Jim Crow (character)

Uncommon card · No. 106965

The Jim Crow persona is a theater character developed by American entertainer Thomas D. Rice and popularized through his minstrel shows. The character is a stereotypical 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 enslaved black people. Rice also adapted and popularized a traditional slave song called "Jump Jim Crow" (1828). The character dresses in rags and wears a battered hat and torn pants. Rice applied blackface makeup made of burnt cork to his face and hands and impersonated a 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."

Read on Wikipedia · Image Edward Williams Clay, Public domain