Named after Edward P. Christy, the Christy's Minstrels were the New York Company from the 1840s and 1850s who popularised the format of the minstrel show whereby white entertainers posed as black singers and dancers. His troupe was so successful that they put together a tour of England also. The success of this troupe led to the phrase "Christy Minstrels" coming to mean any blackface minstrel show.
In an era when slavery was still prevalent in the Southern United States, it played very much on racial stereotypes and romanticised folk elements of African-American culture. It fed in to the rowdy music hall genre with a variety show narrative arc of its own. Minstrel shows persisted well into the twentieth century.
