“Jim Crow,” also called “Jump Jim Crow,” is a piece of popular music that originated in 1828 and was published as sheet music in 1832. The song-anddance routine was a caricature of Black Americans performed by a white actor, Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice, who painted his face with burnt cork, costumed himself as a white Americans’ perception of a plantation slave, and won nationwide fame performing in theaters across America. Several sources recount that Rice was probably inspired by an elderly Black stableman working in one of the river towns where Rice was performing.