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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 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 150 sets of lyrics from American Memory Song Sheets:
COMPLETE IN 150 VERSES:
One ting tickle me,
To see both brack and white,
For ebery little jig a ma gee,
Dey get a patent right.
Chorus: So I wheel about.
I turn about,
A I do just so,
And ebery time I wheel about,
I jump Jim Crow.
In dis here city,
Soon as de day do peep,
You nebber cotch a wink ob sleep,
For de damn patent sweep.
Chorus:
Down dare by de park,
To save your shoes from cracking,
Dere's a goose's Gosling,
Wid his patent French Blacking,
One ting puzzle me
I tink it past belief,
Da gib ole Hays a patent right.
For catching ob de tief.
But ob all de patent right,
Massa Cronly is de king,
For de president give him one,
For making best gin sling.
So when I go to Washington,
I hab you all to know,
I mean to get a patent right,
For jumping of Jim Crow.
Here am I from ole Kentuck,
As I hab yon all to know,
I's come to learn de Yorkers,
De style to jump Jim Crow;
Oh dat is de place for niggars,
Dey fatten dem on mush,
But if dey go de hul figur,
Dey make dem cry, OH HUSH?
A lofer slept in de park,
It is a fact I am told,
A watchman left de gate open,
An de lofer cotcht a cold.
I nebber like New Orleans,
Nor I think I nebber shall,
Until de white man luff um be,
De pretty creole gal.
Den dere is Charleston,
De bragging Nullifiers,
He said he'd lick uncle Sam,
But uncle made them liars.
But bress dat Baltimore,
Wid a monument of stun,
Erected to de memory,
Ob great massa Washington.
Dan dare is de state,
Where de niggers lan from guinny,
De birth place ob dat great man,
Tree cheers for ol Virginny.
They hanged a tory once,
Its true I declare,
Dey found him living in a tree,
Wid an ole brack bear.
Den there is Philadelphia,
Wid dere water on de hill,
But I tink dare whiskey better,
An I tink I eber will.
If you hab got de blue,
And for fun you do lack,
Just go in Division-street.
An buy a Comic Almynack.
Ice cream is bery good,
And so is lemonade.
But I likes better dan dese,
To kiss de pretty maid.
Cuff hoe de bacco,
Sambo drive de plongh.
Nobody plays to day,
But our ole sow.
Damn ole sow,
She grunt all de day,
An upset de swill tub,
When massa gone away,
Oh de Flatbush niggers,
Dey kick up dare heels,
Dey come down to Market,
An dance dare for ells.
Dey raise a mighty dust.
An tink dey make a show.
But I nebber seed one of dem.
What could jump Jim Crow.
When you see lazy nigger,
What lub to tole about.
You may be berry sartin,
He raised near Wallabout.
I want to go to Canada,
For de only song dey sing.
Is dat damn Brittany,
An God shave de king.
But we laugh at de Canada,
And de British turned our back on,
For de tune ob Yankee Doodle,
An hurrah for Jackson.
De ole Wirginny neggar,
He knows noffin at all,
Only for to pull de trigger,
An handle de snob awl.
To shoot de turkey buzzard,
I once took a gun,
An when I cocked it at him.
Lord how he run.
Dat was in ole Wirginny,
An I shoot him on de tail,
Den I filled my gun wid brandy,
An kicked him wid a rail.
I once went a stiching,
To mend my ole shoe,
An I sit in kitchen,
Wid ole Wirginny Lew.
He took de iron Crobar,
To mend his tarnal boot,
And he laid him on he knee,
But he wouldn't no how shoot.
I cheated de Yankee,
An will do it again,
I poked him off wid corn stalk,
For de best sugar cane.
Massa sent me to buy oyster.
Now warnt I deep,
I gutted dem on road,
For fear dey would'nt keep,
I'm a screamer,
So gib me your daughter,
And you'll find me up an down,
Like a yard of pump water.
O I'm a real Indian doctor.
An I got in a box,
A settler for a rattlesnake,
An a cure for chicken pox.
Ole women like me,
An tink me very cute,
Kase I cure all dere pain,
Wid a little yarb and root.
De New York doctor,
Sure to go to hell,
Where dey send dare patients,
Wid dare debelish Calomel.
