For enthusiasts of early banjo
The hard truths about Picayune Butler
I have been doing a heck of a lot of work on the Picayune Butler issue for the presentation I will give in November at the Banjo Gathering, once known as the banjo collectors gathering, in Knoxville on the weekend of Nov 14-17. Guided by the work of Lowell Schreyer and kind advice from people here, I have found a lot of information, particularly from 19th century newspaper databases and from the tattered ancient microfilms of The Clipper in the New York Public Library's performance branch at Lincoln Center. Most importantly, perhaps I have returned to a lot of scholarship on mid 19th Century African American life and discovered some great new work on that and its relationship with Blackface entertainment, minstrelsy, and urban white people in general, particularly in New York in the years before the Civil War. The work of Shane white and a recent TDR issue on minstrelsy have been decisively important.
The basic facts are pretty much what I, Carl Anderton and others have disclosed here several months ago.
1) Picayune Butler may have been a Black martinican banjoist, a street busker in New Orleans. I say "may" become the information about this Butler is absolutely sketchy and 2, 3rd, and 4th hand and could be largely legendary.
2) Butler's singing and banjo playing inspired non-banjo playing Black face originators George Nichols and T. D. Rice who visited New Orleans working with Circuses, and they may have learned some songs from him, including possibly Jim Crow. But nothing much is known of this Butler and he may have disappeared from the scene in the 1830s.
3) Other banjoist, notably Phil Rice also claimed to have learned songs from him, including "Picayune Butler's Coming to Town" a song that became a major hit in minstrelsy and popular music between the 1840s and the civil war, although it retained some popularity throughout the 19th century.
4) The popularity of the song for Black face minstrelsy and the acts that went with it were so great that by the late 1840s in the circuses and later in minstrel shows, white blackface entertainers inhabited the role of Picayune Butler for a song, for an act, and some for a career.
5) This is complicated by the fact that the popularity of the tune in 19th century culture was so great that many people acquired Picayune Butler as a nickname, and anyone named Butler in public life was apt to be tagged that way.
6) A white banjo entertainer from up state NY whom I believe was born in the 1830s and moved to NYC in the 1850s named John Butler became widely known throughout his career as "Pic Butler." He was reckoned as one of the best banjoists of his period. He was a member of a number of the major minstrel companies of the 1850s and early 1860s, but also broke out of working in a minstrel troupe and worked as a solo artists in a variety package at places like Gaieties in NYC. He sometimes advertised himself as "The original Picayune Butler" as did a number of other banjoists in NYC and elsewhere. It is John Butler whom Converse describes as being the first professional banjoist he met. It is John Butler who participated in the 1857 NY Banjo contest, allegedly losing due to his own drunkenness. John Butler died in 1864, although throughout the 19th century other minstrel entertainers inhabited the role of Picayune Butler, none of them Black
7. Major easiest available 19th century sources of information about the Black Picayune Butler and John Butler are absolutely clear that they are separate people.
8. In the early 20th century sources on minstrelsy with no real references began to combine the original Picayune Butler of New Orleans with information about John Butler from the 1850s and 1860s.
9. Both scholars of African American music and humor, scholars of minstrelsy, and scholars of the banjo leapt on this unsubstantiated legend because it met people's desires to honor Africa American roots of minstrelsy and banjo playing and American popular entertainment and as my next post will make clear, it helped soothe the harsh realities of precivil war Blackface minstrelsy's harsh relationship with real African Americans.
10. The first crack in this legend came in Lowell Schreyer's "The Banjo Entertainers" A BOOK THAT BELONGS IN EVERY HOME AND MORE IMPORTANTLY IN EVERY LIBRARY
11 ARound here and beyond much credit should go to Carl Anderton who figured out the basic facts of this following Lowell and has tried to make thse points among his many other splendid contributions to our knowledge of the banjo and its history.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Masciale on
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Minstrel shows were always in blackface, even when parodying Irish, Germans, and other ethnic groups. They started out that way. The use of the word "minstrel" is interesting. Starting in the 1830s family singing groups such as the Tyrolese Minstrels became popular. They sang European music in 4 part harmony. When you look at a list of the groups performing, almost every other group had Minstrel in the name. This was also the romantic era, and writers such as Sir Walter Scott had romanticized the days of yore and minstrels. When the Virginia Minstrels came on the scene I believe that they chose the name in part to parody these other singing groups. If you look at the sheet music for a lot of the songs you will see 4 parts, at least in the chorus. Some performers tried to get away from black face, but the public expected to see people in blackface, it was the convention for the day.
