Numbers in brackets refer to endnotes; those in parentheses refer either to stanzas in “Jim Crow” or to lines in “Zip Coon,” and “Gumbo Chaff.” The poems are appended.
Douglass’ unqualified condemnation, while
justifiable in a polemic, is reductive.
His disgusted rejection of minstrel entertainment contrasts dramatically
with the attitude of W. E. B. Du Bois whose defense of the contributions of
Black artists included “American music built on Negro themes . . . such as ‘Old
Black Joe’” as well as praising James Weldon Johnson and composer Will Marion
Cook whose works were, doubtless for commercial considerations, sometimes
clearly derivative of minstrelsy. [2] The
penetration of minstrelsy to the most sophisticated Black artists is evident in
Cook and Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s operetta Clorindy: the Origin of the
Cakewalk (1898) which was heavily influenced by the genre’s conventions and
included songs like "Who Dat Say Chicken In Dis Crowd" and “Hottest
Coon in Dixie.”
In their time minstrel shows were
nationwide popular culture in a young nation, and were valued by many as a sort
of unique national culture. For some
sympathetic to Black culture, far from being degrading, minstrel entertainments
allowed music arising from African-American culture to become popular and “cross
over” to a wider audience. Since
“negroes” were “the true originators of this music,” its performance might
allow the race to “aspire to an equality with the musical and poetical
delineators of all nationalities.” [3] A
popular music magazine in 1856 lamented the lack of musicality of many white
Americans, noting that “we are still dependent on foreigners [Italians and
Germans] for our music,” since “the only musical population of this country are
the negroes of the south.” “Compared
with our taciturn race, the African nature is full of poetry and song. The
Negro is a natural musician.” The apparent
praise arises, however, from a Romantic and racist premise: “the African nature
is full of poetry. Inferior to the white race in reason and intellect, they
have more imagination.” [4]
A similar ambivalence is reflected in a
comprehensive and detailed survey of Black performance in America published in
1889 which noted that that minstrelsy was “the only branch of the dramatic art,
if properly, it can claim to be an art at all, which has had its origin in this
country, while the melody it has inspired is certainly our only approach to a
national music.” The qualifying phrase
questions whether Black art can be art at all, while at the same time it
concedes the quality and distinctly American character of performances
developed from African-American materials. [5]
The historical context confirms the
ambiguity of what today seems an outrightly offensive art. Minstrelsy began in New York City and its
leading performers were virtually all Northerners and no defenders of slavery. Performers like Thomas “Daddy” Rice claimed
to be imitating valued Black models. As
an actor Rice sometimes played Uncle Tom in blackface in the extremely popular
enactments of the novel which served as propaganda for the anti-slavery
cause. Dan Emmett, the founder of the
first troupe of minstrel performers, was from frontier Ohio. He, too, was an opponent of slavery and
reportedly regretted having written his biggest hit “Dixie” when the South made
it an anthem (Lincoln was very fond of the song as well). [6]
Though his dialect songs no longer find listeners, Henry Work Clay in
“Kingdom Coming” expressed rebellion against master and overseer and celebrated
liberation (“ De whip is lost, de han'cuff broken”) in his work while in his
life he maintained an Underground Railway stop.
Recent studies have argued for the
complexity of the theatrical phenomenon.
A recent popular account claims that minstrel shows expressed a
progressive point of view and attracted a multi-racial audience specifically
because they “embodied the strivings and frustrations of laborers of all races
and circumstances who were wise to their oppressive masters.” In this writer’s view the blackface character
is a “compellingly transgressive cross-racial persona, with its slyly veiled
but unmistakable challenge to power.” [7]
A scholarly treatment elides race while
suggesting that minstrelsy was progressive.
