JACK AND DINAH WANT FREEDOM

Thomas W. Talley, "Negro Folk Rhymes" {Port Washington, N.Y, Kennikat Press, 1968; p. 215; originally published by The macmillan Co., 1922}


I very much dislike the "N---" referent for African Americans.
I rarely write this word out and usually use substitute another referent for it.

However, there are some old folks songs/rhymes in which "N___" is used to rhyme with another word.

Here's one example that illustrate the rhyming use of that word. This example also adds to the discussion we've been having about what might happen if individuals shared their plans to flee slavery with others.

JACK AND DINAH WANT FREEDOM

Ole Aunt Dinah, she's jes lak me.
She wuk so hard dat she waht to be free.
But, you know, Aunt Dinah's gittin' sorta ole;
An' she's feared to go to Canada, caze it's so col'.

Dar wus ole Uncle Jack, he want to git free.
He find de way Norf by de moss on de tree.
He cross dat river a-floatin' in a tub.
Dem Patterollers give 'im a mighty close rub.

Dar is ole Uncle Billy, he's a mighty good N----.
He tote all de news to Mosser a little biffer.
When you tells Uncle Billy, you wants free fer a fac'
De nex' day de hide drap off'n yo back.

-snip-

Notes from the book:

"...The Negroes repeating this rhyme did not always give the names Jack, Dinah, and Billy, as we here record them, but at their pleasure put in the individual name of the Negro in their surroundings whom the stanza repeated might represent. Thus this little rhyme was the scientific dividing, on the part of the negroes themselves, of the memebers if their race into three general classes with repect to the matter of Freedom."

-snip-

Through asterisks and crosses, Talley also provides notes that the 'river' mentioned in the second verse of this rhyme was a reference for "The Ohio River" and "Patterollers" were "WHite Guards who caught and kept slaves at the masters' home".