced the tradition of painting faces black and whitening out the eyes at the Kaapse Klopse festival. Around 1887, local minstrel groups, such as “The Ethiopians,” also started to parade the streets of Cape Town and serenade the locals. This festival is now known as a minstrel festival, with over 13,000 minstrels taking part every year....
Finally, the tradition of minstrelsy, joined with other forms, contributed to the development of isicathamiya (a singing style that focuses on achieving a harmonious blend between voices) which now has a worldwide recognition. Isicathamiya plays a role huge in South African music today, with competitions held every Saturday night in Johannesburg and Durban between local choirs. Overall, minstrel shows have had a lively and interesting history in South Africa. "...
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_McAdoo for information about Orpheus McAdoo and Virginia Jubilee Singers.
A pancocojams post that focuses on blackface minstrelsy's influence on South African culture will be published ASAP and that link will be added to this post.
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