The next mention of a black-face performer, by Mr. White, was in 1815, when an actor known as “Pot Pie” Herbert sang “The Battle of Plattsburg” in Albany; Mr. H. D. Stone in the “Drama,” published in Albany in 1873, credits one “Hop” Robinson as the singer of the song; while “Sol” Smith, a reputed eye-witness, in his (Smith’s) autobiography, published in 1868, credits it to Andrew Jackson Allen, claiming that Allen sang it at the Green Street Theatre, Albany, 1815, playing a black-face character. Obviously there could be but one “first” and a period of fifteen years had apparently elapsed between the reputed appearance of Mr. Graupner and the last named gentleman; in other words, no claims have been made for others between 1799 and 1815. Nevertheless, there was an appearance between these dates, and by none other than Mr. Graupner himself, who, on September 4, 1809 (while “Daddy” Rice was an infant in swaddling clothes), appeared as the “Gay Negro Boy” in a circus at Taunton, Mass.; the honor then beyond any doubt is Mr. Graupner’s; and equally certain is the fact that he appeared in Boston, December 30, 1799. Black-face performers sprang up rapidly, and in earlier days no circus was considered complete without at least one of them.
SOME EARLY BLACK-FACE PERFORMERS.
The following were all popular performers preceding minstrelsy proper; unfortunately the dates of their deaths are practically shrouded in oblivion:
George Nichols; Bob. Farrell, the original “Zip Coon”; Sam Tatnall, Barney Burns, Bill Keller, Horatio Eversell, George Rice (brother of T. D. Rice), William M. Hall, Thomas Blakely, Leicester, etc. Andrew Jackson Allen, already mentioned, was born in New York City in 1776, and according to Laurence Hutton was the costumer, dresser and personal slave of Edwin Forrest for many years; he was quite deaf, and was commonly known as “Dummy” Allen. He died in New York City, October 29, 1853. James Roberts, by the same authority, sang a song in negro character as early as October 7, 1824; he died in 1833.
George Washington Dixon sang “Coal Black Rose,” the air of which was appropriated from an old ballad, as early as 1827. His first New York appearance was of the Lafayette Theatre, July 19, 1828. He later became notorious as a filibuster during the Yucatan disturbances, and died in New Orleans in 1861. Some prominent early minstrel performers whose records and deaths were likewise lost in oblivion are: Charley Jenkins, Master Chestnut, Harry Mestayer, Neil Jamison and many more. There are others, too, of nearly every decade of whom the author has made every research to gather some knowledge, but without success.
“DADDY” RICE.
Thomas Dartmouth Rice was the original “Jim Crow,” the story has been told in many ways, but the authentic version appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1867, and herewith is reproduced verbatim; it is from the pen of Robert P. Nevin.
“Thirty-six years ago a young man, about twenty-five years of age, of a commanding height—six feet full, the heels of his boots not included in the reckoning—and dressed in scrupulous keeping with the fashion of the time, might have been seen sauntering idly along one of the principal streets of Cincinnati. To the few who could claim acquaintance with him he was known as an actor, playing at the time referred to a short engagement as light comedian in a theatre of that city. He does not seem to have attained to any noticeable degree of eminence in his profession, but he had established for himself a reputation among jolly fellows in a social way. He could tell a story, sing a song, and dance a hornpipe, after a style which, however, unequal to complete success on the stage, proved, in private performance to select circles rendered appreciative by accessory refreshments, famously triumphant always. If it must be confessed that he was deficient in the more profound qualities, it is not to be inferred that he was destitute of all the distinguishing, though shallower, virtues of character. He had the merit, too, of a proper appreciation of his own capacity; and his aims never rose above that capacity. As a superficial man he dealt with superficial things, and his dealings were marked by tact and shrewdness. In his sphere he was proficient, and he kept his wits upon the alert for everything that might be turned to professional and profitable use. Thus it was that, as he sauntered along one of the main thoroughfares of Cincinnati, as has been written, his attention was suddenly arrested by a voice ringing clear and full above the noises of the street, and giving utterance, in an unmistakable dialect, to the refrain of a song to this effect:
“Turn about an’ wheel about an’ do jis so,
An’ ebery time I turn about I jump Jim Crow.”