Jim Crow (archetype)

For other uses, see Jim Crow (disambiguation).

Jim Crow is a minstrel character created around 1830 by a Caucasian minstrel show performer of the United States known as Thomas D. Rice, who wore blackface while singing and dancing madly, thus creating this character. The character is believed to be Rice's emulation of a negro male that he had seen in his travels through the Southern United States; Rice sang this refrain at the end of the chorus:

"Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."

History

It is believed that a man named Mr. Crow owned this slave, and this is why the name Jim Crow took hold. Rice incorporated this routine into his act, and by the 1850s, the Jim Crow character had become a standard character throughout the United States.

The Jim Crow laws took the name of this character in the 1890s.

The term "Jim Crow" is also used in a disparaging or derogatory way to refer to people, largely African Americans, that act in a similar way to the original Jim Crow of the song; singing, dancing, and jumping; often wildly, and otherwise being foolish. This term has connotations of being uneducated, unproductive, or unprofessional.

See also

• Archetype
• Stereotypes of black people