Hey, you lot are on the wrong discussion! This morris origins stuff belongs on the MDDL >g<

Anybody wanting to know the facts, such as they are, about morris origins could try:

http://www.usol.com/~rsholmes/morris/realhistory.html

Damn - sorry, I forgot this wouldn't automatically come up as a link and if I go looking for the instructions on how to do it I'll probably lose my place! Fraid you'll have to copy 'n paste.

And, although I fully agree that nowadays blackface morris has no racial intentions, there is disturbing evidence, for which I can probably find the link if anyone really wants it, that it was originally related to the fashion for 'n****r minstrels' in the C19th. Although there is evidence that Renaissance morris may have included one or more figures representing a Moor, I don't think there is any of a whole side blacking up before the C19th.

Jenny H
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