Minstrel show

The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, is an indigenous form of American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, usually performed by white people in blackface. Although blackface dates back to at least 1769, the minstrel show as such has later origins. It began with brief burlesques and comic entr'actes in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade. In the 1850s, minstrelsy was at least partially absorbed into the many "Tom shows", melodramas based at least loosely on Uncle Tom's Cabin. By the end of that decade, minstrel shows as such had become a "lifeless… profitable" institution{{ref|Lott-intro}}, which lingered on for several decades and largely faded out before the turn of the century. Blackface survived minstrelsy by some decades, as it had preceded it.

Related Topics:
American - Variety - Dancing - Music - Blackface - 1769 - Burlesque - Entr'acte - 1830s - 1850s - Tom shows - Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctively American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it resulted in the first broad awareness by white Americans of aspects of African American folk culture.

Related Topics:
1840s - American music industry - Racist - African American

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