Who is Jim Crow?
Jim Crow is not actually a person, but the subject of a song performed by Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice. Rice was a white man who performed in blackface. Like most blackface performers, Rice denigrated Blacks through his music, his stereotypical behavior, and his rude jokes. Jump Jim Crow is a lengthy song that was a bonafide hit among Caucasian Americans in the early 19th century. The lyrics of “Jump Jim Crow” express several racist sentiments. First, Jim Crow is satisfied with his lot as a slave. He is sexually promiscuous. Jim Crow is also ignorant, and the song is usually sung in “supposed” slave dialect.