Other forms of stage performance such as these 4 part groups were not done in blackface. Blackface performance was a lower class form of entertainment. Through the 1840s the audiences were typically middle and lower class males. In the 1850s as the minstrel shows changed the audience base expanded. Even though the shows were witnessed by certain classes of people, the music from the shows was known by all classes. Some distained it, and some loved it. I have read accounts of grieving mothers complaining that their children were overheard singing Jim Along Josie. But, if you look at the sheet music on sites like Lester Levy you can see that many of the songs were published and republished. Different groups would take the same melody and put new lyrics to it, and then publish the song with new lyrics. Advertising for the shows would also brag about new lyrics.
An interesting story I was told by a fellow reenactor was about a minister down south who had a largely black congregation, and he apologized to his congregation for going to a minstrel show. He walked out in the middle of it. I was asked why he felt the need to apologize. There are two reasons that I can give, first of course is the awful portrayal of African Americans, and second because often in the middle of the show a "sermon" would be given in black dialect. I have read a number of these "sermons," and as someone attending seminary, and who regularly preaches I can tell you that my blood boils when I do so. It is horribly offensive, and is meant to be so.
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Permalink Reply by Strumelia on
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Starting in the 1830s family singing groups such as the Tyrolese Minstrels became popular. They sang European music in 4 part harmony. When you look at a list of the groups performing, almost every other group had Minstrel in the name. This was also the romantic era, and writers such as Sir Walter Scott had romanticized the days of yore and minstrels. When the Virginia Minstrels came on the scene I believe that they chose the name in part to parody these other singing groups.
John, are yo saying that these pre-Virginia Minstrels family type 'minstrel troupes' or singing groups calling themselves minstrels were not in blackface, then?
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They named their groups minstrels, but did not call their shows minstrel shows. They were not in blackface, although blackface performance was around, such as "Daddy" Rice and George Washington Dixon.
Here is a partial list of some of those groups:
The Tyrolese Family Ranier (The Tyrolese Minstrels)The German MinstrelsThe Alpine MinstrelsThe Euterpian QuartetThe Hughes FamilyOssian’s BardsThe IllsleysThe Boston MinstrelsThe AllegheniansThe Hutchinsons
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Thank you John. :)
I find it interesting the heavy emphasis on 'Tyrolean/Swiss/German' in these very early singing groups.
A few years ago (when I was dabbling in yodeling..don't ask), I came upon this fascinating online article about early singing troupes and yodelers history, from generally around 1900-1920: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/b_yodel.htm
The article has some great information about African-American singers, performers, and then-famous Black YODELERS from that period, apparently performing and touring for both black and white audiences, in various venues and configurations. That's why I was asking about whether there were all Black stage shows from before 1900 that catered to Black audiences. Thanks for clarifying for me that although there were white singing groups early on calling themselves 'minstrel' groups, it didn't mean they were presenting 'minstrel shows' as we define it. As I am understanding you to say then- and I want to get this straight- anything specifically called a 'minstrel show' from the 1800's definitely consisted of whites performing in blackface...is this correct? Thanks!
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I am also recalling the presentation at Antietam AEBG this year of opera parodies of the 1800's as being part of some minstrel shows. It was interesting, but can anyone tell me whether those opera parody acts themselves were typically performed in blackface? I was assuming not, but I don't recall if that was made clear or not during the presentation. Or maybe some of the opera parodies were performed in blackface characters and others not?
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Anything before the civil war. After the civil war there were a number of African American minstrel groups, most notably the Georgia Minstrels.
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John Masciale said:Anything before the civil war. After the civil war there were a number of African American minstrel groups, most notably the Georgia Minstrels.
John, sorry to bug you about these details, but I want to get it straight...
so then please correct me on these points if i have them wrong:
Anything specifically called a 'minstrel show' from before the CW always consisted of or included whites performing in blackface?
But one might sometimes find a "minstrel show" from after the CW that consisted entirely of, or featured, Black performers (uh, hopefully not required to be in blackface getups) ?
Did the Georgia Minstrels call their stage shows 'minstrel shows'...?
I guess I'm really just trying know if there ever were "minstrel shows" that did not include white painting themselves up as black and denigrating them. Or did the very definition of 'minstrel show' necessarily always include racist 'blackface routines' ?
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Permalink Reply by Valerie Diaz Leroy on
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I'm a visual learner. Could we create a timeline of these findings? Does this exist?
At school we have what is called "dump your brain." Students are asked to write down all they know on a subject before beginning a unit of study. This would be a wonderful way to share knowledge and then pinpoint areas that need further study and debate.
