Jim Crow, Minstrelsy, and the Rise of Mass Culture in the Nineteenth

Century

1.) Sambo
a. Character betrayal of simple docile black man. Child like. Laughing a lot. Always
happy and always having a good time.

2.) Zip Coon

a. Someone who attempted to talk and act like white people who wore tattered
suits.

3.) Mammy
a. Opposite of how white women were depicted. Strong and masculine, she is
happily loyal to the white family. She’s heavier, unattractive. Never prettier
than the white women of the house. Wanted to portray her as a non sexual
human.

4.) Blackface
a. They used soot and burnt cork and different types of oil rubbed on their faces.
Blacks were depicted as being goofy but in movies they were depicted as savages

5.) Bert Williams

Most prominent black face artist

Key Ideas/Questions
1.) How did the popular culture characters of Sambo, Zip Coon, and Mammy justify the
institution of slavery?
a. Because they seemed willing and happy to help the white people they were
enslaved by. Sambos were portrayed as happy and having fun being a slave.
They were portrayed as being happy as slaves.
b. Zipcoon justifies slavery by if blacks were given freedom they would not be able
to handle it properly or get an education which is why it is good for them.
c. Mammy justifies slavery by she is incorporated as almost a part of the family.
Almost like a mother figure.

2.) Why did popular culture depictions of blacks transform from the bumbling Sambo
characters into brutes/savages?

Blacks were identified as brutes. When slavery ended the characters of

bumbling sambo transformed into savages because whites were scared of black
people having independence. They made them victims, but also not human, so
to portray black children as savages and furry animals.
Stephanie Dunson argues that blackface performances resulted in the erasure of
black identity. What evidence of this do you find in the documentary Ethnic
Notions?
Bert Williams changed his appearance, he changed his speech, he erased
his personal identity to become this performer.

Dunson also argues that blackface gave whites a sort of transgressive release.
How so?
White men were supposed to be civilized, to be stern and faceless in
public. Blackface let them be “goofy”
 The Rise of “Hot Music” in the Twentieth Century

Hot Music consists of two aspects:

1.) Emphasis on rhythm (drive)
2.) Exaggerated and unexpected syncopation (swerve)

Drive is what gives a song propulsion, momentum. A good synonym for drive is “stomp.”

“Swerve” is
“Hot solos were generally performed at considerable speed and were characterized by a
frenetic quality, an urgent sense of rhythm, agitated syncopation, eager anticipations of the
beat, and an earthy or ‘dirty’ tone.”