Dan Emmett (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett (October 29, 1815 - June 28, 1904) was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition. Of Irish ancestry, he was born at Mount Vernon, Ohio, then a frontier region.Growing up with little formal education, he learned popular tunes from his musical mother, and self taught himself to play the fiddle. At age 13, he became an apprentice printer and enlisted in the United States Army. He became an expert fifer and drummer at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and published his own Fifer's and Drummer's Guide in 1862 in cooperation with George G. Bruce. After receiving his discharge from the army on July 8th, 1835, he joined a Cincinnati circus. In 1840-1842 he toured with Angervine and other circuses as a black face banjoist and singer.