Figure of Thomas Dartmouth Rice in the role of 'Jim Crow'
Category
Ceramics
Date
1836 - 1840
Materials
Earthenware (Pearlware)
Measurements
175 x 72 x 72 mm
Place of origin
Staffordshire
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 205274
Summary
Figure of Thomas Dartmouth Rice in the role of 'Jim Crow', earthenware (pearlware), painted with enamel colours, made in Staffordshire, about 1835. The standing male figure, wearing a ragged red jacket, yellow breeches and a yellow straw hat which he is touching with his right hand, his left hand on his hip. He stands on a base painted to resemble black and white marble.
Full description
Earthenware figures, here pearlware, a type of cream-coloured earthenware with a bluish glaze, were made in Staffordshire from the 18th century and were a cheaper alternative to European and English porcelain examples. Staffordshire figures became a form of visual literacy depicting key personalities and events of the day from politics, royalty, sport, literature and entertainment. This figure represents ‘Jim Crow’, a racist stage depiction created by Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice (1808-1860), the white American entertainer and ‘blackface' performer. 'Jim Crow' was based on a caricature of an elderly, disabled, enslaved southern African American stablehand. The character and associated song ‘Jump, Jim Crow’ became part of Rice's signature act by 1832. Rice later performed in Britain, where, as this Staffordshire figure shows, the character of Jim Crow was also well-known. After the United States Civil War, the name of Jim Crow was associated with legislation enacted in southern states to enforce racial segregation and to deny African Americans their civil liberties.
Provenance
Part of the Bambridge Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Mrs Elsie Bambridge (1896-1976)