Journey to a Land of Cotton: A Slave Plantation in Brooklyn, 1895

Brooks, Lori L.

doi:10.1353/ams.2014.0043

ams

2014

DOI: 10.1353/ams.2014.0043

|View full text |Cite

Journey to a Land of Cotton: A Slave Plantation in Brooklyn, 1895

Lori L. Brooks¹

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...

Citation Types

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Year Published

2015

2018

Publication Types

Select...

Article2

Relationship

Self Cite0

Independent2

Authors

Journals

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

The Cake Walk Photo Girl and Other Footnotes in African American Musical Theatre

Klein¹

2018

Theat Surv

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

On 22 August 1897, theAmerican Woman's Home Journalpublished seven photographs of “The Cake Walk as It Is Done by Genuine Negroes” in which “Williams and Walker Show How the Real Thing Is Done before the Journal Camera.” In this series, the African American stars Bert Williams, George Walker, Belle Davis, and Stella Wiley perform their popular cake walk act with situational humor in medias res before an unknown photographer in a nondescript space. Among the seven selected poses, one intriguing photograph in the lower right-hand corner depicts the encircled dancers gazing down upon an empty space in the center. The subject of their gaze becomes apparent when comparing the magazine images with the seven “Post Cards” Franz Huld published as part of his “Cake Walk/Negro Dance” series around 1901. Although the performers’ poses are the same, the postcard includes extra space between Wiley and Walker to feature a young girl of mixed racial heritage bending forward while hiking the back of her dress with her smiling face proudly held high (Fig. 1). If standing upright, she appears to be less than four feet tall and perhaps five to nine years of age. Given the obscure date and location of her photo shoot, her birth year could range anywhere from the mid-1880s to the early 1890s. Like Thomas F. DeFrantz, an African American dance theorist who gazes upon two 1920s photographs of other dancing girls, my gaze leads me to wonder about her identity, how she met and socialized with these four dancers, and whether she pursued a theatrical career.

show abstract

The Cake Walk Photo Girl and Other Footnotes in African American Musical Theatre

Klein¹

2018

Theat Surv

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

‘To be black is to be funny’: ‘Coon-shouting’ and the melancholic production of the white comedienne

Brooks

2015

Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

customersupport@researchsolutions.com

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

Journey to a Land of Cotton: A Slave Plantation in Brooklyn, 1895

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

The Cake Walk Photo Girl and Other Footnotes in African American Musical Theatre

The Cake Walk Photo Girl and Other Footnotes in African American Musical Theatre

‘To be black is to be funny’: ‘Coon-shouting’ and the melancholic production of the white comedienne

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About