Jim Crow (character)

Jim Crow (character)

The Jim Crow persona is a theater <a href="/en/Character_(arts)" title="Character (arts)" class="wl">character</a> — developed and popularized by <a href="/en/Thomas_D._Rice" title="Thomas D. Rice" class="wl">Thomas D. Rice</a> (1808–1860) — and a racist depiction of <a href="/en/African-Americans" title="African-Americans" class="mw-redirect wl">African-Americans</a> and of their culture. Rice based the character on a folk <a href="/en/Trickster" title="Trickster" class="wl">trickster</a> named Jim Crow that had long been popular among black slaves.<a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a> Rice also adapted and popularized a traditional <a href="/en/Slave_songs" title="Slave songs" class="mw-redirect wl"> slave song</a> called "<a href="/en/Jump_Jim_Crow" title="Jump Jim Crow" class="wl">Jump Jim Crow</a>" (1828).<a href="#cite_note-:1-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;">[2]</a>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Blackface minstrel character</div>

<figure class="mw-default-size wiki-thumb"><a href="/en/File:Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_(cropped).jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_(cropped).jpg"><img loading="lazy"alt=" A man in blackface costumed in eccentric, formal clothes with patches, dances making exaggerated motions with one hand on hip." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_%28cropped%29.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="1941" data-file-height="2587" data-file-type="bitmap" height="293" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_%28cropped%29.jpg/330px-Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_%28cropped%29.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_%28cropped%29.jpg/440px-Jim_Crow_in_1836_art_-_NYPL_5366881_%28cropped%29.jpg 2x"></a><figcaption>Actor Thomas Dartmouth Rice as "Jim Crow" (1836)</figcaption></figure>
The character conventionally dresses in rags and wears a battered hat and torn shoes. Rice applied <a href="/en/Blackface" title="Blackface" class="wl">blackface</a> makeup made of burnt cork to his face and hands<a href="#cite_note-:0-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;">[3]</a> and impersonated a very nimble and irreverently witty African-American field-hand who sang, "Come listen all you galls and boys, I'm going to sing a little song, my name is Jim Crow, weel about and turn about and do jis so, eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."<a href="#cite_note-:0-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;">[3]</a>

The  Jim Crow persona is a theater character — developed and popularized by Thomas D. Rice — and a racist depiction of African-Americans and of their culture. Rice based the character on a folk trickster named Jim Crow that had long been popular among black slaves. The character conventionally dresses in rags and wears a battered hat and torn shoes. Rice applied blackface makeup made of burnt cork to his face and hands 