Who Was Jim Crow? | Thomas D Rice

If someone asked you “Who was Jim Crow”, what would you tell them? Interestingly, if you asked this question in public randomly, you’d get a host of different answers. For sure, most would contain only a partial truth. However, they wouldn’t be wrong. They’d just be incomplete. Why, because Jim Crow is a complex term.

The term came into use in the 19th century. At first, it was used to describe Blacks in a manner that expressed contempt or ridicule. However, the term Jim Crow later became used to describe the laws and customs which oppressed black people. So, both perspectives are correct. However, they don’t explain the origin of the term or give insight into who Jim Crow was.

In this post, I’ll attempt to clarify who Jim Crow was. Hopefully, we have a more clear picture by the end. Let’s get started.

Who was Jim Crow, Really?

A White man called Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice was responsible for the rise of the Jim Crow name. Later, this name became synonymous with almost every form of discrimination that Black people have experienced. And, it continues to be applied to new “violations” facing Blacks in America today. So, who was Jim Crow, really?

The Character

According to historical accounts, Rice created the Jim Crow character when he was a struggling “actor”. The story goes that he came across a black person singing a song. It is unsure whether that black person was an old man or a young boy. However, here are 5 verses that give us an example of what he sang while in character…

The Jim Crow Song

Verse 1

Come listen all you galls and boys I’s jist from Tuckyhoe,
I’m going to sing a little song, my name’s Jim Crow,
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 2

Oh I’m a roarer on de fiddle, and down in old Virginny,
They say I play de skyentific like Massa Pagannini.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 3

I went down to de riber, I didn’t mean to stay,
But dere I see so many galls, I couldn’t get away.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 4

I git upon a flat boat, I cotch de uncle Sam,
But I went to see de place where de kill’d Packenham.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 5

And den I do to Orleans and feel so full of fight,
Dey put me in de Calaboose and keep me dare all night.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

The above text is believed to have been published in the late 1820’s. Where recorded, there is no composer or lyricist credited. Note the spelling and punctuation errors. They are intentional. The errors are meant to reinforce the ugly racial stereotype of black illiteracy. As black literacy increased, efforts like this aimed to counter that perception.

Over time, Rice added more and more verses to the Jim Crow song. Basically, he spoofed current events. In addition, he crafted verses that fit special occasions. One early American edition of the sheet music included 44 verses. However, it would be insensitive to even include them here. To be honest, I just can’t bring myself to give them life right now. Maybe I’ll add some of them later.

The Jim Crow Model

It really doesn’t matter whether Rice modeled Jim Crow on an old man or a young boy. The truth is that we probably won’t ever know for certain. Wha’t most important was that he meet to create an image of the Black man. An image that was far from flattering. Further, it doesn’t matter if it was supposed to have been done in jest. I’m sure you can think of plenty of times where you heard, “I was joking” as an excuse. In any case, “Jim Crow” was presented as a highly exaggerated, extremely stereotypical black character.

Jim Crow Stereotypes

Rice and others like him promoted stereotypical depictions of black people. Essentially, that helped to promote the belief that blacks were lazy, stupid, inherently less human, and unworthy of integration. At the same time, blacks were being victimized. While lynch mobs were exacting physical violence, people like this were spreading racist caricatures. They were everywhere including novels, sheet music, theatrical plays, and minstrel shows.

Believe it or not, blacks later replaced these white minstrels doing the same thing. Amazingly, they “blackened” their faces just like the whites did. Ultimately, you ended up having a bunch of blacks pretending to be whites pretending to be blacks. Sadly, they performed the Coon Shows too. So, blacks became responsible for dehumanizing other blacks. This cycle helped to further the perceived desirability of racial segregation.

Lazy

Jim Crow was lazy. He showed a disinclination toward activity, or exertion, despite his obvious ability to act or to exert himself. Rice’s portrayal used it as a negative or a disrespectful connotation. And, his performance illustrated a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward black people. To make matters worse, laziness is a Christian sin. What does that say about black folks to good Christian White folk?

Stupid

Jim Crow was portrayed as being stupid. He had both a great lack of intelligence and a lack of common sense. Rice made every effort to push that narrative down to the way he spelled the words in the script. It may have seemed like a joke but in reality the goal was to express criticism of blacks. It was a subtle form of hostility and disregard.

Inherently Less Human

Rice presented Jim Crow as if he were subhuman. In other words, the way that he spoke and his actions weren’t worthy of a real human being. He was subhuman, and as such, people saw him as below what was appropriate for human beings. Although anatomically similar to human beings, Rice cast Blacks as more related to the great apes because they lacked the more highly developed brain of the homosapien. He demonstrated that by showing they lacked the capacity for articulate speech and abstract reasoning.

Unworthy of Integration

The Jim Crow character suggested that Blacks were not worthy of integration because they were undeserving of the effort, attention, or respect that would make that possible. If you believed the characterization, you thought Blacks had little value or merit.

