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Jim Crow (A Comic Song)
Old-Time Breakdown- widely known; Words and Music by Thomas Dartmouth ("Daddy") Rice, 1808-1860;
ARTIST: From LEONARD DEMING, at the Sign of the Barber's Pole, No. 61, Hanover Street, Boston, and at MIDDLEBURY, Vt American Song Sheets, Series 1, Volume 5
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Late 1820’s;
RECORDING INFO: Wine, Melvin. Cold Frosty Morning, Poplar LPI 40290, LP (1976), cut# 13; Fiddler Henry Reed; Wine, Melvin. Visits, Heritage (Galax) 033, LP (1981), cut# 19;
RELATED TO: “Uncle Joe;” “Hop Light Lady;” “Hop High Ladies, the Cake's All Dough;” "Did You Ever See The Devil, Uncle Joe?" Hop Up Ladies;” “Hop High, My Lulu Gal;” “Miss McLeod of Raasay's” “Miss McCleod's/McCloud's Reel” "(Miss) McCloud's Reel," "Mrs. MacLeod Raasay," "Miss McLeod's Reel," "Did You Ever Go To Meetin' Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe?" "Do You Want to go to Heaven, Uncle Joe?" "Run Here, Johnny, There's a Bug Done Got on Me."
OTHER RELATIONS TO: John Crow; Old Buzzard; Blackberry Blossom (Irish) ; Cutty Sark ; Coal Branch Reel "Green Mountain," "Knickerbocker Reel," "Billy Boy," "Sally's Hornpipe," "Walk Jaw Bone," "Whitewash Station."
OTHER NAMES: Jump Jim Crow; There's a whole collection of broadsides (under Black Faced Minstrelsy) in the Bodleian Library (printed in British Isles) entitled- Crow Family; Miss Jane Crow; Billy Crow and the Death of Jim Crow;
SOURCES: Fiddler Henry Reed; Augustus Clapp (Stephen Collins Foster) published a Jim Crow Song Jubilee later in 1847. Song sheets also in Levy. Sigmund Romberg published a version. "Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883) page 209; Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 83a (Jim Crow); Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p424b (Jim Crow); Randolph 252, "Jump Jim Crow" (1 text, 1 tune); Gilbert, p. 18, "Jim Crow" (1 text)
NOTES: D Major. Standard. ABC. The name of this old minstrel tune appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. It is also in the repertoire of fiddler Henry Reed. In the 1960's Braxton County, W.Va., fiddler Melvin Wine (1909-1999) returned to fiddling after a 20 year hiatus and was 'discovered' by young revival fiddlers, eager to learn authentic tunes. "'One song I played, Jump Jim Crow, the young people just hungered for that one,' Melvin says. 'I played it so many time at (the West Virginia State Folk Festival at) Glenville, I wore the feathers off the crow'" (Mountains of Music, John Lilly ed., 1999, pg. 11).
This song and dance was created by Thomas ("Daddy") Rice in the 1820’s and is the earliest and one of the most popular minstrel songs both in the US and abroad. The chorus connects it to “Uncle Joe/Hop High Ladies” family of songs (tune of McLeod's Reel) but I consider them different songs (see notes from Traditional Ballad Index). The song is also important as a source of lyrics for other minstrel songs and bluegrass songs. Here’s some info about Jim Crow from The Harvard Theatre Collection, The Houghton Library:
In 1822, English actor Charles Mathews mounted a one-man show in black-face called "A Trip to America," based on the dialect, songs and dances he observed while in the United States. During a visit to New York's African Theatre, Mathews claimed that an actor performing the role of "Hamlet" was interrupted by calls from the audience for the slave song "Opossum up a Gum Tree," an incident that Mathews used to construct one of the most popular segments of his show.
Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice popularized the black-faced minstrel on the American stage with his 1828 caricature of a crippled plantation slave, dancing and singing the words:
"Weel about and turn about and do jus' so,
Eb'ry time I weel about, I jump Jim Crow."
