Dixon, George Washington

Dixon, George Washington

(1808–61) minstrel performer; birthplace unknown but he died in New Orleans. He was one of the first performers to act out skits and songs in blackface and is credited with creating the first "black play", Love in a Cloud (1829). His performances in New York in the early 1830s first raised interest in minstrel shows. In the 1840s his career waned and he became an adventurer in Yucatan and the editor of a New York scandal sheet.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.