Zero. Nada, Nothing.
The history of blackface begins with stage and musical performances "aping" actual black musicians and banjo players [1].
There wasn't a lot of film work happening in 1848 . . .
Not saying it isn't related to cameras, so. But if it is, I'd suspect it to be much more of an issue with in-camera created JPEGs, RAW files don't do white balancing (at least all my Nikons don't). I have zero clue how dedicated video cameras work, so...
However, to your point, even recent photographs in color and black and white depict the tonal contrast one could imagine inspiring the cartoon character in question:
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3e50441087256791f079ff...
https://get.pxhere.com/photo/black-and-white-people-white-ph...
Until you get to the name Inki... tips their hand a bit.
That doesn't make a lot of sense. Can you give an example of why you think that?
[1] https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363517842/for-decades-kodak-s...
I wonder if that's why the first colour grading exercise in the training material for BMD DaVinci Resolve is an excerpt from a documentary about rhinos, where you need to balance a reasonably clean shot of a white woman, a gorgeous but fairly tricky shot of a black man (in profile, strong sunlight on his nose, eyes and cheek, rest in deep shadow), and a couple of mid and long shots of black gamekeepers walking around.
There's a lot to get right and a lot to get wrong, and you can end up making everyone look a pretty sickly colour.
Not trying to excuse anything, but I wonder how much this kind of depiction was an artefact of animation/video production in a black-and-white or early-colour era, much like how old cartoon animals with black fur often wear white gloves, to give hands/mouths some contrast and make movement visible.
Arguably, even "modern" cameras are apparently not designed with noncaucasian skintones in mind, something interest groups do not tire to bring up.