I read somewhere that black performers did occasionally perform in blackface - that their natural skin color wasn't considered sufficient. Black minstrel shows were extraordinarily popular, so performers had to compromise to survive.


Gee, what an awful song. Here are the lyrics, transcribed from Levy.
-Joe Offer-

I Guess You'd Better Hush! Hush! Hush!
(Darkey slumber Song)
(Julia Marion Manley - 1901)

When the hoot owls am a-cryin'
And the bats they am a-flyin'
There's a great big goblin travels round,
Watchin'out for colored children
Who's been stealin' watermillen
And from mammy after dark is found
If you're good he'll never get yer,
But if you's bad I'll bet yer
That sometime when you is settin' black
Mister Goblin'll grab yer,
In his great big bag he'll nab yer,
And you never never can come back.

CHORUS
I guess you better hush! hush! hush! my honey!
'Cause I know he's hiding way out yonder in the brush.
If he sees you doing wrong,
He'll take you right along.
So I guess you better hush! hush! hush!


Far away he'll surely take yer,
And to punish you he'll make yer,
Just as white as any white folks am.
Every day you'll get a lickin'
And you'll never taste no chicken.
Like your mammy always gives her lamb.
If you ran away he'd catch yer,
Then he'd beat and bite and scratch yer,
Till you'd wish that you were dead, that's true.
So you best be good, my baby
If you don't I'll call him maybe.
'Cause I knows he's watchin' out for you.
CHORUS