Jim Crow, American

Actor T. D. Rice (1806–1860) popularized the Jim Crow character on the American stage. W. T. Lhamon, Jr., is Emeritus Professor of English at Florida State University and Lecturer in American Studies at Smith College.

• * Preface * List of Illustrations Introduction * An Extravagant and Wheeling Stranger * Lateral Sufficiency * Gumbo Cuff and the New York Desdemonas * Change the Joke and Slip the Stereotype * The Phases of Jim Crow's Runaway Stage Songs *"Coal Black Rose" *"The Original Jim Crow" *"Jim Crow, Still Alive!!!" *"Dinah Crow" *"Jim Crow" (London) *"De Original Jim Crow" *"Jim Crow" (Boston) *"All deWomen Shout Loo! Loo!" *"Clare de Kitchen" *"Gombo Chaff " *"Sich a Gitting Up Stairs" *"Jim Crack Corn, or the Blue Tail Fly" *"Settin' on a Rail, or, Racoon Hunt" Plays * Oh! Hush! or, The Virginny Cupids! * Virginia Mummy * Bone Squash * Flight to America * The Peacock and the Crow * Jim Crow in His New Place * The Foreign Prince * Yankee Notes for English Circulation * Otello Street Prose *"The Life of Jim Crow" *"A Faithful Account of the Life of Jim Crow the American Negro Poet" * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index

Rice's songs and burlesques collected in this fascinating volume are interesting only for their racist tinge and their importance as artifacts of early- and mid-nineteenth-century American show business...This book will fascinate students of history and aficionados of historical American theater.