February 20, 2019 The Skanner BLACK HISTORY EDITION Page 7
Black History
The story of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, America’s First Black Pop Star
By Adam Gustafson
The Conversation
n 1851, a concert sopra-
no named Elizabeth
Taylor Greenfield em-
barked on a national
tour that upended Amer-
ica’s music scene.
In antebellum Ameri-
ca, operatic and concert
songs were very popular
forms of entertainment.
European concert sopra-
nos, such as Jenny Lind
and Catherine Hayes,
drew huge crowds and
rave reviews during
their U.S. tours. Lind
was so popular that baby
cribs still bear her name,
and you can now visit an
unincorporated commu-
nity called Jenny Lind,
California.
Greenfield, however,
was different. She was
a former slave. And she
was performing songs
that a burgeoning field
of American music crit-
icism, led by John Sulli-
van Dwight, considered
reserved for white art-
ists. African American
artists, most 19th-centu-
ry critics argued, lacked
the refined cultivation
of white, Eurocentric
genius, and could create
only simple music that
lacked artistic depth.
It was a prejudice that
stretched as far back as
Thomas Jefferson in his
“Notes on the State of
Virginia” and was later
reinforced by minstrel
shows.
But when Greenfield
appeared on the scene,
she shattered preexist-
ing beliefs about artistry
and race.
I
‘The Black Swan’
Elizabeth
Taylor
Greenfield was born into
slavery in Natchez, Mis-
sissippi, around 1820. As
a girl, she was taken to
Philadelphia and raised
by an abolitionist.
Largely self-taught as
a singer, she began her
concert career in New
York with the support
of the Buffalo Musical
Association. In Buffalo,
she was saddled with
the nickname “the Black
Swan,” a crude attempt
to play off the popularity
of Jenny Lind – known
as “the Swedish Night-
ingale” – who was wrap-
ping up one of the most
popular concert tours in
American history.
In 1851, Colonel Joseph
H. Wood became Green-
field’s promoter. Wood,
however, was an overt
racist and inhumane
promoter known for cre-
ating wonderment mu-
seums in Cincinnati and
Chicago that featured
exhibits like the “Lilli-
putian King,” a boy who
stood 16 inches tall. With
Greenfield, he sought to
replicate the success that
another promoter, P.T.
Barnum, had with Jenny
Lind.
In a letter to Frederick
Douglass, Martin R. Dela-
ny, a physician, newspa-
per editor and Civil War
hero, wrote that Wood
was a fervent support-
er of the Fugitive Slave
Act of 1850 and would
not admit black patrons
into his museums or at
Greenfield’s concerts.
For Greenfield’s Afri-
can American support-
ers, it was a point of huge
contention throughout
her career.
Critics reconcile their
ears with their racism
In antebellum Ameri-
ca, the minstrel show was
one of the most popular
forms of musical enter-
tainment. White actors
in blackface exploited
common
stereotypes
of African-Americans,
grossly
exaggerating
their dialect, fashion,
dancing and singing.
For example, the popu-
lar song “Zip Coon” por-
trayed African Ameri-
cans as clumsily striving
for the refinement of
White culture. The cov-
er of the sheet music for
“Zip Coon” shows an Af-
rican American attempt-
ing to mimic refined
fashions of the day and
failing. The song goes on
to mock its subject, Zip
Coon, as a “learned schol-
ar,” while putting him
in situations where his
apparent lack of intelli-
gence shows.
Greenfield’s
perfor-
mances, however, forced
her critics to rethink
this stereotype. The
Cleveland Plain Dealer
described the confusion
that Greenfield caused
for her audiences:
“It was amusing to be-
hold the utter surprise
and intense pleasure
which were depicted on
the faces of her listeners;
they seemed to express –
‘Why, we see the face of
a black woman, but hear
the voice of an angel,
what does it mean?’”
Critics agreed that
Greenfield was a major
talent. But they found
it difficult to reconcile
their ears with their rac-
ism. One solution was to
describe her as a talent-
ed, but unpolished, sing-
er.
For example, the New-
York Daily Tribune re-
ported that “it is hardly
necessary to say that we
did not expect to find an
artist on the occasion.
She has a fine voice but
does not know how to use
it.” (We see a similar phe-
nomenon today in sports
coverage, in which Black
athletes are often praised
for their raw physical
athleticism, while White
athletes are praised for
their game intelligence.)
By performing reper-
toire thought too com-
plex for black artists
– and by doing it well
– Greenfield forced her
White critics and au-
diences to reexamine
their assumptions about
the abilities of African
American singers.
A star is born
Originally built for
Jenny Lind, it was one of
the largest performance
halls in the world. The
day before the concert,
the New-York Daily Tri-
bune carried an ad that
read, “Particular Notice
– No colored persons
can be admitted, as there
has been no part of the
house appropriated for
them.” The ban result-
ed in a citywide uproar
that prompted New York
City’s first police com-
missioner, George W.
Matsell, to send a large
police unit to Metropoli-
tan Hall.
Greenfield was met
with laughter when she
took to the stage. Sev-
eral critics blamed the
uncouth crowd in at-
tendance; others wrote
it off as lighthearted
amusement. One report
described the awkward-
ness of the show’s open-
ing moments:
“She was timidly led
forward to the front of
the stage by a little white
representative of the ge-
nus homo, who seemed
afraid to touch her even
with the tips of his white
kids [gloves], and kept
the ‘Swan’ at a respectful
distance, as if she were a
sort of biped hippopota-
mus.”
Despite the inauspi-
cious beginning, critics
agreed that her range
and power were aston-
ishing. After her Amer-
ican tour, a successful
European tour ensued,
where she was accompa-
nied by her friend Harri-
et Beecher Stowe.
A singer’s legacy
Greenfield paved the
way for a host of black
female concert singers,
from Sissieretta Jones
to Audra McDonald. In
1921, the musician and
music publisher Har-
ry Pace named the first
successful Black-owned
record company, Black
Swan Records, in her
honor.
But these achievements
are byproducts of a much
larger legacy.
In Stowe’s novel “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin,” one of the
slave children, Topsy,
is taken in by a north-
ern abolitionist, Miss
Ophelia. Despite her
best attempts, Ophelia
can’t reform Topsy, who
continues to act out and
steal. When asked why
Joseph H. Wood’s museum in Chicago. Encyclopedia of Chicago
she continues to behave
as she does – despite the
intervention of implied
white goodness – Topsy
replies that she’s can’t
be good so long as her
skin is Black because her
White caregivers are in-
capable of seeing good-
ness in a Black body. Her
only solution is to have
her skin turned inside
out so she can be White.
Stowe’s argument was
not that we should begin
skinning children. Rath-
er, Topsy is a critique
of the act of “othering”
African Americans by
a dominant culture that
refuses to acknowledge
their full humanity.
After Greenfield’s New
York concert, the New-
York Daily Tribune rec-
ognized the monumental
nature of Greenfield’s
heroics. The paper urged
her to leave America
for Europe – and to stay
there – the implication
being that Greenfield’s
home country wasn’t
ready to accept the legiti-
macy of black artistry.
But Greenfield’s tour
did more than prove to
White audiences that
Black performers could
sing as well as their Eu-
ropean peers. Her tour
challenged Americans
to begin to recognize the
full artistry — and, ulti-
mately, the full humanity
— of their fellow citizens.
Adam Gustafson is an
instructor in music at
Pennsylvania State Uni-
versity.
Gustafson does not
work for, consult, own
shares in or receive fund-
ing from any company or
organization that would
benefit from this article,
and has disclosed no rel-
evant affiliations beyond
their academic appoint-
ment.