Oh I'm a ratler,
An go de hole team,
When I travel round de country,
An cure de folks by steam.
Two Grahamites went to Philadelphia,
For to cut a swell,
But where dey lodged de first night,
I should'nt like to tell.
Dey made excuse of business,
But dey went more for fun,
When de mayor heard dey were Yorkers,
Dey had to cut an run.
He fined dem ten dollars.
An bid em off to prance.
For being found in Shippen-street,
A learning how to dance,
It took away de cash,
Dis paying ob de fine,
So dey glad to get to York,
By de commodation line,
But now dey are back agin,
Dey must do de best dey can,
An make up for lost time,
By de Graham plan.
De way to bake a hoe cake,
Ole Virginny neber tire,
Stick de hoe cake on the foot,
And hold it to the fire.
Old Sam Peacock,
Stole a side of leather,
Well done Sam,
Can't you teal anoder.
Dere's meet upou de goose foot,
And marrow on de bone,
Dere's pretty gals in our house,
And mammy's not at home,
I listed in de army,
An sarve uncle Sam,
Any other sarvice,
Aint worth a damn.
At New Orleans town,
De British went to teal,
But when dey see ole Hickory,
Dey took to dere heel.
Lord how dey cut dirt,
And did'nt stop to trifle,
For dey did'nt like de site,
Ob de dam Yankee rifle.
I'm a touch of de snapping turtle,
Nine tenths of a bull dog,
I've turned the Mississippi,
All for a pint of grog.
I went to New-York,
And I tink I cut a swell,
And de first place I stopt at,
Was Holt's new hotel.
I went up stairs,
To peep at de nation,
And dere I met ole Hays,
And all de corporation.
An alderman got up to top,
And called for a glass ob gin,
Says he, I'm nearer heaven,
Dan I shall eber be agin.
Dey hab so many good tings,
As true as I'm a sinner,
I tink rader went ahead,
Ob de corporation dinner.
Dey bid me help myself,
An cut and come again,
An sure I wasn't slow,
When dey brought de Champaign.
But I don't admire de liquor,
It bery good for some,
But we gentlemen ob color,
Always prefer de niggar rum.
When I was in Philadelphia,
I had to laugh in de treet,
To see the butcher women
In de market selling meat.
Dere you can see de women,
Slipping on like a sled,
With a tub full of Mackeral,
Which dey carry on dere head.
Sister Dinah hab g b a hint,
Dat Abery will swing,
An on dat gran occasion,
A verse or two I'll sing.
It is his last appearance,
I guess upon the stage,
An I tink de naughty feller,
Will exit in a rage.
Now my verses are de best kind,
And dis I'm sure's no bore,
For ebery time I dance and sing,
De people cry encore.
For poets are a poor set,
As you must all know,
For the more they try to write,
De poorer dey do grow.
O I saw a dandy niggar wench,
An I thought that I should die,
When I saw her wink at me,
And roll round her eye.
She was brack as de debil,
An she hab such a squint,
Dat when she wink at me,
I couldn't take de hint.
Election coming on,
An I'l try if I can,
Just to be elected,
For a Sembly man.
I tink if I get in,
I should suit em to a hair,
And de next ting dey would do,
Would be to make me mayor.
For de duties ob de Sembly men,
I tink is bery funny.
For dey only hab to eat dinners,
And spend pe peoples money,
Dey dont mind what folks say,
Tho it comes from ebery quarter,
And all de people wants
Is a little wholesome water.
But dat dont concarn dem,
For what do you tink!
Why water is the only ting,
Dat dey do not drink
I stopt at Washington city,
De capitol ob de nation.
An I ax'd massa Jackson
To give me a situation.
Says he, Jim Crow,
What can you do?
I can nullify de boot,
And put de veto on de shoe.
Says he, Jim Crow,
What can you do for me,
Says I, Massa Jackson,
I can plant a hickory tree.
Forty eleben debils,
Lived in Noah's ark,
Jona was de fisherman,
What swallowed down de shark.
It rained forty days,
It rained forty nites,
And Noah's Ark rested,
On de Brooklyn Hites,
O by trade I am a carpenter,
But be it understood,
De way I get a liben is,
By sawing de tick ob wood.
