Thomas Dartmouth (T. D.) Rice
This man was called the grandfather (or “daddy) of blackface minstrels and few men had as much influence as he on this cultural phenomenon known as blackface minstrelsy. Rice created a replica of a character which he named “Jumpin’ Jim Crow,” and conflicting accounts of this conception leave one plausible source. Haywood in his essay on Negro Minstrelsy reiterates that Rice came upon an old black man working in a stable near the Louisville theatre where Rice was performing. Rice observed this interesting character who was crippled with arthritis, had deformed knees, and a displaced shoulder. His painful limp made Rice laugh, as the black man worked and sang a tune. At the close of each stanza, he punctuated the end with a “queer little jump” (91). One can almost imagine a deformed man, however painful, singing a catchy little ditty, mucking out stables, and dancing as if no one were watching. Strausbaugh concludes the song itself and the many renditions written by Rice were not high-brow art but silly repetitions of two-line verses and then the chorus:
Come, listen, all you gals and boys, I’m just from Tuckyhoe;
I’m gwine to sing a little song, my name’s Jim Crow.
(Chorus) Wheel about, an’ turn about, an’ do jus so;
Eb’ry time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow. . . (61)
A new star in the unlikely guise of Jim Crow is born in 1832, and he became a staple in the repertoire of his creator. The grotesque stereotype of Jim Crow gave substance to the audience’s feelings of superiority and, conversely, confirmed the innate inferiority of the black race (Takacs Lecture). Roedigger maintains that blackface entertainment was not merely about race relations but addressed the issue of social relations among whites (123). Rice was neither the first blackface performer nor the last. Had there been a “top of the pops” list back then, his Jim Crow song would have rocketed to the No. 1 spot and hung on. Its tune buzzed around in the head to be sung or hummed by both whites and blacks who alternately loved and hated this and other minstrelsy songs. Perhaps Rice’s star lined up akin to a modern day Elvis or the Beatles. A minor difference would be Rice’s counterpoint was a hopping crow, Elvis’ was a howling hound dog, and the Beatles sang of many things, including a bird that sings. Strausbaugh maintains, in his book, Black Like YOU, that Rice was minstrel's first international super star and, like Elvis or the Beatles, enjoyed living large. He was a ghetto boy who made good, and he was proud of his "Daddy Rice" title. Rice liked to dress up in coats that had gold coins for buttons, and he would rip the buttons from his jacket and throw them to the adoring crowd (97).
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