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Humor, Minstrelsy, and the Representation of African Americans in Macon's Georgia Telegraph and Georgia Citizen, 1855–1860

2022; Kent State University Press; Volume: 68; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cwh.2022.0012

1533-6271

Rosalyn Narayan,

Australian History and Society

Humor, Minstrelsy, and the Representation of African Americans in Macon's Georgia Telegraph and Georgia Citizen, 1855–1860 Rosalyn Narayan (bio) This article considers the role of humor in the representation of Black people, particularly African Americans, in two of Macon, Georgia's newspapers, the Georgia Telegraph and the Georgia Citizen, in the six years before the Civil War. As the minstrel show gained popularity in the South, newspaper jokes often took on its humor, thus perpetuating the racist tropes of Black people as ignorant and childlike. Importantly, the use of a perceived African American dialect underscored the negative attributes linked to these stereotypes.1 These jokes have been understudied by historians, especially in relation to minstrelsy, where studies have focused on the theater, lithographs, and other forms of visual culture. This article shows how humor found in newspapers [End Page 147] accompanied the rise in the popularity of minstrelsy, helped to perpetuate the ideology of white supremacy, and justified the institution of slavery. The Georgia Telegraph and the Georgia Citizen were examined over a six-year period—January 1855 through December 1860 for the Telegraph and through March 1860 for the Citizen—to understand the importance of jokes that characterized African Americans as inferior. The Citizen was a new newspaper, having been launched by its publisher and editor L. F. W. Andrews in early 1850, whereas the Telegraph had been established in 1826. Joseph Clisby owned and edited the Telegraph during the years under consideration here.2 While the Telegraph strongly supported secession and the Citizen was pro-Union, both were staunchly pro-slavery. Analyzing every available issue between these dates provides an indicative view of the kind of information and narrative being read by enslavers in this region. This article discusses the rise of minstrelsy and its associated stereotyping of African Americans and then the content of the "humorous" material found within the Telegraph and the Citizen. The supposedly comical literature in these newspapers was linked to the rise in minstrelsy as a form of popular entertainment and to the importance of paternalism in the lower South. Thus, racist jokes were a means of quickly and easily cementing stereotypes of the African American as Sambo-like, denigrations that seemed to justify bondage in the white imagination. Newspapers, Humor, the Sambo and Minstrelsy Jokes and comic stories were common in both the Telegraph and the Citizen, although there was no set pattern to these. Some editions carried a number of humorous items, while others included nothing that might be considered amusing. Jokes about "others," deemed outsiders in society, were clearly popular in both newspapers, which included many jokes about Dutch and Irish immigrants.3 It is virtually impossible to identify the source of most of this comedic [End Page 148] racism. While the names of newspaper editors and publishers are known, little is known about the staff that may have worked for each paper. Further, as many printed items were taken from exchange papers or other sources without credit, the authorship of such comedic pieces is obscured.4 Minstrelsy integrated comic sketches with depictions of happy plantation life and sentimental songs.5 It parodied African Americans on stage through "song and skits that employed broad racial dialects and exaggerated racial mannerisms."6 White performers used burnt cork to blacken their skin. By the 1850s, throughout the nation minstrelsy saw a narrowing of Black characterizations on stage. There were now two clear caricatures; the happy slave and the unhappy free Black. While previous minstrel characters included "wily black tricksters" and even some antislavery protestors, the 1850s saw mainly loyal "grinning darkies" who loved their plantation homes. Such representations were "romantic and sentimentalized images of happy, contented slaves and nostalgic old Negroes looking back to the good old days on the plantation." These Southern slaves were contrasted with free Northern Black people who were represented as totally useless and ridiculous.7 Between 1855 and 1860, a variety of minstrel troupes visited Macon at least three times a year.8 The "authenticity" of the troupes' portrayals was clearly important to Southern audiences. Referring to the imminent arrival of the Campbells Minstrels in February 1857, the Citizen reprinted the Mobile Advertisers praise for...