I hab a sneaking notion,
If there's fun to be had,
It's not in skinning cat fish
Or in eating raw shad,
I was at a ball de odder night,
A lady tried to faint,
We poured water on her face
Nor tinking dere was paint.
And sich a nasty figgur,
I'm sure was nebber seen,
A face with streaks of red and white,
Dat before looked bery clean.
Dis song is getting long,
But will be longer still,
For I'm fully tarmined,
To gib you your fill.
If you want to buy a song,
De one you like you'l meet
In a very great variety
At 257 Hudson Street.
If I was a regular sweep
I'd set the town a ringing,
So musical my verses are,
For scantimental singing,
But de real fun ob all is,
And dis you all well know
Is to gib de scientific touch,
Ob jumping Jim Crow.
I'm a full blooded nigar
Ob de real ole stock,
An wid my head and shoulders,
I can split a horse block,
I struck a Jersey niggar,
In de street de oder day,
An I hope I neber stir,
If he did'nt turn grey,
I'm bery much afraid ob late,
Dis jumping will be no good,
For while de Crows are dancing
De Whites will saw de wood.
But if dey get honest
By sawing wood like slaves
Dere's end to the business,
Ob our friend massa Hays
I met a New-York niggar
Dressed quite clean
But de way he bused de Delphians,
I thought was bery mean,
So I knocked down dis Sambo
And shut up his light
For I'm jist about as sassy
As if I was half white,
But he soon jump up agin,
And gan for me to feel,
Says I, go away niggar,
Or I'l skin you like an ell.
Dere's anoder niggar
As cunnin as a fox,
He's a great steam scourer,
And his name is Dandy Cox.
I hab a gal in dis city
She's as quick as a trigger,
And she nebber looks so handsome,
As when kissed by a nigger.
A white kiss is good enuff
But it dont sound so keen
As when giben by a brack man,
Wid a great broad grin.
When I do kiss de lubly creatures,
I screw my mouth jist so,
For it makes me feel so bery good,
Dat I don't know what to do.
But I nebber kissed a white gal
And I hope I neber will,
For you hab to be so delicate,
You cannot get your fill.
I went to de chicken coop,
And I got upon my knees,
I tink I die a laughing,
To hear de chickens sneeze.
De great Nullification,
And de fuss in de south,
Is now before Congress,
To be tried by de word ob mouth.
Dey hab had no blows yet,
An I hope dey nebber will,
For its berry cruel in bredren,
One anoders blood to spill.
Wid Jackson at de head
Dey soon de ting may settle
For ole Hickory is a man,
Dat's tarnal full ob mettle.
Should dey get to fighting,
Perhaps de bracks will rise,
For deir wish for freedom
Is shining in deir eyes,
An if de bracks should get free,
I guess they'll feel some bigger,
An I shall consider it,
A bold troke for de niggar.!
I am for freedom,
An for union altogeder,
Although I am a brack man,
De white is called my broder.
What stuff it is in dem
To make de debil brack,
I'll prove dat he is white,
In de twinkling of a crack.
For you see lobed brodders,
As true as he hab a tail,
It he berry wickedness,
What make he turn pale.
I went to da Hobok,
To had a promenade,
And dare I saw de pretty girls,
Drinking de lemonade.
Dat sour and dat sweet,
Is berry good by gum,
But de best lemonade is
Made by adding rum.
At de Swan Cottage,
Is de place I tink,
Whar dey hab dis 'licious
And toxicating drink.
De Filadelphi grog shop,
You can see as you pass,
And dey sell de bess ob licker,
For six cents a glass;
Some go to Weehawk,
And some to Brooklyn hites,
But dey better stay at home,
If dey want to see de sites.
To go to de museum.
I'm sure it is der duty,
If for noting else,
Jist to see de sleeping beauty.
And dere's Daddy Lambert.
An a skeleton on he hunkies,
And likeness of Broadway dandy,
In a glass case ob monkies.
Dere was one Sam Patch,
Who took de ugly leap,
He'd better stay in New-York.
And be a chimney sweep.
And if minded he profession,
And not too fond ob de cup,
When oders were getting down,
He'd sure be getting up.
I seen a pretty gal,
Wid a tippet and a muff,
I dont know what her trade is,
But I guess she's up to snuff.
She went in de dry goods store,
And winked at de clark,
She ax'd him to come to her house,
A little arter dark.
