Jim Crow in Wordorigins Archive 11 (10-11/03) Forum

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Jim Crow

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xsjsx	Jim Crow	Lead	[-]
Posts: 1234 Nov 12 03 1:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Jim Crow was a racist stereotype in the US... a general nickname, an actual minstrel performer, a song with an accompanying dance (quite popular, I read, in England, too.) This quote is from a letter (1851) from Herman Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Does anybody know what the "Jim Crow" he refers to might be? Penny candy? Licorice? Some item known only regionally by that name? The quote: "P.S. The marriage of Phoebe with the daguerreotypist is a fine stroke, because of his turning out to be a Maule. If you pass Hepzibah's cent-shop, buy me a Jim Crow (fresh) and send it to me by Ned Higgins."
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Albrecht Conz	Re: Jim Crow	#1	[-]
Posts: 523 Nov 12 03 2:10 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It's a jocular allusion to: "That Jim Crow there in the window," answered the urchin, holding out a cent, and pointing to the gingerbread figure that had attracted his notice, as he loitered along to school; "the one that has not a broken foot." in Hawthorne's "House of the Seven Gables" www.freebooks.biz/Classics/Hawthorne/Gables/GablesC5P3.htm
ozziemaland	Re: Jim Crow	#2	[-]
Posts: 5545 Nov 12 03 5:24 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	OED2 has earlier cites than Melville; viz: Jim Crow1, Jim-crow, jim crow ("dZIm "kr@U) [From the refrain of a popular old Negro song, Wheel about and turn about and jump Jim Crow. Orig. U.S., but the main current senses (1f, and its attrib. and verbal uses, with Jim Crowism) are used throughout the English-speaking world, although chiefly in U.S. contexts.] 1. The name of a Negro plantation song of the early nineteenth century; also, a stage presentation of a song and dance first performed by Thomas D. Rice (180860) and subsequently by other actors dressed as nigger minstrels. c1832 T. D. Rice (title) Jim Crow. Celebrated comic song or ballad. 1832 Amer. Sentinel (Philadelphia) 11 Sept. 3/1 (Advt.), Mr. Rice will appear and sing Jim Crow. 1835 Vade Mecum (Philadelphia) 28 Mar. 2/7 Ditanti Palpita, Jim Crow, Old Hundred, with two or three waltzes played in different keys usually form the Hotchpotchiana of their delicious entertainment. 1837 New Yorker 16 Dec. 610/2 The impulse of despair must have tempted them to strike up Jim Crow. 1841 Thackeray in Britannia 15 May 315/4 The organ-man+struck up two beautiful melodies, viz., Getting up Stairs, and Jim Crow.
Albrecht Conz	Re: Jim Crow	#3	[-]
Posts: 523 Nov 12 03 5:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yeah. But that's missing the point, isn't it? The question wasn't about the origin of "Jim Crow" but about the peculiar use Melville made of the term. And Melville didn't use a different meaning of the term, he just made a very topical allusion.
ozziemaland	Re: Jim Crow	#4	[-]
Posts: 5545 Nov 12 03 5:42 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>But that's missing the point, isn't it? Yes. Sorry. OED2 had quite a lot more on Jim Crow and I'll go back and see if anything is pertinent to the OP's query.
ozziemaland	Re: Jim Crow	#5	[-]
Posts: 5545 Nov 12 03 5:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It seems like a stretch, but possibly a "custard" or a "mustard-pot" was involved in the quoted excerpt; see OED2 on "cowardy:" cowardy, a. [f. coward n. + -y1.] Cowardly. Used tauntingly by children, esp. in the phr. cowardy, cowardy, custard (formerly costard). 1836 in A. Nicoll Hist. Early 19th Cent. Drama (1930) II. 436 (title) Cowardy, Cowardy Custard; or, Harlequin Jim Crow and the Magic Mustard-Pot.
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Albrecht Conz	Re: Jim Crow	#6	[-]
Posts: 523 Nov 12 03 6:02 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Err - no. It's really just a topical allusion, and that's all there is to it. Melville's only jokingly referring to Hawthorne's novel. It's an in-joke, and that's all there is to it. "Jim Crow," in the way Melville used it, was never an expression used else.
xsjsx	JC	#7	[-]
Posts: 1234 Nov 12 03 9:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Albrecht, I am impressed! Thank you.
jgorman64	Re: Jim Crow	#8	[-]
Posts: 3698 Nov 12 03 10:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	OED2 has earlier cites than Melville; viz: Ozzie, sometime in pursuit of the ante you miss the now.
oldnavyflop	Re: Jim Crow	#9	[-]
Posts: 273 Nov 13 03 12:58 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have a good friend named Jim Crow. He's an Indian... and he doesn't have the right to vote.
wordgeek	Re: Jim Crow	#10	[-]
Posts: 8928 Nov 13 03 1:08 AM Banned User Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	> doesn't have the right to vote Lotta ex-con friends, Flop?!
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