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.Ourgentlemen brought home tickets, and after dinner, ve all vent andwoted. 23 Possibly the inclusion of the many v s here, certainlyjarring to modern ears, was part of an attempt to capture theDutch inflection in African New Yorker English.At any rate,readers of the Advocate over the ensuing weeks and months wit-nessed a rapid development in the way in which black speech wasrepresented: in later stories about the black actors and in numer-ous pieces about other aspects of black life all of them grist forthe newspaper s mill Noah exhibited a much surer hand, deftlyemploying a black dialect still instantly recognizable as suchtoday.For Noah, the activities of Hewlett and the other black actorswere emblematic of the larger problems posed by the behavior ofAfrican New Yorkers, and much of the bite in a couple of imagi-native skits he published in his paper derived from the way he cre-atively fused these concerns.The first written in late June 1823,when Brown was trying desperately to hold his theater companytogether with a benefit performance of The Drama of King Shot-away was in the form of a playbill, similar both to the ones theblack actors were papering all over New York and to the Bobali-tion broadsides then being run off in Boston in anticipation ofthat year s celebration.It began: On day evening, (and onevery evening until further notice) will be presented at the SkunkPoint, corner of Orange and Cross streets, a nuisance in 3 acts inter-spersed with a variety of abuse &c.&c. The cast included, amongothers, Drunkencuff, Profane Tom, and Noisy Sam, played respec-tively by Mr.Ethiop, Mr.Mandingo, and Mr.Creole.The first actwould be a masquerade of Ethiopeans and a Dance, together IMITATION 205with the method of Blockading Side Walks in Sea Ports. In thesecond, Messrs.Cuff, Tom and Sam would display intoxica-tion, profanity, riot &c.&c.in which Mrs.Diana will prove her-self champion, and in the third, the players would amuse the au-dience with many new and absurd gestures. The entire spectaclewould finish at one in the morning to the general annoyance ofthe peace and security of the good citizens in the vicinity. A briefnote was appended: No person admitted, who voted in favor ofthe Missouri bill, or who are in favor of the slave states. 24Noah must have been quite taken with this piece because afew weeks later he published a sequel.Under the heading Crossand Orange streets at the intersection of these streets lay FivePoints, rapidly developing a worldwide reputation as the epitomeof urban squalor he noted that this neighborhood was cele-brated for riots, dram drinking, and an assemblage of blacks, whoherd in large squads. Noah then urged that those who are forliberating the slaves of the south had better pay a visit to thesehaunts of freemen. What followed was what the editor describedas a mild jeu d espirit, a much longer imaginative piece that re-fined and followed through on many of the ideas raised earlier.The first part read:GRAND CONCERT OF DE BOB-LINK SOCIETY De times hab changed, But we hab not.In consequence of great couragement bin had had at skunkpoint for dram-tick beformance, de managers will gib grandconsert ebery evening dis week.De public is spectfully formed dat a new gumpany of Afri-cans habe kommenced noying de pop-lace at de above place.Deladies and gemmen of dis korps are ferior to none in point of low 206 STORIES OF FREEDOM IN BLACK NEW YORKlanguage, and de vulgar talons of some of latter are first rate.De entertainments dat will be brot up consist chiefly in gratewoe-call powers.Leader of de music Nig Crow-wellOverture to Back-us.Sam Screetch-owlSong Why should we de watchman fear,Since when deir call d dey neber hear,Tom Whip-poor-will.Duet Say, will you treat? or shall I go?Dear dimple chops, it must be so.Bet Sawbill and Jack PigeonwingSong If de marsh-all should come, how de neighbourswould laugh,But, as we rre only so many, he only catch half.Prince NighthawkSong When we done make tread mill crack,Light as feders we come back,Ready wid more saucy slack.Dick JackdawSong Street Spector sleeps late in de morn,Maybe sick, he eat too much corn,Get de fever as sure as he born.Antony Duck-eyeDuet Peacock mark, he rader dark,Yet strut as big as white man,And sulkey Jay, bote night and dayWill make much noise as he can.Caesar Snipe and Dinah Duckcompanied on sheep skin fiddle by Dick Webfoot. IMITATION 207The piece goes on at some length in much the same vein, climax-ing with a riot on the street.In a final note, the author stated thatthe authorities were invited to witness our new immorally scenes,trusting dey will not any-mad-vert too closely pon de new actors. 25This Grand Concert piece was demeaning and derogatory; itused black dialect to lampoon African New Yorkers and played onall the stereotypes of free blacks that newspaper editors, Noah inparticular, were doing their best to establish.And yet, as was usu-ally the case with Noah, there is something more here.Note thathe drops the obvious nomenclature of Profane Tom and the likefrom the earlier piece in favor of naming the many singers toground the bird motif permeating the Grand Concert. Not onlydid this strategy cleverly give the piece a thematic unity, but it alsorelied on knowledge of the details of black life.Birds were of greatimportance in African American culture, particularly in dance andmusic.All manner of slave dances the buzzard lope and pigeonwing for example gained their names from the movements ofbirds.Herein, of course, lay part of the potency of Jump JimCrow. One of Frank Johnson s most popular tunes was the BirdWaltz, which imitated the chirping of the canary bird so dis-tinctly and so natural that the keenest perception cannot discoverthe difference. Most revealing of all, though, was Noah s use of the word Bob-Link in the title.This, of course, sounds very much like Bobalition, conjuring up all manner of derogatory associations.But the bobolink was actually a bird (Dolichonyx oryzivorus).AsW.T.Lhamon, Jr.has noted, the bobolink is a field bird, a newworld passerine, rarely vagrant in Europe, whose male s brownunderparts and face change to black while it breeds in spring. The bird was well known to African New Yorkers Bob Rowley,one of the most honored and highly skilled dancers on the shin-gle at Catharine Slip, performed under the name of BobolinkBob and to white New Yorkers as well.26 A few years after 208 STORIES OF FREEDOM IN BLACK NEW YORKNoah wrote his Concert, Lydia Maria Child wrote eloquentlyand wonderingly of the bird
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