The Blackface Humor on the Minstrel Stage: The Shape of Racism, Sentimentalism, and Mass Culture in Nineteenth-Century America

Abstract

This study aims to overview various facets of Blackface minstrelsy through the lens of racial ideas, sentimentalism, and mass culture in nineteenth-century America. Blackface minstrelsy not only created black stereotypes with its blackface mask but also provided an opportunity to try cultural experiments by mixing up different ethnic legacies on the American soil. Blackface minstrels were actually in complicity with contemporary sentimental culture, which put emphasis on flowery feminine make-ups and excessive etiquettes. The audience from low class white males, as well as the blackface performers, projected their socioeconomic frustration into the feminine and black “Others.” Nineteenth-century sentimental culture was often criticized on the minstrel stage by its discrepancy between appearance and reality. Nevertheless, this black facade worked as a means of embracing diverse ethnic legacies from operas, folk songs, folk dances, and even festival customs. Blackface minstrelsy was a catalyst to transform the aforesaid elements into a solid mass culture in the American context. The urban mass in nineteenth-century America were attracted by the blackface humor on the minstrel stage. Especially, the vulgar humor was used as a principal way of sticking heterogenous elements together. And as Constance Rourke has commented on, it played an important role in creating the American national character. After all, blackface minstrelsy discloses the tricky bondage between racism, sentimentalism, and cultural diversity in nineteenth-century America.