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The United States and South Asia from the Age of Empire to Decolonization Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 January 2025
Abstract Between 1851 and 1853, the American blackface troupe New York Serenaders toured cities and towns across India, performing both minstrel songs and English traditional music. Englishspeaking audiences considered the group to be authentic curators of contemporary United States performance culture. Steamships facilitated their travel within the subcontinent and made available to the group shipments of the most up-to-date printed music of minstrel songs from the U.S., which was important to their reputation as leading-edge performers. The group traveled from the Atlantic seaboard of the United States to San Francisco during the gold rush era in 1849, but they left California soon after to pursue performance opportunities at destinations in the Pacific, and eventually in India. This chapter focuses on the technological, cultural, and commercial circumstances that made possible their travel from San Francisco to India. It more specifically examines the impact of racism unique to blackface minstrelsy in India, the availability of printed music on the subcontinent, the expansion of steamship transportation within and beyond the British empire, and the role of San Francisco as a blossoming Pacific port powerhouse. It ultimately suggests that the confluence of these determinants enabled an organized group of American blackface musicians to travel to India and successfully perform popular music from the U.S.
Keywords: steamships, blackface, minstrelsy, gold rush, printed music, popular music
The population of San Francisco increased dramatically within a few months of the discovery of gold in California in 1848. By 1849, improved transportation networks moved people, cargo, and news between the city and international destinations with ever-increasing efficiency and frequency, including to countries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The New York Serenaders, a six-person American blackface minstrel troupe, initially led by Bill White on violin, were part of the flood of entertainers that travelled to San Francisco in 1849. Shortly after their arrival, they took advantage of the large number of ships departing the city to Pacific ports, seeking opportunities in Hawaii, Australia, and eventually India. They were among the first organized American blackface minstrel troupes to tour the Indian subcontinent, travelling to Bombay (modern Mumbai), Calcutta (modern Kolkata), and other small cities and towns between 1851 and 1853. They performed minstrel songs, parodies, stump speeches, and skits in racist blackface, but they also performed British folk and traditional songs and dances, including clog dancing, a style of step-dance characterized by the use of inflexible wooden-soled shoes.
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