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The lyrics of "Coal Black Rose" tell of a fight between two black men, Sambo and Cuffee, rivals for the same woman. This was a common trope in early minstrel music, and it proved a good source for dramatic farce. Dixon performed one on 24 September 1829 under the title
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39:. The man dressed as an overweight and overdressed black woman, who was found unattractive and masculine-looking. The song was first performed in the United States in the late 1820s, possibly by
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had also performed the song in 1829 at the Park
Theatre. "Coal Black Rose" entered the repertoires of other performers, who sung it both in and out of blackface.
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During the height of its popularity, the general assumption was that Dixon's performances of "Coal Black Rose" in 1829 were the birth of
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43:. It was certainly Dixon who popularized the song when he put on three blackface performances at the
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Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early
Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture
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8:
228:
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93:. The latter version became one of the most popular farces of antebellum minstrelsy.
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On the Real Side: A History of
African American Comedy from Slavery to Chris Rock
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Love and Theft: Blackface
Minstrelsy and the American Working Class
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See 19th-century songsheet "Coal Black Rose", Library of
Congress
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in late July 1829. These shows also propelled Dixon to stardom.
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Demons of
Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World
35:, one of the earliest songs to be sung by a man in
109:White, Deborah Gray; Bay, Mia; Martin Jr., Waldo.
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83:did other dramatitizations under the titles
227:. Chicago, Illinois: Lawrence Hill Books.
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23:Sheet music to "Coal Black Rose", c. 1830
220:. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
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85:Long-Island Juba; or, Love in a Bushel
113:. Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 312.
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90:Oh Hush!; or The Virginny Cupids
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198:. Cambridge University Press.
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205:. Oxford University Press.
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216:Mahar, William J. (1999).
259:Blackface minstrel songs
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194:Cockrell, Dale (1997).
79:at the Bowery Theatre.
41:George Washington Dixon
49:Chatham Garden Theatre
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223:Watkins, Mel (1999).
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264:Year of song unknown
254:American folk songs
201:Lott, Eric (1995).
269:Songwriter unknown
111:Freedom on My Mind
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76:Love in a Cloud
67:Thomas Blakeley
29:Coal Black Rose
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53:Park Theatre
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249:1820s songs
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65:. However,
243:Categories
189:References
182:Mahar 102.
63:minstrelsy
51:, and the
173:Lott 127.
60:blackface
37:blackface
33:folk song
16:Folk song
31:" is a
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47:, the
97:Notes
229:ISBN
207:ISBN
87:and
245::
128:^
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213:.
27:"
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