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Root Hog or Die
American, Dance Tune and Air;
ARTIST: from Talley
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes;
DATE: 1800’s minstrel era song; First copyright 1856 "Root, Hog, Or Die" or "Do Jog Along", sometimes credited to George W.H. Griffin.
RECORDING INFO: Rod Argent In Deep/Nexus CD; Bobby Horton; Homespun Songs of the C. S. A., Volume 3; Bill Mansfield & The Carolina Mockingbirds: Root Hog Or Die (Flying Cloud FCOT0005);
RELATED TO: Bonnie Blue Flag (melody)
OTHER NAMES: "Do Jog Along," "Thrifty Slave"
SOURCES: Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; Wiki; Cole (1001 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 84. Ford (Traditional Music of America), 1940; pg. 60 (lyrics on pg. 424). Williams, Vivian (ed.) / The Peter Beemer Manuscript, Voyager, Sof (2008), p69 Root Hog or Die (Civil War); Guilliams, Eloise. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume II, Songs of the South and ..., Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p318/#248 [1942/01/06]; Yocum, Delia M.. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume III, Humorous & Play-Party ..., Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p164/#422E [1941/03/20]
NOTES: (2/4 time). A Major (Cole): G Major (Ford). Standard. AB (Cole): AABB (Ford). The phrase 'root hog or die,' whose exact meaning is unknown but whose general meaning is 'to become productive or perish,' first appears in the 1834 publication A Narrative Life of David Crockett p. 117-118: "We know'd that nothing more could happen to us if we went than if we staid, for it looked like it was to be starvation any way; we therefore determined to go on the old saying, root hog or die."
The term resulted in several songs with the same theme:
"Root Hog Or Die" (c. 1854)
Several songs of unknown authorship were published before the Civil War, including patriotic and minstrel songs. A patriotic version opens with:
I'll tell you a story that happened long ago,
When the English came to America, I s'pose you all know,
They could'nt whip the Yankees, I'll tell you the reason why,'
Uncle Sam made 'em sing Root Hog or Die.
"Root, Hog, or Die" (1856)
The most popular song of the era was a minstrel song variously titled "Root, Hog, Or Die" or "Do Jog Along", sometimes credited to George W.H. Griffin, which was first copyrighted in 1856.
Many variations exist—a common first verse is:
I'm right from old Virginny wid my pocket full ob news,
I'm worth twenty shillings right square in my shoes.
It doesn't make a bit of difference to neither you nor I
Big pig or little pig, Root, hog, or die.
"Root Hog Or Die" (1858)
A song from the gold field camps on the front range of the Rockies written by G.W.H. Griffin in 1858 addressed the hardships of gold miners. The first verse:
Way out upon the Platte near Pike's Peak we were told
There by a little digging we could get a pile of gold,
So we bundled up our clothing, resolved at least to try
And tempt old Madam Fortune, root hog or die.
Civil War songs
Both sides in the Civil War had root, hog, or die songs. A verse from "Flight of Doodles", a Confederate song, is typical:
I saw Texas go in with a smile,
But I tell you what it is, she made the Yankees bile;
Oh! it don't make a nif-a-stifference to neither you nor I,
Texas is the devil, boys; root, hog, or die.
"A Philosophical Cowboy"
A folk song collected in 1911 tells of the hard life of the cowboy. The last verse is:
Sometimes it's dreadful stormy and sometimes it's pretty clear
You may work a month and you might work a year
But you can make a winning if you'll come alive and try
For the whole world over, boys, it's root hog or die.
This version, and variations of it, are still recorded.
Cole's and Talley
The tune is listed as a 'jig' in Cole's 1001, meaning not the Irish jig, but a type of American banjo tune named perhaps for the type of dance to it (i.e. jig-dancing) or perhaps from a derogatory term for African-Americans. It appears in a list of standard tunes in the square dance fiddler's repertoire, according to A.B. Moore in History of Alabama, 1934. Charles Wolfe, commenting in his 1991 edition of African-American collector Thomas Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes (originally published in 1922), says the song "has obscure origins in the pre-Civil War minstrel stage." Talley gave a stanza under the title "The Thrifty Slave":
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Jes wuk all day,
Den go huntin' in de wood.
Ef you cain't ketch nothin'
Den you hain't no good.
Don't look at Mosser's chickens,
Caze dey're roostin' high.
Big pig, liddle pig, root hog or die!
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