Jigging for a Living: Black–Irish Challenge Dancers in Antebellum America

During the tumultuous years before the Civil War, scores of working-class Americans challenged each other to jig dancing competitions for amusement and profit. But challenge dancing was much more than an occasional leisure activity for the urban masses. It was a recognized sport, a form of remunerative labor, and a means of upward mobility for the truly talented. Its popularity among the working classes made young champion dancers like Irish American John Diamond and African American William Henry Lane, aka Juba, marketable theatrical attractions, recruited by the likes of P. T. Barnum and other stage impresarios. Challenge dancing was also a betting sport that shared much in common with boxing, including prolific gambling, hefty purses, and silver belts.

This paper tests our assumptions about Black-Irish social relations, women’s role in society, and the nature of childhood by looking at challenge dancing as work. With roots in both Ireland and Africa, challenge dancing flourished in the racially and ethnically mixed neighborhoods of antebellum America’s port cities. Irish Diamond and Black Juba started dancing for tips and prizes as young children and mounted the stage as employees in their early teens. Dancing may have seemed like child’s play to middle-class audiences, but the boys they were watching knew it was work. Women also competed in dancing matches, but their scanty and sexist depiction in contemporary sources (most were dismissed as prostitutes) have led modern scholars to replicate these biases and underestimate women’s contributions as professional dancers. By looking at the art and sport of challenge dancing as a form of labor, this paper argues, we recapture more fully the experiences of the remarkable though often obscure working-class men, women, and children who aspired to develop their creative abilities, express their individuality, and earn their livings doing so.