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There were African American minstrel groups before the civil war, but they were not mainstream, were not advertised, were not welcome in commercial theatres. They could not possibly earn a living doing minstrel shows, so I guess in that sense you would call them amateur. Anything before the civil war that you went to a theatre to see calling itself a minstrel show would be white performers dressed in blackface.
After the civil war African American minstrel troupes were commercially viable. They did not have to wear burnt cork makeup like William Henry Lane (Juba) had to when he first got started. They did call their shows minstrel shows because the minstrel show was a genre of entertainment.
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John Masciale said:There were African American minstrel groups before the civil war, but they were not mainstream, were not advertised, were not welcome in commercial theatres. They could not possibly earn a living doing minstrel shows, so I guess in that sense you would call them amateur. Anything before the civil war that you went to a theatre to see calling itself a minstrel show would be white performers dressed in blackface.
After the civil war African American minstrel troupes were commercially viable. They did not have to wear burnt cork makeup like William Henry Lane (Juba) had to when he first got started. They did call their shows minstrel shows because the minstrel show was a genre of entertainment.
This answers my questions very clearly. Thank you John! :)
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Permalink Reply by Tony Thomas on
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since I wrote the above a few more things along the same lines have become true.
In further years of research the evidence about the existence of a Black Picayune Butler in New Orleans has remained somewhere between slim and non-existent. It is quite possible Picayune Butler was a figment of 19th century Blackface popular culture like Dandy Jim from Caroline or Chief Gumbo Chaff.
The idea perpetrated by T. Allston Brown that George Nichols had anything to do with Picayune Butler and was an original source of Jim Crow is completely incorrect.
It is dubious that the passage frequently quoted as proving this means this. More likely, particularly if you are familiar with both Nichols and Brown, it means that Nichols was the first in the circus to perform "Jim Crow," although as we shall see this was dramatically wrong. Anyway, Brown had no reputation for factual analysis in his writing, He is well known by theater historians for being inaccurate, stupid, and just plain wrong on most issues.
We know as a fact that T.D. Rice began performing his Jim Crow dance and song and characterization in the spring of 1830, culminating in a benefit performance in June 1830 in Louisville where he performed four versions of Jim Crow. We know that Rice made a hit performing this song in Louisville and Cincinnati and thereabouts that summer, but was itching to find bookings for himself as a solo act at higher pay given his hit performances. We know that for a month or so in the fall of 1830, he quit the theater company he was in and joined Purdy Brown's circus of the West, as it passed through the Ohio Valley and no doubt performed his hit performance of Jim Crow with them before wangling a better deal with another theater company that was to take him to the East Coast and national and international stardom.
George Nichols' first performnances of Jim Crow came in March 1831 in New Orleans in the same circus. It is fairly obvious that he was performing the song that Rice had made a hit with, than he learned from Rice, replacing Rice as Rice was going off to the East Coast.
Brown could not have talked to Nichols--he might have as Brown was a stage hand in the circuses before trying his hand as a theatrical agent and promoter before he made a hit selling long disorganized articles on anything he could think of as theatrical and circus history to the Clipper which eventually hired him--until the 1840s, being generous if we accept perhaps Brown had joined the circus as a teenager, but perhaps until the 1850s. George Nichols seemed in the habit to have produced and written all sorts of Blackface songs that historians have discovered were created by others.
This was typical early 19th century showmanship where entertainers claimed they wrote every song they performed. Even in classical music in New York City major elite Episcopal churches and the Catholic Cathedral had performances of masses falsely attributed to Mozart, that were fraudulent products of American and European counterfeiters.
Trying to build himself up, Nichols hardly would have told Brown or everyone that he learned Jim Crow because he had been asked to replace Rice in the same Circus. Rather, he took the standard course of white minstrels who claimed they learned tunes from Gumbo Chaff, Dandy Jim and all sorts of spurious fictional sources, and claimed he learned the tune from Picayune Butler.
How little TA Brown actually knew or cared about the issue is expressed in the article he wrote on this first printed in 1860, but relentelessly reprinted and plagiarized by the Clipper for the next eighty years, that he thought the Picayune Butler song was "Picayune Butler is Going Away," a title or verse for the sound no one else has every found despite scores of published sheet music versions and a greater number of folk collection.
Brown produced an overflowing volume of writing in the fall of 1860 and in 1861 appearing in the Clipper while Brown lived in Philadelphia and was looking for work as a theatrical agent (he advertised as looking for such work in each issue). Very much of it is pretty laughable, not that standards of research existed, or that the Clipper was known as an accurate source of detailed historical knowledge, or that in general 19th century newspapers sought to be the source of objective truth.
