Stereotypes in Early America

Minstrel Shows• American entertainment consisting of

comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface.

• Minstrel shows lampooned black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, happy-go-lucky, and musical.

• Several different types of stereotypes

Toms• The Tom caricature portrays black men as faithful

and happily submissive. • Used to defense slavery: how could slavery be

wrong if black servants were contented and loyal? • Smiling, wide-eyed, docile, non-threatening to

whites, loyal, gently forgiving• Donald Bogle: “Always as toms are chased,

harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, and insulted, they keep the faith, never turn against their white masters, and remain hearty, submissive, stoic, generous, selfless, and oh-so-very kind. Thus they endear themselves to white audiences and emerge as heroes of sorts” (5-6).

Coon• The coon was portrayed as a lazy,

chronically idle, inarticulate buffoon.• Didn’t know his place: thought he was

as good as a white person and “put on airs” but…

• While he often spoke in a high style, he used words/phrases incorrectly (malapropisms) that undermined his intelligence