Thomas D. Rice  Thomas Dartmouth Rice (May 20, 1808 – September 19, 1860), known professionally as Daddy Rice, was an American performer and playwright who performed blackface and used African American vernacular speech, song and dance to become one of the most popular minstrel show entertainers of his time. He is considered the "father of American minstrelsy". His act drew on aspects of African American culture and popularized them with a national, and later international audience. Rice's "Jim Crow" persona was an ethnic depiction in accordance with contemporary Caucasian ideas of African Americans and their culture. The character was based on a folk trickster named Jim Crow that was long popular among black slaves. Rice also adapted and popularized a traditional slave song called "Jump Jim Crow". Thomas Dartmouth Rice was born on the lower east side of Manhattan, New York. His family resided in the commercial district near the East River docks. Rice received some formal education in his youth, but ceased in his teenage years when he acquired an apprenticeship with a woodcarver named Dodge. Despite this occupational training, Rice quickly made a career as a performer. By 1827, Rice was a traveling actor, appearing not only as a stock player in several New York theaters, but also performing on frontier stages in the coastal South and the Ohio River valley. According to a former stage colleague, Rice was "tall and wiry, and a great deal on the build of Bob Fitzsimmons, the prizefighter". According to another account he was at least six feet tall. He frequently told stories of George Washington, who he claimed had been a friend of his father. Rice had made the Jim Crow character his signature act by 1832. Rice went from one theater to another, singing his Jim Crow Song. He became known as "Jim Crow Rice". There had been other blackface performers before Rice, and there were many more afterwards. But it was "Daddy Rice" who became so indelibly associated with a single character. Rice claimed to have been inspired by a crippled black stable groom, who sang and danced as he did his work, and even claimed to have bought the man's clothes for "authenticity." The time, place and truth of this claim have been disputed. He soon expanded his repertoire, with his most popular routine being his "shadow dance." Rice would appear on stage carrying a sack slung over his shoulder, then sing the song "Me and My Shadow" (not the better-known 1920s song).