Representing African Americans in Transatlantic Abolitionism and Blackface Minstrelsy

Download or read book Representing African Americans in Transatlantic Abolitionism and Blackface Minstrelsy written by Robert Nowatzki and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2010-06 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this intriguing study, Robert Nowatzki reveals the unexpected relationships between blackface entertainment and antislavery sentiment in the United States and Britain. He contends that the ideological ambiguity of both phenomena enabled the similarities between early minstrelsy and abolitionism in their depictions of African Americans, as well as their appropriations of each other's rhetoric, imagery, sentiment, and characterization. Nowatzki reveals how the most popular form of theatrical entertainment and the most significant reform movement of nineteenth-century Britain and America helped define cultural representations of African Americans.