Charles "Charlie" White

Born June 4, 1821 in Newark, New York, White moved with his family at the age of two to New York City, where, before he launched his career as an entertainer, he worked in racing stables, for a druggist, in a chair factory and in city government positions.

That summer, he joined the "Kentucky Minstrels" troupe at the Vauxhall Garden Theatre on Fourth Avenue.

[1] After Daddy Rice popularized blackface with his Jim Crow character, White incorporated some "negro act" with his accordion playing and then founded White's Kitchen Minstrels in New York in the early 1840s, opening at the Melodeon on the Bowery.

[2] Whilst there he seems to have employed the famous dancer Master Juba,[3] who apparently toured with his minstrel troupe.

250 Hudson Street, he was attacked while drunk by two young men who tried to make off with his watch and pocketbook, but the theft was prevented by a police officer.