Annotation:I'm Off to Charlestown: Difference between revisions

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''I'll go down to Charlestown, the pretty gals to see.''

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William Donaldson (1822-1876) was a left-handed banjo-player who hailed from Poughkeepsie, New York, whose career alternated between clowning for the circuses (where he was the first to perform in black-face) and performing as a theatre minstrel. He made his debut in 1836 at the age of thirteen in Poughkeepsie, as “Young Jim Crow” (after the style of "Daddy" Rice) and ten years later was known mainly as a clown. According to E. Le Roy Rice ('''Monarchs of Minstrelsy'''), he "was the inventor of the jawbone as a musical instrument by black-face performers several years before the first minstrel performance was given...In June, 1847, he was one of the five original members of the first Campbell's Minstrels. About three years before his death he became the proprietor of the ~~Lockwook~~ House in Poughkeepsie. The individual he dedicated the song to, Charles White, owned a minstrel company, White’s Melodeon on the Bowery in New York. William Donaldson, Dan Bryant, Lilly Coleman, and Dan Emmitt performed together for Charlie White in the mid-1850s. See also the march variant "[[Off to Charleston]]" in Hopkin's '''American Veteran Fifer''' (1905).

William Donaldson (1822-1876) was a left-handed banjo-player who hailed from Poughkeepsie, New York, whose career alternated between clowning for the circuses (where he was the first to perform in black-face) and performing as a theatre minstrel. He made his debut in 1836 at the age of thirteen in Poughkeepsie, as “Young Jim Crow” (after the style of "Daddy" Rice) and ten years later was known mainly as a clown. According to E. Le Roy Rice ('''Monarchs of Minstrelsy'''), he "was the inventor of the jawbone as a musical instrument by black-face performers several years before the first minstrel performance was given...In June, 1847, he was one of the five original members of the first Campbell's Minstrels. About three years before his death he became the proprietor of the Lockwood House in Poughkeepsie. The individual he dedicated the song to, Charles White, owned a minstrel company, White’s Melodeon on the Bowery in New York. William Donaldson, Dan Bryant, Lilly Coleman, and Dan Emmitt performed together for Charlie White in the mid-1850s. See also the march variant "[[Off to Charleston]]" in Hopkin's '''American Veteran Fifer''' (1905).

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 ''I'll go down to Charlestown, the pretty gals to see.''<br>
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-William Donaldson (1822-1876) was a left-handed banjo-player who hailed from Poughkeepsie, New York, whose career alternated between clowning for the circuses (where he was the first to perform in black-face) and performing as a theatre minstrel. He made his debut in 1836 at the age of thirteen in Poughkeepsie, as “Young Jim Crow” (after the style of "Daddy" Rice) and ten years later was known mainly as a clown. According to E. Le Roy Rice ('''Monarchs of Minstrelsy'''), he "was the inventor of the jawbone as a musical instrument by black-face performers several years before the first minstrel performance was given...In June, 1847, he was one of the five original members of the first Campbell's Minstrels. About three years before his death he became the proprietor of the Lockwook House in Poughkeepsie.  The individual he dedicated the song to, Charles White, owned a minstrel company, White’s Melodeon on the Bowery in New York.  William Donaldson, Dan Bryant, Lilly Coleman, and Dan Emmitt performed together for Charlie White in the mid-1850s. See also the march variant "[[Off to Charleston]]" in Hopkin's '''American Veteran Fifer''' (1905).
+William Donaldson (1822-1876) was a left-handed banjo-player who hailed from Poughkeepsie, New York, whose career alternated between clowning for the circuses (where he was the first to perform in black-face) and performing as a theatre minstrel. He made his debut in 1836 at the age of thirteen in Poughkeepsie, as “Young Jim Crow” (after the style of "Daddy" Rice) and ten years later was known mainly as a clown. According to E. Le Roy Rice ('''Monarchs of Minstrelsy'''), he "was the inventor of the jawbone as a musical instrument by black-face performers several years before the first minstrel performance was given...In June, 1847, he was one of the five original members of the first Campbell's Minstrels. About three years before his death he became the proprietor of the Lockwood House in Poughkeepsie.  The individual he dedicated the song to, Charles White, owned a minstrel company, White’s Melodeon on the Bowery in New York.  William Donaldson, Dan Bryant, Lilly Coleman, and Dan Emmitt performed together for Charlie White in the mid-1850s. See also the march variant "[[Off to Charleston]]" in Hopkin's '''American Veteran Fifer''' (1905).
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