After touring American cities, Rice took his immensely popular act to London in 1836. By then "Jim Crow" had proliferated in prints and sheet music, and he became a stock character in minstrel shows, along with his counterparts Jim Dandy and Zip Coon. White audiences readily accepted the stereotype of the happy-go-lucky, singing, dancing, grinning buffoon as representative of blacks, at the same time that white hostility and violence against free blacks escalated.
Ira Aldridge, one of the few black actors of the period to portray Shakespearean characters before white audiences, sometimes ended an evening's performance with a rendition of "Opossum up a Gum Tree" or "Jump Jim Crow," which he delivered with pathos rather than humor before offering a plea for the abolition of slavery.
MORE NOTES: From ‘Inside the Minstrel Mask’: Readings in Nineteenth Century Blackface Minstrelsy' Ed Annemarie Bean, James V. Hatch and Brooks McNamara, Wesleyan Uni Press 1996 - Alexander Saxton writes:
He [Rice] tried unsuccessfully to break into New York theatre, then drifted west, working as a stagehand and 'bit player' throughout the Mississippi Valley. In 1831, imitating a shuffle he had seen performed by a black man on the Cincinnati levee, Rice for the first time 'jumped Jim Crow' - and Jim Crow made Rice's fortune. Adapting his act to various issues - eventually including a minstrel burlesque of Uncle Tom - Rice was applauded in London and became a perennial favorite at New York's famous Bowery Theatre. ['Inside the Minstrel Mask' p69].
NOTES ON THE NAME- JIM CROW: According to Mezz Mezzrow's "Really the Blues", Jim Crow was a term used by persons of colour to refer to white racists. The south is sometimes referred to as the “Jim Crow South,” meaning that it perpetuates racial stereotypes from an earlier age.
Interestingly, Eric Lott notes the overlaps with clown and harlequin traditions registering first 'in British productions such as "Cowardy, Cowardy Custard; or Harlequin Jim Crow and the Magic Mustard Pot" (1836)' which 'marked a trend beginning in the 1830s of appending the name Jim Crow to all sorts of British clowns and Punch-and-Judy figures' ['ITMM' p10-11].
EVEN MORE NOTES: Eric Lott has an essay titled 'Blackface and Blackness'. In it, he notes that the first song sheet edition of 'Jim Crow' was published by E. Riley in the early 1830s. He quotes selected verses from it and gives his source as Sam Dennison 'Scandalise My Name: Black Imagery in American Popular Music NY, Garland Publishing 1982 pp51-57.
From Ceolas: A song popularized on the minstrel stage of the mid-19th century. Dave Evans remarks on the similarity of the title "Jim Crow" to "John Crow," a folk name for a buzzard, and suggests that the "Jim Crow" song and dance is perhaps derived from the slave dance "The Buzzard Lope" (see Parish, Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands, 1942).
From fiddler Henry Reed’s web-site: “Jim Crow/Jump Jim Crow" has its origins in the minstrel stage, where the tune was used for an often extravagant or elaborate set dance. The song and dance was created by Thomas ("Daddy") Rice. The published versions show connections to Henry Reed's set. The pace in this set is slower than in typical breakdown tunes, suggesting its use in a clog or other slower-paced fancy dance.
From the Traditional Ballad Index: Randolph has a report that this song has been heard as far afield as Delhi, India. It can perhaps be questioned whether "Jump Jim Crow" and "Uncle Joe" are the same song, as all they have in common is the chorus. Since, however, the song consists of unrelated lyrics that readily "float," it seems best to put them together. – RBW. Is this really a single song? The tune for "Hop High Ladies" is "Miss McLeod's Reel," a Scottish/Irish tune, whereas I believe the tune for "Jump Jim Crow" is quite different. –PJS. The eternal problem of the folk song collector. Which is more important: Lyrics or tune? The tunes ARE different in some instances, and so are the "extreme" versions of the lyrics -- but as in other cases of continuous shading, I have to classify together. For whatever it's worth, the "Jim Crow" versions seem to be older; Gilbert claims it was introduced in 1828 by Thomas D. Rice, and Spaeth (A History of American Popular Music, p. 71) amplifies with a bit of folklore (not automatically false) that Rice heard the chorus from a Black walking down the street and made it his own.
