Ring shout, wheel about [electronic resource] : the racial politics of music and dance in North American slavery / Katrina Dyonne Thompson.
2014
E443 .T466 2014eb
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Online Access
Details
Title
Ring shout, wheel about [electronic resource] : the racial politics of music and dance in North American slavery / Katrina Dyonne Thompson.
ISBN
9780252096112 electronic book
9780252038259
9780252038259
Published
Urbana, [Illinois] : University of Illinois Press, 2014.
Copyright
©2014
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (x, 242 pages) : illustrations.
Call Number
E443 .T466 2014eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
390/.250973
Summary
"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"-- c Provided by publisher.
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print verison record.
Available in Other Form
Ring shout, wheel about.
Linked Resources
Online Access
Record Appears in
Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
All Resources
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.
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.