Background
Edwin Pearce Christy was born on November 28, 1815 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Robert F. Christy and Ruth Wheaton.
Edwin Pearce Christy was born on November 28, 1815 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Robert F. Christy and Ruth Wheaton.
Christy began his career as a minstrel in Buffalo, New York. About 1836 he originated the troupe that was first called the Virginia Minstrels and in addition to its founder, its leading members were George Christy (born Harrington), Lansing Durand, and T. Vaughn. They traveled at first principally through the West and South, and were later joined by Enorn Dickerson and Zeke Backus, well-known minstrel performers. They first appeared in New York at Palmo’s Opera House, April 27, 1846, and during the following six years they gave more than twenty- five hundred performances in Mechanics Hall and other theatres and entertainment places, winning great favor, and establishing a record for their type of program. In all these performances Edwin P. Christy took the part of interlocutor. It has been claimed that he was the originator of modern African-American minstrelsy.
The Christy Minstrels went to London at one period, and were so cordially received by English audiences that they set the fashion, musical entertainments of that form remaining popular, especially in London, for many years. He acquired a considerable fortune, and lived in retirement after 1854. During his later years, he was subject to attacks of melancholia, suffering from delusions that he was without adequate means of support. While in a period of temporary insanity he jumped from the window of his residence in New York, receiving injuries which proved fatal. His name stands among the first in point of time, and at the head of his profession, as a master in the art of providing the public with that peculiar and now almost non-existent type of entertainment known as African-American minstrelsy.
Christy had two sons, E. Byron Christy (1838 - 1866) and William A. Christy (1839 - 1862). They were also members of their father’s profession during their short lives.
