457
Run, Nigger. Run
With this refrain — coninionly completed with "the paterol'll ketch
you" — have heen sung at various times and in various places a
medley of more or less unrelated stanzas. The refrain itself or one
or the other part of it has been found in Virginia (JAFL xxviii
n8), Kentuckv (SharpK ii 359, TNFS 12), North Carolina
(ANFS 169), Mrs. Steely 164 (1935), Alabama (ANFS 168-9),
Mississippi (JAFL xl 303), Louisiana (TNFS 24), Missouri
(OFS II 338), and in Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes 34. The "new-
cut road" also is a favorite image, commonly rhyming with "toad" ;
so in Virginia (TNFS 164), Alabama (ANFS 247), Mississippi
(JAFL XXVIII 179, but without the toad), Texas (Owens, Szmng
and Turn 70, again without the toad), and Indiana (SSSA 237).
The snake-bite and the hornet's nest also appear without the "run,
nigger, run" refrain. See the headnotes to 'Banjo Sam' and to
'Clare de Kitchen' in this volume. The snake is perhaps a bor-
rowing, as Dr. White suggests, from 'Springfield ^Mountain.'
'Run, Nigger, Run.' Obtained sometime in the period 191 2- 14 from
C. R. Bagley of Moyock, Currituck county.
1 I went through the farmer's field.
The hlack snake hit me on my heel.
I jumped up and run my hest.
Stuck my head in a hornet's nest.
Chorus:
Oh, run, nigger, run, tlie pateroles catch you ;
Run, nigger, run, it's almost day.
2 I went [to] the railroad track.
Hitched an engine to my hack.
Combed ni}- head with an engine wheel ;
It gave me the headache in mv heel.
No title. Reported by V. C. Royster from "an old man who lived in
Cumberland county before the [Civil?] War. Probably sung in Wake
county also."
Nigger tried to cross the field.
Black snake struck him on the heel.
532 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
Nigger tried to do his best
And stuck his head in a hornet's nest.
Chorus:
Run. nigger, run,
De patter roller catch you.
Run, nigger, run,
De patter roller catch you.
No title. Obtained by Dr. J. F. Royster from William C. Daubken of
the class of 1915 at the University of North CaroHna.
As I went down the new-cut road
1 met a possum and a toad ;
And every time the toad did jtimp
The possum hid behind a sttimp.
Refrain :
Oh, run, nigger, run,
The pateroller ketcher,
Run, nigger, run ;
It's almos' day.
'Run, Nigger, Run.' From J. H. Rurrus of Weaverville, Buncombe
county, in 1922; with a note explaining the patrol system by which
slaves, if off their plantations after dark without a permit, were whipped
and returned to their masters.
Run, nigger, run, a pater-roller'll catch you,
Run, nigger, run, you'd better get away.
As I jumped over in the harvest field
A black snake struck me on my heel.
I run myself so nigh to death
I stuck my head in a hornet's nest.
Rim. nigger, run, a pater-roller'll catch you,
Run, nigger, run, you'd better get away.
'Run, Nigger, Run.' From Clara Hearne of Pittsboro, Chatham county,
in 1923. The same as E except that the refrain ends "it's almost day"
and is inserted between t!ie first and second halves of the stanza, which
has "caught" for "struck" and the second half runs
Run, nigger, run, I run my best,
Rvm mv head in a hornet's nest.
'Run, Niggar, Run, or Paderole'll Ketch You.' 01)taincd from Walter
J. Miller, student at Trinity College, in 1919, who learned it from his
father and said it was "a favorite slave song." With tiie tune, obtained
from H. B. Harrison. Only the refrain line and the line "Stuck his
head in a hornet's nest."
No title. From Minnie Rryan I'^arrior, Duplin county. The refrain
only, ending "You better he a-runnin'."
--------------------
457
Run, Nigger, Run
'Run, Nigger, Run, or Paderole'll Ketch You.' Sung by Walter J. Miller,
Trinity College, Durham, 1919. Cf. Ill 510, No. 423G. The refrain there is
the same as our present text. For a textual variation cf. I 204. Also AFSCh
92; EAS i; FSoA 121; APPS 300; ABFS 299; FSF 25-8, No. 6A, and
OFS II 264.
F-420
Run, nig - ger, run or de pa - der - ole 'll catch you,
Run fast, stuck his head in a hor - net's nest. —
Scale: Irrational (4,5), plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: ab (4,6). The
beginning of b is like that of a.