Recovering the creole synthesis : the roots of blackface minstrelsy -- The creole synthesis in the new world : cultures in contact -- Long Island and the Lower East Side : Mount's background, youth, and apprenticeships -- Minstrelsy's material culture : the evidence of Mount's portraiture -- Melody's polyrhythmic polysemic possibilities : the bodily evidence of Mount's music -- Akimbo culture : dance and the participatory pleasures of the body.