¹ For Rice, see Wittke, Carl, Tambo and Bones, a History of the American Minstrel Show (New York, 1968), pp. 20–31Google Scholar; and Nathan, Hans, Dan Emmet and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy (University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), pp. 50–6Google Scholar.

² History of the Theatre Royal, Dublin (Dublin, 1870), p. 100Google Scholar.

³ Wittke, , Tambo and Bones, p. 29Google Scholar.

⁴ The Dublin Comic Songster (Dublin, 1845), pp. 198–9Google Scholar, gives as the third stanza of Rice's song:

‘ I landed first at Dublin,

Very near the ships and docks,

I strutted down Sackville — Street,

And asked the price of stocks.’

⁵ John O'Connell commented in the 1840s that the Whig and Tory politics of England were forcing Ireland to do a ‘ Jim Crow turn about act ’. For an example of a reference to the ‘ Jim Crow … wheelabout ’ of the Young Ireland party, see the Cork Examiner, 7 September 1849.

⁶ Freeman's Journal, 27 September 1844. On this date, Messrs Dewhurst and Gray appeared on two donkeys as ‘ The Rival Niggers ’.

⁷ In November 1845 the Hutchinsons appeared at the Music Hall. A singing group with close links with anti-slavery groups in Ireland and America, their performances in Ireland were poorly attended. The Book of Brothers, or The History of the Hutchinson Family (New York, 1852), commented (p. 40)Google Scholar that ‘ Ireland was no place for professional people of their class ’. It is ironic that though the Hutchinsons, a white family, sang also at anti-slavery meetings in Dublin, their act was later parodied and ridiculed by the blackface Christy Minstrels in 1858. For the Hutchinsons in Ireland and their anti-slavery careers in their native America, see Hutchinson, J. W., Story of the Hutchinsons, 2 vols. (Boston, 1896), vol. 1, pp. 156–61Google Scholar. Also Jordan, Philip P., Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis, 1946), pp. 123–5Google Scholar.

⁸ Freeman's Journal, 5 January 1846.

⁹ Nathan, , Emmet, p. 243Google Scholar.

¹⁰ The song, written by W. H. Oxberry, and frequently sung in minstrel shows in Dublin, contained the following lines:

‘ My Fader fight them wid arrer and wid bow,

Dey put us board ob ship long time ago,

Dey bring us to Ameriky, make us dig and hoe,

Den we work together, long time ago.’

Stephen Foster, whose great-grandfather was born in Londonderry, is a good example of a prominent writer of minstrel songs who showed a pronounced hostility to the abolitionist cause. See Howard, J. T., Stephen Foster (New York, 1953), pp. 82, 285–94Google Scholar. Nevin, R. P., ‘ Stephen Foster and Negro Minstrelsy ’ in Atlantic Monthly (11 1867)Google Scholar. In 1847, a Mr Brough gave his musical lecture on the U.S.A., in Dublin. His songs included ‘ No! My Nigger, no! ’ — one of whose lines was:

‘ Dis you eber hear de coon preach on abolition?

No, my nigger, no! ’

¹¹ Saunders Newsletter, 25 October 1846

¹² Freeman's Journal, 5 November, 26 October 1846.

¹³ Freeman's Journal, 1 January 1852.

¹⁴ Ibid., 6 August 1853.

¹⁵ Ibid., 4 December 1858.

¹⁶ Ibid., 6 December 1858. Their act included ‘ the Virginni Heel- and toe-ology, as danced by the slaves on the plantations of the Southern States of America, after they have done gathering in their cotton and sugar crops ’. Mr R. W. Pelham, ‘ the originator of the Ethiopian Concerts ’ in America, appeared at the troupe's benefit show at the Queen's Royal Theatre.

¹⁷ The minstrels usually sat in a semi-circle, with the ‘ bones ’ and ‘ banjo ’ at either end.

¹⁸ Preferably music or opera that was being played in another theatre in the city at the same time. Wittke, , Tambo and Bones, p. 31Google Scholar, claims that it was Rice who introduced ‘ Ethiopian Opera ’ into the minstrel act.

¹⁹ Freeman's Journal, 4 January 1859. A ‘ large and influential portion of the gentry of Dublin ’ attended to hear these ‘ veritable and accomplished nigger melodists ’. The Christy Minstrels also sang in Dublin in 1861.

²⁰ Perhaps the Hutchinsons were chosen because their repertoire in Dublin had largely consisted of sentimental Victorian pieces by Tennyson. The Burlesque on the Hutchinsons does does not seem to have stayed long on the programme, however, perhaps because the audiences were not aware of who the Hutchinsons were: and also, perhaps, because better ‘ targets ’ were at hand.

²¹ Their songs, published in six parts, were on sale in Dublin. Like the bulk of the minstrel sheet-music, it can be examined at the National Library, Dublin. At White's New Grand Music Hall, in April 1859, part of the show was a revival of the Christy Minstrel material. Prominent in their performances were Stephen Foster songs, many of which did not confine themselves to the traditional minstrel manner. The Christy Minstrels claimed to have given some two thousand performances in Great Britain, and to have appeared before Napoleon III in Paris.

²² See for example Freeman's Journal, 15 May 1860. They had appeared at Buckingham Palace on 25 February 1860.

²³ Freeman's Journal, 29 February 1860. The Northern Whig, 4 May 1859, noted that in their court costumes, ‘ the effect is decidedly prepossessing, malgré the contrast of white wigs and black faces ’. They were of course well attired to illustrate another common stereotype of the Negro to be found in the minstrel songs, namely, the ‘ Broadway Swell ’. For Irish audiences, this was perhaps best indicated in the Ethiopian Screnaders' song, ‘ De Dandy Broadway Swell ’. In September 1849 Belfast audiences were presented with the rather rare spectacle of a female minstrel act, called the Female American Serenaders. Northern Whig, 4 September 1849.