He went to de tree balls,
He watch went up de spout,
Kase de master inde store.
An he no chance for sourkrout.
Dis wicked boy do dat,
All for a painted face,
Which bery soon I see,
Will bring him to disgrace.
I'm for union to a gal,
And dis is a stubborn fact
But if I marry and dont like it,
I'll nullify the act.
I'm sure dere he gals enuff,
To hab a fair chance,
And if I dont get a good one,
I'll laff it off and dance.
I'm tired of being a single man,
And I'm tarmined to git a wife,
For what I tink the happiest,
Is de sweet married life,
It's berry common among de whites,
To marry an get divorced.
But dat I'll neber do,
Unless I'm really forced.
I tink I see myself on rail road,
Wid a wife upon my arm,
An to foller up de fashun,
Dare sure can be no harm.
An I caution all white dandies,
Not to come in my way,
For as sure as dey insult me,
Dey'll in the gutter lay.
De Chesnut street belles,
When dey carry full soil,
Around dem wear a funny ting,
Just like a fox's tail.
When you hear de name of it,
I sure it make you roar,
Why I ax'd em what it was,
And dey said it was a boar.
My sister Dinah I see.
Has made a great debut,
But she cannot dance like me,
No more can one ob you.
She's my sista it is true,
But dat is not de ting,
For what is de use ob wenches,
Trying to jump, dance and sing.
And Cuffelena hab got a plan.
Into effect she'll carry,
And dat is to make a match,
And her lubly Sambo marry.
But as for poor Dinah,
It's jist as mudder said,
She be a berry sassy gal,
Wid a soft place on de head,
She's a tarnal sassy nigger,
As you I guess can see,
Or she wouldn't make a fuss,
And try to blackguard me,
Now my brodder niggers,
I do not tink it right,
Dat you should laff at dem,
Who happen to be white.
Kase it dare misfortune,
And dey'd spend ebery dollar,
If dey could only be
Gentlemen ob color.
It almost break my heart,
To see dem envy me,
And from my soul I wish dem,
Full as brack as we.
For I am as true a nigger,
As ever yet was born,
An I am a little fractious,
When I hab a small horn.
For I'm of dancing family,
An I'd rader dance dan pray,
For ob de two professions,
De dancing's de best pay
As I was born in a cane break,
An Dinah in a dough trough
I hope you'll see the difference,
And hussle her off,
Now before I leave you,
One ting I hab to ask,
If de making ob dese lines,
Be not a plagy task.
But if you're not contented,
An tink it is not right
I'll come agin some oder time,
And dance all night.
Now white folks, white folks,
Don't take offence,
An when I take a benefit,
I'll treat to stone fence.
O white folks, white folks,
I glad to hear you holler,
But I'll not jump Jim Crow agin,
Unless you hit me with a dollar.
I went to the play house,
Where I hope ebery body go,
Dare I saw a big niggar,
Making fun ob Jim Crow.
O if you want to buy a funny song,
I'll tell you where to go,
Find de printer up in Hudson-street,
For he also keeps Jim Crow.
And if you no find him,
There's one I'm sure you'l like,
He lives in Division street,
Just opposite to Pike.
I hear massa Randolph,
Behaved mighty droll,
De folks dat held ole Andy back,
Was very big fools.
Best let de ole man fight it out,
Den Randolph get enuff,
An no fear ob de general,
For ole Hickory's hard stuff.
The man dat insults de laws,
To prison ought to go,
He must be damn sassy feller,
Worse dan Jim Crow.
I travel on de Rail Road,
Straight to Amboy,
De car go mighty smooth,
But it got too many bad boys
And went in de front room,
Two brack fellers fight,
Den de bad fellers keep it up,
Cry huzza, darkie's that's right.
Spose in dem cars young ladies
Catch a bad scent,
Before she got to steamboat,
She wish she neber went.
I cum to Philadelphia,
Dat very pretty city,
De ladies dress both neat and fine,
Dere beaus are smart and witty,
White folks, white folks,
I bid you all good bye,
Soon as eber hay time come,
Jim Crow will to de country fly.
But may peace and plenty,
Eber be Merican people's fate.
So hurra for industrious Philadelfia.
And N. Y. de great commercial State.
From COLLECTION: American Song Sheets
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