The shows “represented, in a comic way, the natural and democratic
values usually fostered by the Indian, the Yankee, or the frontiersman against
artificiality and elitism.” [8] Calling
the minstrel form “shot through with ambivalence,” another academic study
raises the possibility that blackface manifested a genuine “African-American
people’s culture,” [9] while yet another notes that in general early “minstrels
deplored the cruelty of slavery.” [10]
Ambivalence emerges inevitably from the
blackface tradition. While the comic
figures of the minstrel stage were portrayed as buffoons (a fate common to many
comic characters), their antics accompanied the movement of music based in part
on Black models to the center of popular taste, a dominance now globalized with
the influence of blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues. In this way the rise of minstrelsy might,
like the prominence of Gnaoua musicians in Morocco, be viewed as a result of
West African musical genius. The fact
remains that the minstrel stage constructed and perpetuated negative racial
stereotypes which, while likely reassuring to the white audience, were socially
destructive. Despite this general
effect, the songs and skits could sometimes express authentic aspirations of African-Americans
while satirizing the master class. Some
minstrel comedy is embodied in projections of desire which apply to all
people.
The polyvalence of what might seem on the
surface a simple and unambiguous set of conventions is in fact inherent in its
essence. A masquerade in which a white
person aped a Black (reminiscent of African masquerades and forgotten European
ones) was capable of further turns. Soon
Black performers were imitating white ones imitating Black ones. Once the African-American with the stage name
of Juba (William Henry Lane) became sufficiently celebrated (in part through
Dickens’ description of him in American Notes) to attract imitators, a
viewer witnessing their derivative shows could see a white man pretending to be
a Black imitating a white person in the role of a Black one. The vertigo of such a situation is
unsettling and clearly problematic.
The original texts of the classic minstrel
characters provide a body of evidence more direct and revealing than theoretical
speculation or circumstantial historical investigation. Among the most celebrated of the early
minstrel characters were Jim Crow, originated by Thomas “Daddy” Rice, Zip Coon,
performed by George Washington Dixon, and Gumbo Chaff, performed by both Rice
and Dixon. An examination of the songs
attributed to each of these contributes to an understanding of the racial
attitudes of the performers and their audiences.
The Jim Crow spectacle doubtless centered
on the dancing which was surely expert but also exotic, and likely a bit
grotesque. Rice’s model was a disabled
man whose performance entertained people in the same way as kings had once been
amused at dwarfs. The improbable makeup
must have had a comic impact like Groucho Marx’s mustache when it was painted
on, or Chaplin’s villains’ towering eyebrows.
These significant elements are lost.
The character of Jim Crow underwent considerable reuse and adaptation on
the minstrel stage and beyond, but the present analysis, like those that follow,
is based on the text of the original poem alone.
Jim Crow appears in Rice’s song
fundamentally as a hero, a man of prodigious abilities and appetites, a fighter
and a lover. With physical strength
sufficient to “split a horse block” (13) he is “full of fight” (5). The song concludes with an aggressive
challenge to racists.
An I caution all white dandies,
Not to come in my way,
For if dey insult me,
dey'll in de gutter lay.
(44)
Like Gilgamesh, Achilles, and Lancelot,
Jim Crow is a lover as well. He cannot
stay away from the river due to the many “galls” there. He admires women in Hoboken, too, where he
sees them “drinking lemonade.” (26) He
is enthusiastic about marriage and looks down on divorce, imagining himself
proudly strolling down Broadway with his wife on his arm. (40-42) This final image is in a way definitive: what
Jim Crow wants is respect.
The song, however, is comic, enlivened by
carnival spirit including the sort of fanciful boasts characteristic of the
tall tales associated with the frontier.
Just as Davy Crockett was said to claim to be able to “whip my weight in
wildcats” [11], Jim Crow boasts, “I wip my weight in wildcats.” (7) Crockett claims to be “half alligator,” while
Jim Crow says he could “eat an Alligator.” (7)
With similar verbal display Jim Crow’s fighting prowess leaves one
opponent nothing but “a little grease spot” (6) while another turns gray with
fright. (14)
When Jim Crow comes to comment directly on
politics, the views expressed are direct and uncompromising. The singer contemplates emancipation,
declaring that the slaves’ “wish for freedom” is “shining in deir eyes” and
boldly stating an abolitionist position.