²⁴ Copied in Freeman's Journal, 5 September 1860. The Freeman's Journal also copied on 14 February 1861 an extract from a London paper which suggested that R. F. Buckley was an excellent actor ‘ albeit the characters he portrays be those very unromantic ones suitable for exhibiting the humble idiosyncrasies of the nigger ’.

²⁵ Freeman's Journal, 19 September 1860.

²⁶ Freeman's Journal, 12 May 1861.

²⁷ See for example the stringent comments of the Freeman's Journal, 17 May 1860, on the Campbell Minstrels' opera burlesque. Even in the case of the Christy Minstrels, the Freeman's Journal, had preferred the ‘ sentimental ’ songs to the comic part of the show. Freeman's Journal, 26 January 1860.

²⁸ Northern Whig, 3 May 1859. Despite this the paper upheld the claim of the group that they were artistes.

²⁹ Freeman's Journal, 22 August 1853. Cf. Catherine Hayes, the famous Irish singer of the 1850s, who was called ‘ the Swan of Erin ’.

³⁰ Robert Moffart, son of the Scottish missionary, had declared them genuine. The Freeman's Journal also claimed they were authentic, not like some of the ‘ Paddy Murphy ’ Indians who had been passed off on the public. (Two authentic groups of Red Indians had however also appeared on the Dublin stage: the Ojibbeway Indians from Lake Huron in 1846 and, in 1845, a troupe of Ioway Indians presented by the famous Catlin, George. Freeman's Journal, 17 10 1847, 28 03 1845Google Scholar.)

³¹ In August 1853 the Bosjesmen were to appear ‘ in all the pride of their smutty beauty ’ on the same programme as the Original Cincinatti Band.

³² Freeman's Journal, 7 September 1859.

³³ There seems to have been some dispute among the Dublin critics as to whether these tribesmen were of any scientific interest.

³⁴ Fitzsimons claimed ‘ closely ’. Preface to Anzico and Coanza (Dublin, 1819), p. viGoogle Scholar.

³⁵ Maria Edgeworth's story had discussed to a much greater extent than Fitzsimons's play the degree to which rebellion against tyranny was justified. She had also brought in the themes of the slaves' African heritage, and shown how the grateful slave was torn between loyalty to his master, and loyalty to his fellow slaves.

³⁶ Fitzsimons, , Anzico and Coanza, preface, p. xiiGoogle Scholar.

³⁷ Ibid., prologue. Fitzsimons also linked his own play with the Yarico and Inkle story, for the importance of which in Abolitionist literature see David B. Davis, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture.

³⁸ For an indication of the success of stage dramatizations of the book in the U.S.A. in the 1890s, see White, J. and Willett, R., Slavery in the American South (Bristol, 1970), p. 86Google Scholar.

³⁹ Morning Register, 1 January 1841. See also the advertisements for the Panorama of the Nile in Freeman's Journal, 22 March 1853.

⁴⁰ ‘ The Theatre Royal, Dublin, from 1830–1831 ’, in Dublin University Magazine, 72, 454–71, 460Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Marshall, Herbert and Stock, Mildred, Ira Aldridge, The Negro Tragedian (London, 1958), pp. 150–1Google Scholar.

⁴² ‘ The Theatre Royal ’ in Dublin University Magazine, 72, 460Google Scholar.

⁴³ Marshall, and Stock, , Aldridge, pp. 70–5Google Scholar. He toured extensively in Ireland from 1835–9: in 1845 and 1850 he returned to Belfast.

⁴⁴ Ibid., pp. 106–7.

⁴⁵ ‘ The Theatre Royal ’, in Dublin University Magazine, 72, 558–71, 560Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Also Saunders Newsletter, 7 December 1831. The Northern Whig, 14 October 1845, said that his performance of Othello was given an additional ‘ charm ’ by the fact that he was ‘ himself a descendant of a notable African line ’. At his benefit performance in Belfast, Aldridge penned an address, which noted how, through the muse, he had been led to progress from that state as a:

‘ Son of the land, whose swarthy race late known

for nought but bloodshed … [who]

roam unfettered, void of reason's light —

lone tribe of mankind — in chaotic night ’ (Northern Whig, 18 October 1845).

⁴⁷ Wittke, , Tambo and Bones, p. 34Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ Paskman, D. and Spaeth, S., Gentlemen be Seated! A Parade of the Old Time Minstrels (New York, 1928), pp. 18, 20, 181–2Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Minstrels, Christy, Bones and Banjo Melodist (New York, 1864), p. 95Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ The Georgia Minstrel Troupe, twenty-five emancipated slaves, toured extensively in the British Isles in 1866. Reynolds, Harry, Minstrel Memories. The Story of Burnt Cork Minstrelsy in Great Britain from 1836 to 1927 (London, 1928), p. 163Google Scholar.

⁵¹ For Dr McCune Smith's discussion of Ira Aldridge's popularity in Ireland in relation to Irish anti-slavery testimonies, see Marshall, and Stock, , Aldridge, p. 146Google Scholar.

⁵² During the American Civil War, the Christy Minstrels had added to their repertoire such ‘ abolition ’ songs as ‘ John Brown ’, ‘ Kingdom Coming ’ and ‘ The Black Brigade ’.

⁵³ Irish Friend (Belfast), 3 (11 1840), 11, pp. 80–1Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Letter from Haughton, James in Morning Register, 15 08 1840Google Scholar.