Thoughts on Jim Crack Corn

It was Jim Crack Corn. Some stinking Yankee cracker changed it to Jimmy Crack Corn to please their ears. As many of you all out there, they probably thought that Jim was a name. It could be a version of the word "them" as used by black slaves learning English and having a difficult time making unaccustomed English sounds with their African tongue. Jim. Them. Much the same reason that "Massa" is not written "Master."

Jay learned to sing in the fields to take the edge off the drudgery of jare work. Oh, excuse me. I should use cracker english - 'They learned' and 'their work.' The African tongue has difficulty with English phonetics. Back gin, Jay had a need to learn English (then and they). Today, there exists a reason to intentionally distort English and call it Urban Ebonics. Ergo, do not get the two confused - now vs. then.

A field boy cracking corn off the stalk to fill his tote sack would be singing this song to go along with the work he was doing; picking corn and pretending to not have a care in the world. Singing while working was one form of helping dull the senses to the drudgery of the monotonous task.

It could be about a boy named Jim, but that's the white folks interpretation because of their lack of insightfulness. His momma probably named him Gem because she thought he was so precious when he was born. She couldn't spell, so there was no spelling until a Minstrell stole the words and song from the slaves singing it.

Them Cracked Corn (Jim Crack Corn)
If the house boy wrote the song, we may interpret it from his viewpoint. He sarcastically didn't care that Them other slaves went out into the fields and Cracked (picked) corn. The slaves had difficulty pronouncing past tense words; could not add the 'ed' at the end. He was treated differently. He was, of course, a house servant. He was neutered (castrated) for his lifetime of work in the Master's family home. The working slaves singing the song in the fields are most likely singing the song from the house boy's viewpoint.

I didn't see grits mentioned at all in this thread. My family didn't eat it when I was growing up. They fed that stuff to the hogs, as hog slop.

After picking or cracking the corn off corn stalks in the field, did they go to the shade and 'shuck' or 'shell' gem jare ears of corn?

Silly folks. A few on this thread seem to have some sensibility about them while ciphering this Jim Crack Corn phrase. Most of you just want to get way off base with your intent of NOT giving credit to the black folk called slaves. Why do you strive so hard to give credit to white folks?

It's doubtful that the song was "pro-slavery" just because some elitist cracker opined those thoughts into a book. The words of the song actually appear to be anti-slavery.

Since there may be many meanings to the words in this song, I concur with the notion of Master Jim (or Slave Gem) cracking open a new bottle of corn liquor. Was it sealed with wax? Why was it called "cracking open" a bottle or jug?

Blue Tail Fly: we call them ZuZu Flies, probably a derivation of Shoo Shoo Fly (Fly in the Buttermilk, Shoo Fly Shoo). I have never seen a blue tail horsefly nor deerfly. Deer flies are worse than horse flies. You cannot hear them coming.

Re: Hillbilly Joe. Much like "Little Liza Jane" stanzas, "Jimmy Cracked Corn" can have as many additional stanzas as beer-drinking choir boys can think of during all-nighters of 'choir practice.' And, yes Joybell, it is the chorus that is the focus of what has survived all these years, other than what some crackers put in writing way back when. As a child, I would receive mail addressed to "Master" because I was not old enough to be called "Mister." Called proper ettiquette, as coming from Great Britain, Master being the young man child overseeing the fields.

Those who insist that it is "Give me" (Gimme) are out of their cracked corn cracker minds.

Re: Cluin. Pretty good first impression of the true meaning of the song. But, Slave Boy's days of bliss will be short, for he will soon have a new Master, one who may not be a nice drunk like his dead master.

Why is this boy carrying a hickory stick to shoo blue tail flies? Hickory sticks are for whacking horses on the rump to make them throw their rider.

My first and early impressions are that the Master has "gone away" for a short or extended trip to Charleston and that the house boy slave has no work to be done in the master's absence. He is not a field hand and is not allowed to work the fields. He is has soft skin, a gentle manner, as his momma named him Gem. He was castrated early in life to keep him such; like cutting a dog as a puppy to keep him/her gentle. Or should I say 'as a steer,' to keep those testosterone levels down -- same as for cutting hogs while young.

Re: Richie. If Emmett was a white cracker from up north, it is quite likely that he heard it wrong. Only if he grew up in The Deep South would he know how to interpret Black English of that day. 'Them Cracked Corn' out in the corn fields as those field workers picked ears of corn, while I was in Massa's house where them wasn't.

Re: Fiolar. Excellent notion of where Blacks of the 20th Century obtained the phrase 'cracker' for the pope and white folk. Corn cracker = poor white farmer ==> formed into urban ebonics 'cracker' for 'white trash.'

Re: Guest, Q. Scottish derivation ==> formed into urban ebonics 'boastful white trash.'

Re: Guest, NP. "'Gimcrack' corn is just bad crop, because ole massa is not there to supervise the slaves anymore." I didn't want to go down this road, but. Look as the past decade in Zimbabwe, since the Blacks run off all the white farmers. Actually, death after several days of torture, rape, and worse. There is now rampant starvation because the Blacks do not know how to farm the land without the white farmers. Who is to blame? Rhetorical question there, folks. They are now asking for the Zimbabwe White Farmers to return. Why? Why do they need those White Farmers to return? Can the Blacks not farm the land that they took through murderous mayhem?

Re: Joybell. Excellent correlation to crows. But, what is happenin in Zimbabwe? Very similar to the Jim Crack Corn slaves not caring that 'gem crows' are in the field eating up all the farm's winter food now that the plantation farmer is dead.

Re: Reiver 2. Pretty good research there. However, in the words of Q, there is a whole lotta 'think' goin' on 'round here, even within your quoted material.

Re: Guest, Q35. Okie dokie. However, not just "enslaved population," but 'poor folk.' What do Jack Daniels and other distillaries do with their leftover corn mash after using cracked corn for distillation? It is supposed to be dyed pink for animal consumption, to know it is not food for humans. (As Q stated next) However, when a population is starving, and the crackers up north are passing bad laws to tax Southern folk into the poor house ...

Re: Caleb. The original is not Gimme or Jimmy. It is Jim. Let's focus on Jim, and what the Black pronunciation was attempting to emulate in Southern English.

Some final thoughts: How many of you on this thread grew up in The Deep South -- that portion of the USA where both pine trees and cotton have been farmed? It is rather interesting to look at historical Census maps of Cotton Farming, Southern Yellow Pines, and Blacks.

Travel to Black Africa (south of Sahara). Take "To Kill a Mockingbird" for your reading leisure. Get away from the big city. Wait one week before commencing reading. Read slowly. Pay attention to what you see and hear happening around you. It is eery to think that Harper Lee was writing about Blacks in The Deep South, but also captured the culture of Blacks in Africa. After 400 years of separation, they are still the same.

Oh, I feel so much better now! Lil' Jake