I'm for freedom,
An for Union altogether,
Aldough I'm a black man,
De white is call'd my broder.
(39)
De great Nullification,
And fuss in de South,
Is now before Congress,
To be tried by word ob mouth.
(34)
Dey hab had no blows yet,
And I hope dey nebber will,
For its berry cruel in bredren
One anoders blood to spill.
(35)
In spite of the obvious insulting racial
stereotypes implied by the makeup, the dialect, and the doubtlessly weird dance
movements, Jim Crow as a character seems more a comically exaggerated frontier
hero like Davy Crockett or Mike Fink than weak and simply ridiculous like the
movies’ Lincoln Perry (Stepin Fetchit) or Willie Best.
Zip Coon is likewise a comic figure,
boastful in spite of his uneducated language; though he claims to be a “larned
skoler,” (1) though the reader suspects his deepest learning concerns the
pursuit of the “possum up a gum tree” or the “coony on a stump.” (5) His love
with Suky, though rustic, is mutual. The
frivolous tone of the song with its effervescent nonsense syllables is
inescapable, but Zip Coon, like Jim Crow, has a partisan political position. Like Andrew Jackson and many of the country’s
working class, he opposes the United States Bank, but his next line is a startling
one: “de bery nex President, will be Zip Coon.” (32) He then tops this declaration by naming Davy
Crockett, who was found to have a good deal in common with Jim Crow, as
vice-president. (47) Zip Coon, far from
accepting the status quo, clearly advocates grass roots rebellion. He is appetitive and boastful, but these are
the characteristics of heroes as well as fools.
“Gumbo Chaff,” another character Rice
popularized with a song and dance, while he begins in slavery, ends in
bourgeois propriety, introducing his wife to neighbors. A riverboat man skilled at cat-fishing, he is
nonetheless mistreated by his master whose death then appears a matter of
retributive justice. [12] He has little
doubt of the slaveowner’s posthumous fate.
An' I do believe sure enough he's gone to de debil,
For when he live you know he light upon me so,
But now he's gone to tote de firewood way down below. (22-4)
The deceased master’s wife seems to have
troubles of her own including an acquisitive new lover whose exploitation of
her wealth is the occasion for another sympathetic reference to Davy Crockett.
(28) Perhaps she also exercises less
control over the slaves, for Gumbo Chaff runs off to New Orleans where he
astonishes the locals with his “genius” at handling cotton bales: “dey swore it
was de debil or old Gumbo Chaff.” (42)
In this free environment he flourishes, dancing and learning French,
until he stows away for a return upriver to a satisfied retirement where he
recounts his career for the amusement of “white folks,” a task he accomplishes
by the very act of speaking of it. (63)
Far from finding contentment in slavery,
Jim Crow, Zip Coon, and Gumbo Chaff all express the desire to escape their
oppression. In the first and last
instances they achieve a respectable married life and in the second (in
imagination, at any rate) the presidency of the United States. The comic attributes of all three are in part
the appetitive proclivities often prominent in comedy magnified by the
exaggerations of “tall tale” lore. Yet
Douglass had good reason to complain that minstrel performers “pander to the
corrupt taste of their white fellow-citizens,” “corrupt” because they direct
laughter at African-Americans as they coopt their skin color and thus reinforce
the racism that has poisoned this republic since its founding. Minstrelsy as a Creolized art, a mixture of
European and African elements, was perhaps bound from its conception to a
profound ambivalence.
2. W. E. Burghardt DuBois, “The Negro in
Literature and Art,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, Sep., 1913, Vol. 49, The Negro's Progress in Fifty Years
(Sep., 1913). Cook had studied in
Heinrich Jacobson in Germany and in America with Dvořák. He directed an operatic version of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin in 1898.
3. “The Black Opera,” first published in the New
York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1855,
reprinted in Dwight’s Journal of Music, July 3, 1858.
4. “Songs of the Blacks,” Dwight’s Journal of
Music, 15 November 1856.
