February 6, 1843 marked the “official” beginning of the era of blackface minstrel shows. Billy Whitlock, Dan Emmett, Dick Pelham, and Frank Brower took the plunge, performing at Bowery Amphitheatre in New York. The debut was broken up into two acts and featured live music—including the violin, banjo, bones, and a tambourine (1). The first half of the show depicted black life in the urban North, while the second focused on plantation slave life in the South. Of the four original blackfacers, Dan Emmett
gained the most fame. He went and above and beyond his time in the Virginia Minstrels and was known to be "a talented fiddler, singer, banjoist, comedian, and author of plays and songs for the minstrel show (2)."
Shortly after the Virginia Minstrels original performances, groups began to pop up nationwide. In other words, they were the catalyst of minstrelsy's sudden fame. The Ethiopian Serenaders presented a significant example of this fame when they were invited to perform for the president in 1844 (3). Richard Crawford noted in his book America's Musical Life: A History that through its lifespan, "Presidents Tyler, Polk, Fillmore, and Pierce were entertained by blackface entertainment.” Crawford also discussed the idea that “minstrelsy proved to be the first musical genre to reverse the east-to-west transatlantic flow of performers to North America.” The Virginia Minstrels proved to be the strongest initial example of this when it took minstrelsy overseas, touring the British Isles shortly after its formation (4).
The Virginia Minstrels symbolized the first turning point in blackface minstrelsy. Previously, minstrel shows did not revolve solely around degrading blackface comedy. Performers had also focused on other “real” topics, such as politics, class, gender, and race (5). According to historian Stephen Johnson:
gained the most fame. He went and above and beyond his time in the Virginia Minstrels and was known to be "a talented fiddler, singer, banjoist, comedian, and author of plays and songs for the minstrel show (2)."
Shortly after the Virginia Minstrels original performances, groups began to pop up nationwide. In other words, they were the catalyst of minstrelsy's sudden fame. The Ethiopian Serenaders presented a significant example of this fame when they were invited to perform for the president in 1844 (3). Richard Crawford noted in his book America's Musical Life: A History that through its lifespan, "Presidents Tyler, Polk, Fillmore, and Pierce were entertained by blackface entertainment.” Crawford also discussed the idea that “minstrelsy proved to be the first musical genre to reverse the east-to-west transatlantic flow of performers to North America.” The Virginia Minstrels proved to be the strongest initial example of this when it took minstrelsy overseas, touring the British Isles shortly after its formation (4).
The Virginia Minstrels symbolized the first turning point in blackface minstrelsy. Previously, minstrel shows did not revolve solely around degrading blackface comedy. Performers had also focused on other “real” topics, such as politics, class, gender, and race (5). According to historian Stephen Johnson:
“The genius of what the Virginia Minstrels were about needed only the melding of falsifying representation to the forces of music, economics, and advertising to chance forever the direction taken by blackface entertainment (6).”
1) Taylor, Yuval, and Jake Austen. "How Nineteenth-Century Black Minstrelsy Made Blackface Black." In Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-hop, 56. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012
2) Hampson, Thomas. "Daniel Decatur Emmet & The American Minstrel (1815-1904)." PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/emmet.html#1.
3) Crawford, Richard. "Blacks, Whites, and the Minstrel Stage." America's Musical Life: A History, 219. New York: Norton, 2001
4, 5) Johnson, Stephen. Burnt Cork: Traditions and Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. 63.