"The Colored Grenadier," Sheet Music Cover. 1879. Boston, MA.
This sheet music cover lampoons black militias and military bands that paraded and marched throughout the country. Many of these militias, traceable to the 1860s and black Reconstruction, were often armed and considered a social threat. Fearful white citizens throughout the country politicized such groups, and pushed for local and state laws to disarm them. This was effectively accomplished. To further disarm them, at least psychologically, black militias were lampooned in music. Here the grotesquely-mustachioed, sabre-wielding, strutting figure looks over his left shoulder as if to give attention to his large butt. This hypersexual reference to black body parts has a long tradition in western popular culture. An image of Sara Baartman (Sarrtije Barrtman) depicted as completely naked and presented before an audience of French nobility is probably the earliest reference point.
