Orpheus McAdoo

Orpheus Myron McAdoo
Orpheus McAdoo circa 1900
Born	(1858-01-04)4 January 1858 Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
Died	17 July 1900(1900-07-17) (aged 42) Sydney, Australia
Nationality	American
Occupation	Singer and minstrel show impresario
Known for	Georgia Minstrels and Alabama Cakewalkers

Orpheus Myron McAdoo (4 January 1858 – 17 July 1900) was an African-American singer and minstrel show impresario. He toured extensively in Britain, South Africa and Australia, first with Frederick Loudin's Jubilee Singers and then with his own minstrel companies.

Orpheus McAdoo was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on 4 January 1858. He was the oldest child of slave parents. His mother was the only slave on the estate who could read. The family occupied a two-room cottage, presumably since they had higher status than most of the slaves on the plantation. McAdoo attended the Hampton Institute, graduating in 1876. For three years he was a schoolteacher in rural Virginia, in Pulaski and Accomack counties, and for several more years he taught at the Hampton preparatory school.

While teaching McAdoo also spent much of his time touring with the Hampton Male Quartet. Around the end of 1885 he decided to join the Fisk Jubilee Singers led by Frederick J. Loudin. This troupe had sailed for England in April 1884, and for six years toured Australia, England, India and the Far East, returning to the USA in April 1890. Around October 1899 McAdoo and soprano Belle F. Gibbons left Loudin's group and went back to the USA. There McAdoo formed his own company, the Virginia Concert Company or Virginia Jubilee Singers.

The members of the new troupe included McAdoo's younger brother Eugene McAdoo, his future wife Mattie E. Allen (c. 1868-1936), Belle F. Gibbons, Madame J. Stewart Ball and Moses Hamilton Hodges. On 29 May 1890 Jubilee Singers left New York for England. The troupe then went to South Africa, opening on 30 June 1890 in the Cape Colony. The troupe received a very favorable reception. The Cape Argus said,

Singing such as given by the Virginia Concert Company has never before been heard in this country. Their selection consists of a peculiar kind of part song, the different voices joining in at most unexpected moments in a wild kind of harmony... it is without doubt one of the attributes of the race to which they belong, and in their most sacred songs they seem at times inspired, as if they were lifting up their voices in praise of God with hopes of liberty.

McAdoo's company found strong racial prejudice in South Africa, particularly in Transvaal and the Orange Free State, with a 9 p.m. curfew for blacks. The natives had to get passes for travel in the country, and were not allowed to own a business. Orpheus McAdoo married Mattie E. Allen on 27 January 1891 at Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony. In February 1891 President Paul Kruger saw the Jubilee Singers perform, perhaps entering a theater for the first time is his life, and was said to have been greatly moved by their rendition of Nobody knows the trouble I have seen. The company closed in South Africa on 25 January 1892.