John Butler's story is pretty interesting as he seems to be a precursor of folks like Converse who wanted to separate banjo performance into an art and entertainment field of its own, beyond minstrel delineation, and made several attempts to launch himself as a solo act as a banjoist outside of minstrel troupes working in concert saloons and circuses and was a active participant in banjo contests
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After a year mnore of research, my firm conclusions are that "
2) Butler's singing and banjo playing inspired non-banjo playing Black face originators George Nichols and T. D. Rice who visited New Orleans working with Circuses, and they may have learned some songs from him, including possibly Jim Crow. But nothing much is known of this Butler and he may have disappeared from the scene in the 1830s."is utterly untrue.
This idea and those that echo it are based on the erroneous statments of one T. Allston Brown.
Brown's assertion is backed by no evidence. On the other hand lots of real evidence exists that Rice began rehearsing the song in late 1829 and early 1830 began performing it in Kentucky in the spring of 1830, had a massive hit with it by May in 1830, and was performing it throughout the Ohio Valley through 1830.
Rice never had visited New Orleans or met up with Nichols. This is quite tightly documented insofar as the show Rice worked with was supposed to merge with Purdy Browns Circus where Nichols worked, but did not and went there separate ways across 1829 and 1830.
Fueled by his success with Jim Crow, Rice tried to go out as a separate act, and likely was demanding more money from the theater he was in, and as part of this joined Purdy Brown's Circus in the early fall of 1830, performing his hit song and dance Jim Crow there.
He ultimately got a better offer with another theater and left to eventual stardom in the East by November 1830. Rice never visited New Orleans until 1834. When he did, he paid tribute to the Black Banjoist Old Corn Meal. If he had been inspired to write his hit from Picayune Butler, he would have paid tribute to him, but he did not. Like most minstrels, he sought black attribution to his songs, and invented several stories about how he had learned Jim Crow from African Americans. He certainly would have created a clear and embellished story had he learned the song from Picayune Butler, But he did not.
Nichols performed Jim Crow in Purdy Brown's circus after Rice left, with our first notice of that being in March 1831, a year after Rice had been performing the songas a hit in the Ohio Valley and months after Rice had performed it in the same circus.
Unfortunately, many people place some credence in a quotation from writer, theater and circus promotor, T. Allston Brown who mentions this first in an 1860 article he wrote for the Clipper which was relentlessly reprinted by the Clipper and other publications into the 20th century. Brown who was 29 at the time, claimed he learned this from Nichols. Nichols' heyday as a performer was in the 1820s and 1830s when he probably passed a way (ANYONE WITH A DEATH DATE FOR NICHOLS PLEASE WRITE ME), SO Brown's claim about Nichols refers to events Brown might have known about directly only if he had spoken to Nichols when he Brown was 8 or 9 at the eldest.
Brown was no historian but a stage hand who worked his way up and was a major promoter for circuses and theater. In fact among theater historians he is renown for his inaccuracy and his errors.
Nichols himself is rather well known for having claimed to have written a number of ministrel songs that others have written or that folklorists have shown are folk songs That is hardly novel since the whole sweep of minstrelsy was claiming Black sources for the music, even for tunes and songs we now know originated in English popular music, Opera, or European American folk music. It would be very un minstrel like for Nichols to claim he performed Jim Crow to replace Rice who had quit the circus they both worked for, but to invent a ficticious Black source for it.
A year more of research work and there seems to be almost no factual references to the existence of a Black Picayune Butler that are not echoes of Brown's statemen. A member of this blog produced a clipping from a Cincinnati newspaper claiming to be memories of Picayune Butler. Several years of research in old newspapers showed this piece was a standard piece reprinted in Newspapers int he Mississippi and Ohio Valleys usually along with memories of equally ficticious characters like Mike Fink and Gumbo Chaff.
In contrast Henry Kmen researched for years in New Orleans newspaper archives in English an French and only found one article with a reference to "old Butler" to claim anything of Butler.
I very highly recommend R. H, Lhamon's two books about T.D. Rice which provided the basis for my figuring out the Rice and thus the Brown issue, even though Lhamon wrote believing Brown's statement. He has since acknowledged his error int his matter.
There may or may not have been a Picayune Butler as a black performer in New Orleans. No one has produced any evidence that he existed and that he was not a fictional product of the culture of Black face minstrelsy like Dandy Jim of Caroline or Johnny Booker.
I would like to believe he existed but as a critical historian, I cannot. What is interesting is the way non critical wishful thinking rather than critical historical analysis pervades the banjo-folk-black music world instead of science
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