I'm writing this to correct information I made some two years ago on my website cocojams.com that I see have found there way here and Lord knows where else. Let me first apologize and offer the following information as a way of making up for any confusion I caused.

Firstly, I wrote that Jim Along Josey is included in Thomas Talley's 1922 Negro Folk Rhymes. I was mistaken. The versions I was speaking of are found in Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 book on the Trail Of Negro Folk Songs. That Folklore Associates' edition of Scarborough's book, published in 1963 has three different versions of Jim Along Josie {pps 104-106), one called Jim Along, Josey, one called Hold My Mule, and one that Scarborough notes is "a variant of the Josey song".

I also said that a josey was a woman's undergarment. I was wrong. As someone wrote in this thread or another, "Josey" is a woman's coat. See John Russell Bartlett, The Dictionary of Americanisms: New York Crescent Books, originally published 1849. "Joseph, a very old riding coat for women, scarcely now to be seen or heard of-Forby's Vocabulary. A garment made of Scotch plaid, for an outside coat or habit, was wornin New England about the year 1830, called a Joseph by some a Josey.
    Olivia was drawn as an Amazon, sitting upon a bank of
    flowers, dressed in a green Joseph.-Godsmith, Vicar of Wakefield .

I still believe that is "Josey" was {sometimes}used as dance name. See the lines "Hold my mule while I dance Josey
       Hold my mule while I dance Josey
       Hold my mule while I dance Josey
       Oh, Miss Susan Brown."

The other two verses given are: "Wouldn't give a nickel if I couldn't dance Josey". and "Had a glass of buttermilk and I danced Josey".

However it may be possible that an earlier name for the "Josey" dance was "Jim Along, Josey." In that case "Jim Along" probably was the equivalent of the phrase "Get a-long", which Scarborough uses in the chorus of this song "Hey, get a-long, get a-long, Josey
                     Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long, Jo!
                     Hey, get a-long, get a-long Josey,
                     Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long Jo!
   
I find it interesting that Scarborough consistently uses a comma in the title and "Jim Along" lines. This may reinforce the notion that "Jim Along" means the same thing as "Get along". But sometimes a word may have multiple meanings in the same song perhaps because the lines are mixed and matched by different people, and often the song changes over time and space. So the 3rd verse of Scarborough's first version of "Jim Along, Josey" reads "Away down south, a long ways off
                     A bullfrog died wid de whooping-cough
                     And t'other side of Mississippi, as you know
                     Was whar I was called fust Jim A-long Jo.

In that context, anyway, a person {one can assume a man} was given the nickname Jim Along,Jo. Probably then his name was Joe and he got along?? Who?? Where? How? Oh well,I'm not going to continue this speculation...

But, since I don't think that I have seen the variant version that Scarborough shared in your database {though that doesn't mean it's not there}, I'll include it in this message.

"Here is a variant of the Josey song, that combines stanzaas from other well-known favorites, This was sent to me by Virginia Fitzgerald, from Virginia.

As I was going up a new-cut road,
I met a Tarrepin an' a Toad.
Every time the Toad would jump,
The Tarrepin dodge behind a stump.
O! rall, rall Miss Dinah gal,
O! do come along, my darling!
O! rall, rall, Miss Dinah gal,
O! do come along, my darling!

My ole Missis promise me
When she died she'd set me free'
Now ole Missis dead an' gone,
She lef' olde Sambo hillin' up corn.
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long a-Josie,
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, Joe!
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, from Baltimo'!

You go round an' I go through
............................
You get there befo' i do,
Tell 'em all I'm comin' too.
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, Josie
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, Joe!
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, from Baltimo'

--
It should be noted that "You get there before I do, tell my friends I'm coming to" is a floating verse found in a number of African American spirituals.

Also, let me take this opportunity to thank you for the interesting information and often insightful comments found on this website!

Ms. Azizi Powell