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Chapter 2 - Reconstruction, Railroads, and Race

The American Circus in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era

from Part I - Transnational Geographies of the Modern Circus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2021

By
Sakina M. Hughes
Edited by
Gillian Arrighi  and
Jim Davis
Gillian Arrighi
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle, New South Wales
Jim Davis
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
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Summary

The American railroad circus during the Gilded Age (1865–1900) and the Progressive Era (1900–1920) experienced a vibrant and hugely successful golden age. During that time of tremendous national growth, the circus industry reached its highest number of touring companies, boasted the largest number and variety of acts, and made the industry’s most significant number of advancements in technology and management. It connected urban and rural areas, rich and poor, and national and international audiences of all colours and races. However, this was the height of the Jim Crow era in which racial minorities, especially African Americans, experienced legal forms of discrimination and brutal violence. All aspects of American life were affected by strict racial limitations as citizenship was irrevocably linked to whiteness. This chapter argues that the American railroad circus of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era embodied the budding imperialistic spirit of the nation and reflected, supported, and challenged the race norms of the age. It reveals how African Americans, a large American minority racial group, used the circus to advance their own careers and goals in an everchanging cultural landscape. These challenges often took the forms of economic and cultural independence.

Keywords

Gilded AgeProgressive Erarailroad circusP. T. BarnumWilliam CoupDan CostelloAl G. BarnesThe Great Wallace ShowAdam ForepaughBlack labour in the circusrace relationsminstrel showsAfrican American audiencesBlack sideshow actsPrince OskazumaP. G. LoweryCharles B. HicksJones’ Black Hussar BandSolomon WhiteEphraim Williams
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Circus , pp. 35 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Abbott, Lynn, and Seroff, Doug. Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music 1889–1895. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002.Google Scholar
Abbott, Lynn, and Seroff, Doug Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, ‘Coon Songs,’ and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Bouissac, Paul. Circus and Culture: A Semiotic Approach. Lantham, MD: University Press of America, 1985.Google Scholar
Davis, Janet. The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Renoff, Gregory. The Big Tent: The Traveling Circus in Georgia, 1820–1930. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Roediger, David. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. London: Verso, 1999.Google Scholar
Sampson, Henry. The Ghost Walks: A Chronological History of Blacks in Show Business, 1865–1910. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Spangenberg, Kristin L., Walk, Deborah W., and Carlyon, David. The Amazing American Circus Poster: The Strowbridge Lithographing Company. Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Museum of Art, 2011.Google Scholar
Streeby, Shelly. American Sensations: Class, Empire, and the Production of Popular Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Watkins, Clifford. Showman: The Life and Music of Perry George Lowery. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Weber, Susan, Ames, Kenneth, and Wittmann, Matthew, eds. The American Circus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Wittmann, Matthew. Circus and the City New York, 1793–2010. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.Google Scholar

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