Integration is literally the act or process of uniting different things. In this case, it refers to the practice of uniting people from different races in an attempt to give people equal rights racial integration. Why would you commit to doing that when one group of people is unworthy?

The Person

In short, Thomas D Rice (Jim Crow), the man, was a mocker. He was an abuser. Like so many others, he was a person that hid behind the word “entertainer” while he caused pain to others. To say he was an “actor” is far from who the real man was because he really just showed the world what he really thought about black people.

The root word “mock” comes from an Old French word “mocquer” which later became “moquer”. Its definition meant to scoff at, laugh at, deride, or fool. He mad a living at labeling a group of people as mockeries. We use that word to imply that something is a poor quality or counterfeit version of some genuine other. In this case, he implied that a black man was a “mockery of man”.

In other words, a black man was less than a man. Perhaps, somewhere between an ape and a man. He made it seem as blacks were simply pretending to be human as best they could. And, he meant to highlight the differences with his show. He sought to protect himself and other Whites from engulfment, impingement or humiliation by diminishing the perceived power of the Black man. As a matter of fact, he preserved the object relationship, because he needed the Black man to provide the material for caricature. He was nothing without him.

Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice

 Daddy Rice, the original Jim Crow, became rich and famous because of his skills as a minstrel. Rice was a traveling actor until he first presented his trademark song and dance Jump Jim Crow. In Louisville in 1828, the act made him one of the most popular specialty performers of the time.

 Although Rice was not the first white entertainer to perform in blackface, Rice made it stylish to impersonate Blacks in both the United States and England. He took his act on a series of extremely successful tours in both countries. He wrote and appeared in Ginger Blue, Jim Crow in London, and a burlesque of Othello. These shows made the stereotypes for the skits in the minstrel shows popular.

Thomas Rice was one of those people that, to quote Frederick Douglass was “…the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens.”

Due to his extravagant lifestyle, Rice died in poverty.

Minstrels

The minstrel show became one of the first native forms of American entertainment. It also became one of the most popular. And, Thomas Rice was crowned the “Father of American minstrelsy.” But, quickly enough, others were popping up everywhere. In 1843, Thomas was joined by four white men from New York ( Dan Emmett, Frank Bower, Frank Pelham and Billy Whitlock) called themselves Dan Emmett’s Virginia Minstrels.

The Virginia Minstrels became the first troupe to offer a full evening of blackface variety entertainment. They placed their chairs in a simple semi-circle and went into a combination of songs, dances, comic banter, and cartoonish “Negro caricatures”. The claim is that everyone loved these shows, even Blacks. But isn’t that how it usually goes? Just like today, the dangers and long term negative effects of negative black stereotypes might be hard to see in the moment. According to most historians, this time marked the beginning of minstrelsy.

Scandals and Follies

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The form was so natural, it seemed improvised – and, in fact. much of the evening, because of the talents of the four, was. But most of all, there was exuberance and excitement. The minstrels, in their wide-eyed, large-lipped, ragged-costumed absurdity, rolled onto the stage in a thundercloud of energy which hardly ever dissipated. They insulted each other, they baited each other, they made mincemeat of the language, they took the audience into their fun, and, in one night, they added a new form to show business in America – in fact, the world.

— Lee Davis, Scandals and Follies: The Rise and Fall of the Great Broadway Revue 
(New York: Limelight Editions, 2000), p. 31.

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Television and Radio

The minstrel shows were very popular between 1850 and 1870. However, they lost much of their national popularity with the advent of new technology. Motion pictures and radios entered onto the scene.

Unfortunately for blacks, the live minstrel shows continued in small towns. The circuit lived on. And, the horrific caricatured portrayals of black people found greater expression with motion pictures and radios. Black households had to deal with this reflection along the way.

Radio

Radio was the first broadcast medium. During this time period, people became accustomed to tuning in to their favorite radio programs. Families gathered to listen to the home radio in the evening. In fact, a 1947 survey found that 82 out of 100 Americans were radio listeners. Think about that, over 80% of the White population gathered around to listen to the “programming”. And, much of that limited “programming” painted Black people as illiterate, unworthy, subhuman beings.

Television

In the 1950s, television surpassed radio as the most popular broadcast medium. Meanwhile, commercial radio programming shifted to narrower formats of news, talk, sports and music. However, minstrel shows remained a part of the programming.

Now, you have the ability to transmit the image in mass. With radio, listeners had to use more of their imagination. With television, the image of Jim Crow was much easier to absorb. Think about the children watching this in the same way young children today watch anime. Now, imagine how it shaped their minds as they grew into adults.

And, black folks had to deal with that.

Most people nowadays have no idea of the damage this caused.

Hopefully, you have a better understanding, now.

Peace and Blessings!