ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

The criminal acts and dishonesty depicted in many of minstrelsy’s counterfeit
images of black life have been replaced by equally vague references to a Jolly Little
Nigger who “one day got very mellow” and was hauled before the local magistrate. It
pales in comparison to a song like “Jimmy Crack Corn or The Blue Tail Fly” (1846),
which describes a slave who murders his master and fools the court into believing a
“Blue Tail Fly” is responsible. 59 Instead of a parody of police authority or even a more
profound example of antisocial behavior, “Jolly Little Nigger” depicts an alcoholic, who
was merry and known for his wit, running afoul of the law when his drinking gets
excessive. The conclusion is thematically a very simple moral, advising the listener to be
temperate. The Bullock/D’Arc troupe has adapted the Foster-inspired essence of late
nineteenth-century minstrel music, and toned down the more morally problematic
qualities of blackface texts.
Granted, the structure suggests an attempt to capture a second essence of Foster’s
music. In songs like “Nelly was a Lady,” Foster criticized slavery, deviating from the
seemingly proslavery attitude of other minstrel songs. In “Jolly Little Nigger,” the
marionettes challenge simplistic depictions of the comic Negro minstrel. The “ha, ha,
ha” refrain creates an expectation for the audience that runs contrary to the theme of the
song. When told of an individual who is “happy as a king,” the listener imagines the
laughter as the joyous exaltation of a genuinely happy black character, a nearly
stereotypical example of the wide-eyed, happy plantation slaves depicted throughout
minstrelsy. Yet as that listener discovers the circumstances of the “Jolly Little Nigger’s”
life, he/she sees that his “ha, ha, ha,” is no proclamation of joy, but the mad, drunken
59 William J. Mahar, Behind the Burt Cork Mask (Chicago: University of Illinois, 1999), 242-243.
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