The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7876 Message #3235633
Posted By: Lighter
07-Oct-11 - 09:56 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Old Zip Coon
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Zip Coon
"The Disappointment" was revised and expanded in 1796. I haven't found any references to performances at that late date, however.
In "Disappointment Revisited," American Music (Spring, 1983 & Spring, 1984), Carolyn Rabsen argues persuasively that "Raccoon" was intended to be a Pennsylvania German rather than an African American.
Raccoon's ethnicity is not identified in the play.
When compared with other examples of stage dialect of the period, including African, Raccoon's appears to be decidedly European. Moreover, he appears to have served in the British Army's Royal American Regiment, which included Pennsylvania Germans commanded by German-speaking officers "especially imported from Switzerland for the purpose."