Combatting Prejudice through Performance: Rhetoric of Violence in Critical Reviews of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield

In 1855, Philadelphia publisher William S. Young released The Black Swan At Home and Abroad; or, A Biographical Sketch of Miss Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, The American Vocalist. The biography begins with Greenfield, freed... [ view full abstract ]

In 1855, Philadelphia publisher William S. Young released The Black Swan At Home and Abroad; or, A Biographical Sketch of Miss Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, The American Vocalist. The biography begins with Greenfield, freed from slavery after her mistress’s death, singing on a boat crossing Lake Seneca to Buffalo, and progresses with Greenfield’s rise to fame from 1851-1854 with American and British newspaper reviews, letters, and Greenfield’s exploitative managerial contract, ending with her anticipated return to the United States. This paper focuses on critical reviews in the biography that assert that Greenfield’s performances must be successful to “combat” audiences’ racist prejudices and “conquer the prejudice of colour” in her “path” to “triumph over all obstacles” (11-13). As a black celebrity in antebellum America, Greenfield’s performances worked to destroy racial prejudice that served to justify literal dehumanization and violence. Because these critical reviews rhetorically yoke anti-black violence and performance, my paper explores some of this seminar’s centralizing questions including “How have violence and performance shaped the experiences of marginalized groups?” and “How did the performances of marginalized figures empower them to survive and sometimes thrive?”. Bringing these questions to bear on Young’s biography will illuminate how Greenfield’s performances simultaneously destroyed racial prejudices and produced an alternative understanding of black subjectivity, specifically her subjectivity as a black woman and singer. Young’s biography reveals white audiences’ preconceptions about classical artistic abilities that black women have historically countered, and on a larger scale represents black women’s resistant performances to systemic oppression continuing today.