Stephen Foster
Blackface! Stephen Foster (1826-1864) Stephen Foster, who had first performed in blackface himself at the age of nine, wrote many of the most popular songs of the minstrel era. In the 1850s, the most successful minstrel troupe in America was Christy's Minstrels. They staged a less raunchy, more refined blackface show that appealed to middle-class families. "I wish to unite with you," Foster wrote E. P. Christy, the troupe's leader, "in every effort to encourage a taste for this style of music." Foster wrote 286 songs in less than 20 years and everything he wrote was romantic, sentimental and moving. On the plantation, he found warm, happy images of family and home, free from all problems. His fictional slaves were always happy and carefree. Foster's songs offered the unsettled public welcome symbols of escape from their frustrating new ...