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Ring shout, wheel about : the racial politics of music and dance in North American slavery / Katrina Dyonne Thompson.

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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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Thompson, Katrina Dyonne
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2014.
Subjects:
Enslaved persons > Southern States > Songs and music.
Enslaved persons > United States > Social life and customs.
Race in the theater > United States > History.
Theater and society > United States > History.
African American dance > History.
Slavery > United States > Justification.
Plantation life > United States.
Racism in popular culture > United States > History.
Table of Contents:
  • The script : "Africa was but a blank canvas for Europe's imagination"
  • Casting : "They sang their home-songs, and danced, each with his free foot slapping the deck"
  • Onstage : "Dance you damned niggers, dance"
  • Backstage : "White folks do as they please, and the darkies do as they can"
  • Advertisement : "Dancing through the Streets and act lively"
  • Same script, different actors : "Eb'ry time I weel about, I jump Jim Crow"
  • Epilogue : the show must go on
  • -

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