The Minstrel Show

This is a long story to tell. Many of us are curious about it.

There were traces of minstrelsy before 1843. I speculate that these grew out of plays where black characters were played by white actors. When plays were musical, this required the white performer to imitate black music and dance. It was fairly easy access to encounter black music in those days.

Some of the early minstrel songs starting in the 1820s were: Long Tail Blue, Jim Crow, Coal Black Rose, Clare de Kitchen, Ching a Ching Chaw, The Bee-Gum, Zip Coon, Jim Brown, Gumbo Chaff, I Seen Her at de Window, Jenny Get Your Hoe Cake Done, Jim Along Josey, Jonny Boker, Ole Virginy Break Down, Ole Tare River, Settin’ On a Rail, Tell Me Josey Whar You Bin, etc.

The group minstrel show with four or more players began in 1843 in New York City. The first group was created by Daniel Emmett and was named The Virginia Minstrels. These shows were a novelty, mostly in the comedy vein. They toured the world and were seen everywhere. They created excitement similar to the circus coming to town. Mark Twain was amazed and deeply influenced by the early minstrel shows he saw as a boy in Missouri.

These shows are a thing of the past and not much survived about them. Occasionally one finds a written transcript of the banter between the characters. The show had set elements, one of which was the walk around. They used a wide variety of sources as subjects: current events, political speeches, Shakespeare, jokes, skits, etc. Loads of parody.

In this High Brown project we dig up the sheet music songs from the minstrel shows. They were used to promote the shows and was an additional income for the troupes. Re-creating, performing, and listening to these compositions helps one get a better feel for the experience. They work in conjunction with the newer written histories (books).

Some of the first songs in the 1843 shows were: Alabama Joe, Bless dat Lubly Yaller Gal, De Boatman Dance, Charleston Gals, Cudjo’s Wild Hunt, Dandy Jim of Caroline, In de Wild Raccoon Track, My Old Aunt Sally, De New York Gals, Old Dan Tucker, Old King Crow, Stop Knocking at the Door, Whar Did You Cum From.

The next year, 1844, continued with lots more songs: Corn Field Green, Lubly Fan (aka Buffalo Gals), The Jolly Raftsman, Lucy Neal, Lubly Dine, Lucy Long, Going Ober de Mountain, Nigger Put Down dat Jug, De Ole Grey Goose, Old Virginia State, Ole Pee Dee, O Lub Gals Gib Me, Pompy O’ Smash, Sing Darkies Sing, Walk Along John, Walk Jaw Bone.

And so it continues year after year. This is what we do here. We research and demonstrate these kinds of songs. Find them in our song list to the right.

Some of my opinions:

A thorough accounting of African-American sheet music in all its forms would be great. Most presentations are spotty and miss the main points. It was not done out of hatred. The decades of published black music was before the racist age. These songs were for entertainment and relied on African folksong material such as rhythm and dance. They celebrated unique characteristics of blacks through exaggeration and caricature. This was theater. It was melodrama. It was a whole lot of fun.

We tend to graft the horrors of the 20th century back onto this period. Our minds have been imprinted with torture and lynching. We have seen black on black crime. But these were no part of the earlier music such as the minstrel troupe on stage. Was Old Black Joe a minstrel song?