Back to Eyewitness Accounts Main
- Juba is a perfect phenomenon, a genuine Son of the Southern clime, who will introduce the NATIONAL SONGS and DANCES of his country; accompanied by Briggs, on the native Instrument, the Banjo.
Sheffield and Rotherham Independent. October 28, 1848
- His other performances were called the "marriage festival" and "plantation dances," in which, in male costume, he illustrated the dances of his own simple people on festive occasions.
Manchester Guardian. October 18, 1848
- We understand, he is a genuine grit negro, from the far-west, and not one of those domestic manufactured piebald abortions of Ethiopianism.
Theatrical Journal. July 11, 1850, p222
- In our peregrinations through life, chance threw us for a while in the atmosphere of genuine Louisiana negroes; and having some idea of the black traits, we must say, in the spirit of impartiality, that Juba is one of the elite. It is laughable betimes to witness the abortive attempts of those collier or whitewashed personations of the Ethiopian. They are just as much in character as a pig is in a drawing-room. Juba's executions are both graceful and accomplished.
Theatrical Journal. July 25, 1850, p339
- The performances of this young man are far above the common performances of the mountebanks who give imitations of American and negro character
Bell's New Weekly Messenger. August 27, 1848
- [Note: Here is an 1838 description of a plantation ‘Juber’ dance, in which ‘the main figure was the banjor-man:
Tumming his banjor, grinning with ludicrous gesticulations and playing off his wild notes to the company.’ The dancers, ‘with open mouth and pearl white teeth, [were] clapping “Juber” to the notes of the banjor....[They] rested the right foot on the heel, and its clap on the floor was in perfect unison with the notes of the banjor, and palms of the hands on the corresponding extremities; while the dancers were all jigging it away in the merriest possible gaiety of heart, having the most ludicrous twists, wry jerks, and flexible contortions of the body and limbs, that human imagination can divine.’]
William B. Smith, 'The Persimmon Tree and the Beer Dance,'
Farmer's Register, VI (April 1838); see Lynne Emery, Black
Dance from 1619 to Today (Dance Horizons, 1988), p96.
Back to Eyewitness Accounts Main