Here are the lyrics from American Song Sheets:
OLD JIM CROW'S come agin, as you must all know,
And ebery body say I cum to jump Jim Crow.
CHORUS.--Weel about and turn about, and do jis so,
Ebery time I weel about, I jump Jim Crow.
My name is Daddy Rice, as you berry well do know.
And none in de Nited States like me, can jump Jim Crow.
I was born in a cane brake, and cradled in a trough,
Swam de Mississippi, whar I cotch'd de hoopen coff.
To whip my weight in wild cats, eat an alligator,
And drink de Mississippi dry, I'm de very critter.
I went to de woods, heard a debil of a howl,
I look'd up a tree, and saw a great owl.
I off wid my hat, stuck my heel in de ground,
And then went to work to grin the owl down.
I grinn'd wid my eyes open, and den wid um shut,
But I could not diskiver dat I stirred de owl a foot.
Den I grinn'd slantendicular, den wid one eye,
'Twould have done your soul good to see de feathers fly.
Den I climb'd up de tree, and I wish I may be shot,
If I had'nt been grinning at a great pine knot.
I'm like de frost in ole December, git my foot widin de ground,
Takes a hook and ladder company to try to pull me down.
And eben when you get me down. I melt and run about,
You'll hab to send for engine, to cum and put me out.
Though you tink you got me out, some heat dar will remain,
Nex morning, bright and early, I'll be blazing up agin.
I've been to ole Kentucky, whar I hab you for to know,
Dat all de pretty ladies dar lub Jim Crow.
I've been to Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore,
But when I got to Boston, it beat sll I'd seen before.
Dey build most all dar houses out ob brick and stone,
Dey run em up so high, dey almost reach de moon.
Dey talk ob de Philadelphia markets, an de New York markets, loud,
But de ole market, here in Boston, will be seen among de crowd.
No matter what is wantin, in de market you can buy
From a quarter of an ox, down to a punkin pie.
Dare is someting I gwaing to tell you, which I want you all to know,
Dare is a pretty lady here, in lub wid Jim Crow.
Lor bless de lubly creature, I teach dem how to dance,
And show dem de new step, just arrived from France.
Dis is de style ob Alabama, what dey hab in Mobile,
And dis is Louisiana, whar dey trike upon de heel.
Here's Virginny double trouble, whar dey dance de corn chuck,
And dare's de real scientific, what dey hab in Kentuck.
Here's de long Island ube, or de hunck ober dee,
And here's de Georgia step, by de double rule ob tree.
Here's de kneel to Carleton's daughter, what dev hab in Indi-an,
And here's de ole Mississippi step, and fetch it if you can.
And dare is ole Virginny, she cut a pretty figger,
I neber go dar, kase dey don't respect de nigger.
It was twelve o'clock de udder night, or somewhere dare about,
I took my finger for de snuffers, and put de candle out.
De debil take de noise when de nigger is so tire.
When along came watchman, and hollar, fire!! fire!!
O, I got out ob de bed, put on my close widout much fright,
And started for de fire, in de middle ob de night.
When I got to de fire, I did'nt know what to do.
But I heard a gemman cry, lay hold ob No. 2.
I went up up to de Colonel, and ax'd how he'd ben,
He say, you sassy nigger, you lay hold ob No. 10.
I work hard at de engine, den de foreman send for rum,
Jolly, how my eye glisten, wen I see it cum.
When I saw de eatables a comin, says I, if you please.
