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Spirituals performed by jubilee troupes became a sensation in post-Civil War America. First brought to the stage by choral ensembles like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, spirituals anchored a wide range of late 19th-century entertainments, including minstrelsy, variety, and plays by both black and white companies. In this work on postbellum spirituals in theatrical entertainments, Sandra Jean Graham mines a trove of resources to chart the spiritual's journey from the private lives of slaves to the concert stage. Graham navigates the conflicting agendas of those who, in adapting spirituals for their own ends, sold conceptions of racial identity to their patrons.

African Americans --- Jubilee singers. --- Minstrel shows --- Spirituals (Songs) --- Musicians --- Afro-Americans --- Black Americans --- Colored people (United States) --- Negroes --- Africans --- Ethnology --- Blacks --- African American spirituals --- Afro-American spirituals --- Negro spirituals --- Folk songs, English --- Hymns, English --- African American minstrel shows --- Blackfaced minstrel shows --- Negro minstrel shows --- African Americans in the performing arts --- Revues --- Vaudeville --- Blackface entertainers --- Music --- History anc criticism. --- History --- History and criticism. --- Blackface --- Racism against Black people --- Anti-Black racism --- Antiblack racism --- Racism against Blacks --- Black people --- Impersonation --- American minstrelsy --- Minstrelsy --- Minstrelsy, American

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"In this ambitious project, historian Katrina Thompson examines the conceptualization and staging of race through the performance, sometimes coerced, of black dance from the slave ship to the minstrel stage. Drawing on a rich variety of sources, Thompson explicates how black musical performance was used by white Europeans and Americans to justify enslavement, perpetuate the existing racial hierarchy, and mask the brutality of the domestic slave trade. Whether on slave ships, at the auction block, or on plantations, whites often used coerced performances to oppress and demean the enslaved. As Thompson shows, however, blacks' "backstage" use of musical performance often served quite a different purpose. Through creolization and other means, enslaved people preserved some native musical and dance traditions and invented or adopted new traditions that built community and even aided rebellion. Thompson shows how these traditions evolved into nineteenth-century minstrelsy and, ultimately, raises the question of whether today's mass media performances and depictions of African Americans are so very far removed from their troublesome roots"--

HISTORY / United States / 19th Century. --- PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / General. --- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies. --- Racism in popular culture --- Plantation life --- Slavery --- African American dance --- Theater and society --- Race in the theater --- Slaves --- Popular culture --- Country life --- Abolition of slavery --- Antislavery --- Enslavement --- Mui tsai --- Ownership of slaves --- Servitude --- Slave keeping --- Slave system --- Slaveholding --- Thralldom --- Crimes against humanity --- Serfdom --- Slaveholders --- Afro-American dance --- Dance, African American --- Dance --- Actors --- Society and theater --- Theater --- Enslaved persons --- Persons --- History. --- Justification. --- Social life and customs. --- Social status --- Social aspects --- History --- Justification --- Social life and customs --- Racism against Black people --- Blackface --- Impersonation --- Anti-Black racism --- Antiblack racism --- Racism against Blacks --- Black people