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period, black
Congressmen became a popular subject, portrayed as bumblers whose incompetence prevented them from posing any threat to the white-dominated government. Stump speeches not only poked fun at these topics but also at the caricatured black speakers' ability to understand them. Nevertheless,
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are always very popular, if original in thought, and well delivered. …In delivering a stump speech, let your costume be as comical as possible. If you are tall, wear a tight fitting suit, which will make you appear taller yet. On the contrary, if you are short and stout, emphasize it by wearing very
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was a popular target of the stump speech's ridicule. The women's rights lecture became a standard part of the repertoire for many troupes, who joked about women being interested in "polytick" only because "de majority ob em am strongly tached to parties." Another speech claimed that
161:— does it not prove dat where gold is up to a discount of two cups of coffee on de dollar, dat bolivers must fall back into de radience of de-de — anything else, derefore, at once and exclusively proving de fact dat de afore-mentioned accounts for de milk in de cocoa-nut!
47:. The stump speaker wore blackface makeup and moved about like a clown. Topics varied from pure nonsense to parodies of politics, science, and social issues, as well as satirical commentary on political and social issues. The stump speech was a precursor to modern
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There hev bin women in the world who hev done suthin'. There wuz the Queen of Sheba, who was eggselled only by
Solomon, and all that surprised her in him wuz that he could support 3,000 women. ...And there was
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103:. The stump speaker gestured wildly, contorted his body, and usually fell off his stump at some point. Speakers often took on the persona of popular minstrel show characters, such as the black
301:'s mask, allowing minstrels to discuss topics that might otherwise be taboo. Many troupes developed stump specialists who were well known for covering specific material. For example,
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288:, and Mrs. Jinks, all uv whom showed thet women cood seese to be women, and be ez neer to men ez nacher allowed them. Thet's what all our sex want—to be ez neer men ez possible.
31:(which is an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface). A typical stump speech consisted of
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loose clothing. Some stump speakers come on in a ragged suit and damaged "plug" hat, carrying an old-fashioned valise and huge umbrella. A negro stump speech, being only a
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originated there. Such performances influenced print media as well, as exemplified by the dialect essays and editorials that appeared in
American newspapers such as the
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On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and
Signifying—The Underground Tradition of African-American Humor that Transformed American Culture, from Slavery to Richard Pryor.
157:'s horn, and meeting dat solitary horseman by de way, dey anapulated in de clarion tones of de clamurous rooster, de insignificition of de — de — de —
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of gopher wood, besides the latter was pitched without and pitched within. There wuz Queen
Elizabeth, who wuz the virgin queen; and
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520:"Speech on Women's Rights" (1879). From "Dick's Ethiopian Scenes, Variety Sketches, and Stump Speeches".
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138:'s "A Brief Battering at the Blues". Historian Robert Toll offers this excerpt as typical of the type:
63:, the minstrel show's second act. The stump speaker, typically one of the buffoonish endmen known as
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Butsch, Richard (2000). 'The Making of
American Audiences: From Stage to Television, 1750–1990
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Toll, Robert (1996). "Social
Commentary in Late Nineteenth-Century White Minstrelsy".
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stage dialects from the theatre of the period. The speech consisted of a barrage of
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The content of the stump speech varied widely. Some were pure nonsense, such as
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Inside the
Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy.
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Inside the
Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy.
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Inside the
Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy.
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Other stump speeches were send-ups of science or philosophy that parodied the
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In his guide to staging a minstrel show, Charles Townsend offers this advice:
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Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy
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popular with the educated middle class in the 1850s. One example was
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Nathan, Hans (1996). "The Performance of the Virginia Minstrels".
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35:(the substitution of a word for a word with a similar sound),
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Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America
503:. 2nd ed. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
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Comic Visions: Television Comedy & American Culture
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The stump speech is one important antecedent of modern
227:. Others satirized political and social issues such as
545:. Hanover, New Hampshire: Wesleyan University Press.
538:Hanover, New Hampshire: Wesleyan University Press.
524:Hanover, New Hampshire: Wesleyan University Press.
517:Hanover, New Hampshire: Wesleyan University Press.
159:de hop-toad am a very big bird — du da — du da day
59:The stump speech was usually the highlight of the
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243:delivered a "Definition of the Bankrupt Laws".
223:'s "Locomotive Lecture", a comical look at the
392:. Spelling and punctuation as in the original.
508:Charles W. Chesnutt and the Fictions of Race
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510:. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
305:was known for his women's rights lecture.
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541:Townsend, Charles. "Negro Minstrels."
142:Feller-feller and oder fellers, when
531:. New York: Oxford University Press.
43:delivered in a parodied version of
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194:A blackface stump speech by the
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552:New York: Simon & Schuster.
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45:Black Vernacular English
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79:that hearkened to the
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85:frontiersman
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33:malapropisms
20:was a comic
18:stump speech
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452:Blacking Up
441:Watkins 97.
421:Blacking Up
390:Blacking Up
359:Blacking Up
348:Watkins 92.
318:Norm Crosby
314:Irwin Corey
292:During the
262:Joan of Arc
144:Joan of Ark
55:Performance
560:Categories
488:References
410:Nathan 37.
401:Butsch 85.
284:; there's
278:Lucy Stone
276:; there's
266:Noah's Ark
208:media help
148:Noah's Ark
29:minstrelsy
155:Decamoran
123:burlesque
26:blackface
22:monologue
472:Marc 28.
322:Al Kelly
303:Eph Horn
108:Zip Coon
101:nonsense
37:nonsense
239:of the
130:Content
454:, 161.
450:Toll,
423:, 163.
357:Toll,
320:, and
280:, and
198:, 1902
99:, and
81:Yankee
361:, 56.
334:Notes
105:dandy
72:Bones
66:Tambo
24:from
299:fool
270:made
97:puns
83:and
69:and
61:olio
41:puns
16:The
231:or
562::
341:^
316:,
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