15 Facts About Thomas Dilward

Thomas Dilward was sometimes billed as "The African 'Tom Thumb'" and the "African Dwarf Tommy".

Thomas Dilward was famous for his skills at singing, dancing, and playing the violin.

Thomas Dilward has been credited in John Russell Bartlett's 1877 Dictionary of Americanisms with having invented the word hunky-dory, meaning "everything is all right".

In 1887, the Indiana State Sentinel stated that Thomas Dilward was of Native American and African American ancestry.

Into the late 1860s, Thomas Dilward performed with Dan Bryant's Minstrels, Wood's Minstrels, the Morris Brothers' Minstrels, and Kelly and Leon's Minstrels.

Thomas Dilward went to Australia and New Zealand, returning to Britain with an Australian minstrel company in 1880.

Thomas Dilward would have had opportunity to present some degree of black comedy and song, but he probably did not stray far from the traditional, white-defined material.

Thomas Dilward quickly developed talents to entertain people because this was the most promising plan to support himself.

Thomas Dilward was one of the only two known African-Americans to have performed with white minstrel companies before the American Civil War.

Thomas Dilward was permitted to perform in these white minstrel shows because he was considered an "oddity" at three feet tall.

Thomas Dilward was a pioneer in African American culture as well as the entertainment industry.

Thomas Dilward made the best of the cards that he was dealt.

The fact that advertisers used "Japanese Tommy" as their headliner and didn't advertise his height or race proved that Thomas Dilward was a better singer, dancer, and musician than many of the white performers at the time.

Thomas Dilward was so well known that others, like a Frenchman named Millet cashed in on his fame, while he was abroad.

Thomas Dilward died in Manhattan on July 9,1887; he was buried three days later in his hometown of Brooklyn at the Cemetery of the Evergreens.