5. Hutton, “The Negro on the Stage,” Harper’s
June 1889.
6. Hans Nathan, Dan Emmett and the rise of
early Negro minstrelsy, p. 275.
Emmet wrote the fife-and-drum manual for the Union Army.
7. Sarah Richardson, “The History of the Real
Jim Crow,” American History,
April, 2018.
8.
Cory Rosenberg, “Ole’ Zip Coon is a Mighty Learned Scholar: Blackface
Minstrelsy as Reflection and Foundation of American Popular Culture,” Gettysburg
College Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 3 Article 6, 2013.
9.
Eric Lott, "’The Seeming Counterfeit’: Racial Politics and Early
Blackface Minstrelsy,” American Quarterly Vol. 43, No. 2 (Jun., 1991).
10. Anthony J. Berret, S. J.,
“Huckleberry Finn and the Minstrel Show,” American Studies, Vol. 27, No.
2 (fall 1986).
11. John S. C. Abbott, David Crockett: His
Life and Adventures, pt. 4.
12. Indifference or relief at a master’s death
appears in numerous other minstrel songs as well, the most familiar being
“Jimmy Crack Corn,” a song popularized by Dan Emmett's Virginia Minstrels.
Rice sheet music publication 1832
Jump Jim Crow
1
Come listen all you galls and boys
I's just from Tuckyhoe,
I'm goin to sing a little song,
My name is Jim Crow
Chorus
Weel about and turn about and do
jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim
Crow.
2
Oh, I'm a roarer on de Fiddle,
And down in old Virginny,
They say I play de skyentific
Like Massa Pagannini.
3
I git 'pon a flat boat
I cotch de Uncle Sam
Den I went to see de place
Where dey kill'd Packenham.
4
I went down to de riber,
I did'nt mean to stay,
But dere I see so many galls,
I couldn't get away.
5
And den I go to Orleans
An feel so full of fight
Dey put me in de Calaboose,
An keep me dare all night.
6
When I got out I hit a man,
His name I now forget,
but dere was nothing left
'Sept a little grease spot
7
I wip my weight in wildcats
I eat an Alligator,
And tear up more ground
Dan kifer 50 load of tater
8
I sit upon a Hornet's nest,
I dance upon my head,
I tie a Wiper' round my neck
And den I go to bed.
9
Dere's Possum up de gumtree
An Raccoon in de hollow,
Wake Snakes for June bugs
Stole my half a dollar
10
A ring tail'd monkey
An a rib nose Babboon,
Went out de odder day
To spend de arternoon.
11
Oh de way dey bake de hoecake
In old Virginny neber tire
Dey put de hoe upon de foot
An hole it to de fire.
12
Oh by trade I am a carpenter,
But be it understood,
De way I get my liben is,
By sawing de tick oh wood.
13
I'm a full blooded niggar,
Oh de real ole stock,
An wid my head and shoulder
I can split a horse block.
14
I struck a Jersey niggar,
In de street de oder day,
An I hope I neber stir
If he didn't turn gray.
15
I'm berry much afraid of late
Dis jumping will be no good.
For while de Crow are dancing,
De Wites will saw de wood.
16
But if dey get honest,
By sawing wood like slaves
Der'es an end to de business,
Ob our friend Massa Hays.
17
I met a Philadelphia niggar
Dress'd up quite nice & clean
But de way he 'bused de Yorkers
I thought was berru mean.
18
So I knocked down dis Sambo
And shut up his light,
For I'm jist about as sassy,
As if I was half white.
19
But he soon jumped up again,
An 'gan for me to feel,
Says I go away you niggar,
Or I'll skin you like an eel.
20
I'm so glad dat I'm a niggar,
And don't you wish you was too
For den you'd gain popularity
By jumping Jim Crow.
21
Now my brodder niggars,
I do not think it right,
Dat you should laugh at dem
Who happen to be white.
22
Kase it dar misfortune,
And dey'd spend ebery dollar,
If dey only could be
Gentlemen ob colour.
23
It almost break my heart,
To see dem envy me,
And from my soul I wish dem,
Full as black as we.
