Charcoal Faced White Men To a few nineteenth-century Americans, brass bands and modest singing women were “the only true American drama” (Blacking Up, Pg 1). Most people simply enjoyed the “nigger minstrel.” shows that featured white men dressed in ragged clothes, black painted faces, and the ability to somewhat sing and talk like an African-American. These shows covered America from Niagara Falls to the Gulf Coast, and from Catalina Island to Virginia Beach. For more than …showed first 75 words of 884 total…

…showed last 75 words of 884 total…the normal Negro.” (Knendrick, pg162-165) The shows were not only for personal enjoyment, but cut deep into the backbone of the American identity. (Blacking Up, Pg 50-85) Works Cited Black Minstrelsy. http://etext.virgina.edu/railton/minstrel.html Cockrell, Dale. Demons of Disorder: Early Black Face Minstrels and their World.October 1997. Kendrick John. Minstrel Shows. http:www.Musicals101.com/minstrel.html Toll, Robert C. Blacking Up: Minstrel Show in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford University, 1997