 The identity of Boz's Juba is open to doubt. "Boz" was a pen name used by Dickens. The Ethiopian Serenaders quoted from Dickens's American Notes in their press releases, and The Illustrated London News considered the black dancer to be the same person Dickens had seen in New York in 1842. Dickens never refuted the claims. Nevertheless, the Serenaders'assertions were promotional, and Dickens may not have remembered the exact look or characteristics of the dancer he had seen in the Five Points. Writers from the period and later have generally identified Boz's Juba as the same person Dickens had seen during his visit to New York and who had danced against Diamond.
