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All notes from: Cockrell, Dale (1997). Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World. New York City: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56828-5.
George Washington Dixon
editDixon is "the man I believe most deserves the title 'father of blackface minstrelsy.'" (12)
Dixon is "surely one of celebrity's all-time hevyweight eccentrics." (12)
"George Washington Dixon" must surely be one of the most complex, eccentric, and enigmatic men ever to have crossed the American musical stage. " (139)
Dixon's career shows the masking power of blackface. So long as he remained masked, he was celebrated, but as a journalist and editor, he was reviled. (140)
January 28, 1843, Sporting Whip' summarized what was believed about the history of minstrelsy at the time: "Thomas Blakely [sic] of the Walker-street Fountain, is the father of Negro Extravaganzists. For the benefit of some person attached to the Old Chatham Theatre, Mssrs. Blakely and Sloman appeared together in the Serenade of "Coal Black Rose," and made such a favorable impression, that it was repeated nightly for some time. George Washington Dixon attended the theatre regularly, had the verses taken down, and published them as originally sung by him. Soon after[,] he adopted the profession. [T]hen Tom. Rice appeared with his Jim Crow, and the numerous tribe of negro singers, dancers and players, with which we are now blessed, quickly followed." (154-155)
Some evidence suggests that Dixon hated the Irish. A report from late 1843 says that Dixon shot a man in the thigh after an argument about th eNative American Party (Know-Nothings) got too heated. Dixon was a member of that party. The movement was brand new then. (Lowell Courier, 21 December 1843; quoted in Cockrell 199 note 43)
Wooldridge
editCockrell 154
Cockrell 200 note 61