[Disclaimer: this material was fictionalized for entertainment. It contains racial stereotypes. It is presented in original form as a part of history. No hatred is intended.]
a 1828 solo minstrel song, one of the first
words and music by Thomas Dartmouth (“Daddy”) Rice
arranged by S. Godbe
This was the first American minstrel song. It is a characterization of a Negro songster by Thomas D. Rice performed as a solo song and dance which preceded the minstrel troupe. Some of these words seem Civil War period. That tells me the song had a long popularity. African-American music was filtered in this way through white interpretation until the 1900s. It was in a Vitaphone musical featurette called “Minstrel Days” (1941).
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The sheet music:
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Accompaniment:
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Lyrics
1. I come from ole Kentucky
A long time ago
Where I first larn to wheel about
And jump Jim Crow
Chorus
Wheel about and turn about
And do jis so
Ebry time I wheel about
I jump Jim Crow
2. I used to take him Fiddle
Ebry morn and afternoon
And charm de ole Buzzard
And dance to de Racoon
3. I wip my weight in Wild-cats
I eat an Alligator
And tear up more Ground
Dan kiver fifty load of ‘Tater
4. I sit upon a Hornet’s nest
I dance upon my head
I tie a Wiper round my neck
And den I goes to bed
5. I am for Freedom
An’ for Union altogether
Aldough I’m a Black Man
De White is called my Broder
6. I’m for Union to a Gal
An’ dis is a stubborn fact
But if I marry an’ don’t like it
I’ll nullify de Act
7. I’m tired of being a Single Man
An’ I’m ‘tarmined to get a wife
For what I tink de happiest
Is de sweet Married life
8. It’s berry common ‘mong de White
To Marry and get Divorced
But dat I’ll nebber do
Unless I’m really forced
9. Now my Broder Niggars
I do not tink it right
Dat you should laugh at dem
Who happen to be White
10. I’m so glad dat I’m a Niggar
An’ don’t you wish you was, too
For den you’d gain popularity
By jumping Jim Crow
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Sung here by Fred Feild: