The spread of the Industrial Revolution throughout Britain in the early 19th century created a new middle class with money to spend on decorating their homes. Fine porcelain figures from the Meissen factory in Germany had been popular but expensive during the 18th century, and in the following century the Potteries in Staffordshire found a market for their cheaper earthenware figures. In a period when literacy levels were low and news hard to come by outside the main towns and cities, the figures became a form of visual literacy depicting key personalities of the day from politics, royalty, sport, literature and entertainment.

This figure represents ‘Jim Crow’, a character created by Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice, the white American entertainer and first populariser of ‘blackface’ performance. 'Jim Crow' was a racist stage depiction of a poor and uneducated rural black man, first performed by Rice in 1828. The character and the associated song ‘Jump Jim Crow’ found instant popularity and Rice toured America and overseas, including a performance at the Surrey Theatre in 1836. Later the character’s name gained notoriety through its association with state and local laws enacted in the Southern states of the United States between 1876 and 1964 which restricted the access of African Americans to public facilties.