Phil Rice gives us this striking vision of slavery carried south in the service of the Filibuster president, General William Walker:
Rouleau: “In the Wake of Jim Crow” (2012)
How did impromptu bands of sailors in blackface become a significant channel of 19th century US cultural diplomacy?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852-1859?)
“Euclid… is no child for effecting social revolutions, but an impassioned song may set a world in conflagration.” ~ The London Times (3 September 1852)
Abrahams: Singing the Master (1993)
This carefully researched survey reconstructs the multicontinental roots of antebellum Southern cornshucking rituals:
Emerson: “Doo-Dah!” (1997)
Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture
Hodgson: Jim Crow’s Vagaries (1830s?)
In which we discovered such international gems as “Jim Crow’s Trip to France” & sundry others…
Nelly Gray (Hanby, 1856)
Benjamin Hanby wrote Nelly Gray in 1856, in response to a fugitive slave case …
Home, Sweet Home (Bishop & Payne, 1823)
John Howard Payne’s lyrics, from the 1823 opera, “Clari, Maid of Milan”, described as “a jewel, cut and set with perfect art”:
Lhamon: Raising Cain (2000)
Lhamon reconstructs the hidden history of public dance, musical fusion, Jim Crow, and racial identity (& transgression) in antebellum U.S. cities, then traces it forward into the 20th century:
Converse: New and Complete Method for the Banjo, With or Without a Master (A.K.A. “Green”) (1865)
This instructive tutor by the “Father of the Banjo” bears a distinctively Irish flavor …
Banjo History Videos
Here are some videos on banjo history, noting especially the early banjo’s roots in Africa and the Caribbean: Akonting Roundtable Segment One: The History and Music of the Akonting
United States it am de place (Rice, 1858)
This mysterious half-dialect minstrel song from Rice’s 1858 Method for the Banjo offers an intriguing glimpse into the economics and racial politics of the antebellum era…
The Hardtacks 