I'll thank you for a stiffer, and hunk ob bread and cheese.
I take one horn, and den I take anoder.
When I drink more, white man call me brudder.
Den I went down to Ann Street, did'nt mean to stay,
But dey took me to de watch house, and I couldn't get away.
And de tin pot alley, de niggers had a hop,
I went in a little while, didn't mean to stop.
The house was topsy turvey, all turned upside down,
And de niggers had de dance ten foot under groun.
De wite folks get a barrel of flour, and knock'd de head in,
And den de way dey cried fire. I'm sure it was a sin.
De niggers rushed out, as if it was a shower,
And when dey got up stair, dey let 'em hab de flour.
And such a set ob niggers, I'm sure was neber seen,
And such fun in white folk, I tink was berry mean.
I was liv'd in ole Virginny, and dey used to gib me
Hoe cakes, sassafras, and shangalanga tea.
De way dey bake de hoe cake, in ole Virginny neber tire,
Dey put de cake upon de foot, and hold de foot to de fire.
If nature make me black man, and oder folks white,
I went to ole Boston, where dey learn me left and right.
I went into de cradle, where dey rock'd sweet Liberty,
And dare I saw de names ob those who made their country free.
I went across to Charlestown, and on to Bunker Hill,
Which once de British tried to climb, but found it diffikil.
'Twas dare I saw de Navy Yard, likewise de Dry Dock,
'Twas lin'd by de best ob stone, dug out ob Quincy Rock.
Near it lay de ship ob war, among dem de Constitution,
Which our brave heroes sail'd in, and put England in confusion.
De finest fun dat eber happened, was in de city ob New York,
When dey told de British soger it was time to walk and talk.
Dey did'nt know what to tink ob it, when dey found dey must be gone,
Kase dey hab no shoe or tocking on, and cold wedder comin on.
So dey gaddered up dare fixeds, and 'gan to march away,
And sailed for land ob Johnny Bull, about de brake ob day.
When dey got back to England dey didn't fear de debbil,
But dey radder be excused, dan fight wid Yankee rebel.
For dey are like a piece ob India rubber, you may hit 'em on de sconce,
De harder dat you knock 'em down, de higher up they bounce.
Dare's a place dey call de Boson, once fought for liberty,
Dey'd throw de nullifiers overboard, as once dey did de tea.
Dar's two ole sogers, whose names me no forget,
One was massa George Washington, de oder Laughayit.
When de war was ober, and ebery ting content,
De people make George Washington de great President.
Den he put all de States togedder, and tied a string around,
And when de string is broken, boys, dey'll tumble to de ground.
When dey was first set up, dare was only a dozen and one,
But now dare is twenty-four, and a number more to cum.
Dese twenty-four children belong to Uncle Sam,
And hab been bery dutiful, except now and den.
You all know who Uncle Sam is, from de captain to de mate,
He's de fader ob de children of dese Nited State.
He's got a handsome fortune by industry's made,
And new his chief concern is, to gib his children a trade.
He's got one sassy daughter, her name is Caroline,
I'm 'fraid he'll hab to tie her up and gib her 39.
Now as for South Carlina, she'd better keep her passion in,
Or else she'll get a licken now, before she does begin.
Johnny C. Calhoun is courting her, dey say he's got de wedding ring.
And when de wedding' ober, dey are going to make him king.
When he walks up to Caroline, her sun-bright hand to take,
Be careful de wedding don't turn out to be an Irish wake.
Dey say South Carolina is a fool, and as for Johnny C. Calhoun,
He'll be worse dan Davy Crockett, when he tried to fool de coon.
Oh, he took up his crooked gun, and fired round de maple tree,
De ball came back in de same place, and hit him on de knee.
O, wite folks, wite folks, I see you're up to snuff,
I'm bery much afraid dat you neber get anuff.
Now wite folks, wite folks, please to let me go,
And I'll cum back anuder night and jump JIM CROW.
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