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During the height of its popularity, the general assumption was that Dixon's performances of "Coal Black Rose" in 1829 were the birth of Blackface Minstrelsy .Cockrell 75. However, Thomas Blakeley had also performed the song in 1829 at the Park Theatre. "Coal Black Rose" entered the repertoires of other performers, who sung it both in and out of blackface.

The lyrics of "Coal Black Rose" proved a good source for dramatic farce. Dixon performed one on 24 September 1829 under the title ''Love in a Cloud'' at the Bowery Theatre. Thomas D. Rice did other dramatitizations under the titles ''Long-Island Juba; or, Love in a Bushel'' and ''Oh Hush!; or The Virginny Cupids''. The latter version became one of the most popular farces of antebellum minstrelsy.


NOTES



REFERENCES

  • Cockrell, Dale (1997). ''Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World''. Cambridge University Press.

  • Mahar, William J. (1999). ''Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture''. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.