24
What stuf it is in dem,
To make de Debbil black
I'll prove dat he is white
In de twinkling of a crack.
25
For you see loved brodders,
As true as he had a tail,
It is his very weakness
What makes him turn pale.
26
I went to Hoboken,
To hab a promenade,
An dar I see de pretty gals,
Drinking de Lemonade.
27
Dat sour and dat sweet,
Is berry good by gum',
But de best of lemonade is,
Made by adding rum.
28
At de Swan cottage,
Is de place I tink,
Whar dey make dis 'licious
An 'toxicating drink.
29
Some go to Weehawk,
An some to Brooklyn hight
But dey better stay at home,
If dey want to see de sight.
30
To go to de museum,
I'm sure it is dare duty,
If for noting else,
Jist to see de sleeping beauty.
31
An dare is daddy Lambert,
An a skeleton on he hunkie,
An likeness of Broadway dandy
In a glass case of monkies.
32
De Broadway bells,
When dey carry full sail,
Around dem wear a funny ting,
Just like a fox tail.
33
When you hear de name of it,
I sure it make you roar,
Why I ax'd 'em what it was,
And dey said it was a boar.
34
De great Nullification,
And fuss in de South,
Is now before Congress,
To be tried by word ob mouth.
35
Dey hab had no blows yet,
And I hope dey nebber will,
For its berry cruel in bredren
One anoders blood to spill.
36
Wid Jackson at de head,
Dey soon de ting may settle
For ole Hickory is a man,
Dat's tarnal full ob mettle.
37
Should dey get to fighting,
Perhaps de blacks will rise,
For deir wish for freedom,
Is shining in deir eyes.
38
An if de blacks should get free,
I guess dey'll fee some bigger,
An I shall concider it,
A bold stroke for de niggar.
39
I'm for freedom,
An for Union altogether,
Aldough I'm a black man,
De white is call'd my broder.
40
I'm for a union to a gal,
An dis is a stubborn fact,
But if I marry an dont like it,
I'll nullify de act.
41
I'm tired of being a single man
An I'm tarmined to get a wife
For what I think de happiest
Is de swee married life.
42
Its berry common 'mong de white
To marry and get divorced
But dat I'll nebber do
Unless I'm really forced
43
I think I see myself in Broadway
Wid my wife upon my arm,
And to follow up de fashion,
Dere sure can be no harm.
44
An
I caution all white dandies,
Not
to come in my way,
For
if dey insult me,
dey'll
in de gutter lay.
Old Zip Coon (1834)
O ole Zip Coon he is a larned
skoler,
O ole Zip Coon he is a larned
skoler,
O ole Zip Coon he is a larned
skoler,
Sings posum up a gum tree an coony
in a holler,
possum up a gum tree, coony on a
stump,
possum up a gum tree, coony on a
stump,
possum up a gum tree, coony on a
stump,
Den over dubble trubble, Zip Coon
will jump.
O zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a duden
day. 10
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O it's old Suky blue skin, she is
in lub wid me,
I went the udder arter noon to
take a dish ob tea;
What do you tink now, Suky hab for
supper,
Why chicken foot an possum heel,
widout any butter.
O zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day. 20
Did you eber see the wild goose,
sailing on de ocean,
O de wild goose motion is a bery
pretty notion;
Ebry time de wild goose, beckons
to de swaller,
You hear him google google google
google goller.
O zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
I tell you what will happin den,
now bery soon,
De Nited States Bank will be blone
to de moon; 30
Dare General Jackson, will him
lampoon,
An de bery nex President, will be
Zip Coon.
O zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
And wen Zip Coon our President
shall be,
He make all de little Coons sing
possum up a tree;
O how de little Coons, will dance
an sing,
Wen he tie dare tails togedder,
cross de lim dey swing. 40
O zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Now mind wat you arter, you tarnel
kritter Crocket,
You shant go head widout ole Zip,
he is de boy to block it;
Zip shall be President, Crocket
shall be vice,
An den dey two togedder, will hab
de tings nice.
O zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day. 50
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
I hab many tings to tork about,
but don't know which come first,
So here de toast to old Zip Coon,
before he gin to rust;
May he hab de pretty girls, like
de King ob ole,
To sing dis song so many times,
'fore he turn to mole.
O zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
O Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day.
Zip a duden duden duden zip a
duden day. 60
Gumbo Chaff (1850)
On de Ohio bluff in de state of
Indiana,
Dere's where I live, chock up to
de Habbana,
Eb'ry mornin early Massa gib me
likker,
I take my net and paddle and I put
out de quicker,
I jump into my kiff and I down the
river driff,
And I cotch as many cat fish as
ever nigger liff
Now dis morning on a driff log
tink I see an Alligator,
I scull my skiff around and chuck
him sweet potatoe,
I cratch him on de head and try
for to vex it,
But I couldn't fool de varmint now
how I could fix it; 10
So I picks a brick an' I fotch'd
him sich a lick,
But twant nothin' but a pine knot
'pom a big stick.
Now old Mass build a barn to put
de fodder in,
Dis ting an dat ting an' one ting
anodder;
Thirty ninth Decembur time come a
rise ob water,
An' it carry Massas barn much
farder dan it ought to;
Then old Massa swear, he cuss an'
tare his hair,
Becase de water tuck de Barn off
he cou'dnt tell where.
Now old Massa die on de
lebenteenth of April,
I put him in de troff what cotch
de sugar maple, 20
I digs a deep hole right out upon
de level,
An' I do believe sure enough he's
gone to de debil,
For when he live you know he light
upon me so,
But now he's gone to tote de
firewood way down below.
Den Missis she did marry Big Bill
de weaver,
Soon she found out he was a gay
deceiver,
He grab all de money and he put it
in his pocket,
And de way he did put out was a
sin to Davy Crocket;
So old Missis cry and 'gin to wipe
her eye,
For she marry Bill de weaver she
cou'dnt tell why. 30
Now one day de sun gone down an'
de days work over,
Old Gumbo Chaff he tink he'd live
in Clover;
He jump into a boat wid his old
Tamborine,
While shoonerhead Sambo play'd de
Violin;
De way we sail'd to New Orleans
never be forgotten,
Dey put me on de Levy dock to roll
a bale of Cotton.
When I cotch hold de bale oh! den
you ought to seen us!
First time dis child 'gan to show
his genus;
I got hold de corner an' I give
him such a hug,
An' I light upon him like a duck
'pon a june bug; 40
Oh! you ought to been dare to see
de Niggers laff,
For dey swore it was de debil or
old Gumbo Chaff.
I lern'd to talk de French oh! a
la mode de dancey,
Kick him shoe, tare him wool,
parle vo de Francey,
None jaw Madamselle, Stevadors and
Riggers,
Apple jack and sassafras and
little Indian Niggers;
De natives laff'd an swore dat I
was corn'd,
For dey neber heard sich French
since dey was born'd.
I leab New Orleans early one day
morning,
I jump'd aboard de boat jist as de
day was dawning, 50
I hide behind de wood where de
Niggers allways toss'um,
And lay low like de Coon when him
tries to fool de Possum;
I lay dare still doe 'twas rather
diffikill,
An dey did'nt find me out 'till I
got to Louisville.
Dare Jim beats de drum an old
Joe's de fifer,
An I is dat child what can read an
cifer;
Twice one is five den carry six to
seven,
Twice six is twenty nine an
eighteen's eleven,
So 'twixt you and me its very
plain to see,
Dat I learnt to play de Banjo by
de double rule of three. 60
Now I rive on our farm on de Ohio
Bluff,
An' I tink of fun an' frolick old
Gumbo's had enough;
Oh! de white folks at home I very
much amuse,
When I sing dis song an tell 'em
all de news;
So we'd music all night an dey set
up sich a laff
When I introduced de Niggers to
Mrs Gumbo Chaff.
Thanks for this article, very nice.
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