Why Two Chapters on Blackface

Most writing on early blackface treats popular blackface minstrelsy as changing little between the emergence of T.D. Rice’s “Jim Crow” act in 1829 and the early 1850’s.

To the contrary, I view blackface as changing rapidly and divide the early development of blackface minstrelsy into three periods–

1. 1830-1835, the early years of T. D. Rice and “Jim Crow”;

2. 1835-1842, Marginal Performers and Comic Substance;

3. 1843-1850, Blackface Bands

The two chapters will cover the periods from 1830-1842 and 1843-1850.