Antedating of "Kangaroo Court"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Thanks, Garson, for pointing out Barry's discovery of this citation.  Note that the sensational new book "Lawtalk" has a great discussion of "kangaroo court" written by Jim Clapp.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Garson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 12:10 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Kangaroo Court"

Fred Shapiro wrote:
> kangaroo court (OED 1853)
>
> 1841 _Daily Picayune_ (New Orleans) 24 Aug. 2 (America's Historical Newspapers)  The Concordia Intelligencer says "several loafers were lynched in Natchez last week upon various charges instituted by the Kangaroo court. ..."  What is a Kangaroo court, neighbor?

That is an excellent 1841 citation for "kangaroo court". But after I
posted it last year I found out that Barry Popik had already located
it.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;naCwsA;201006240005390400D
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/kangaroo_court/

There was a discussion thread in 2010. Here is some more of the text
from the 1841 cite:

Cite: 1841 August 24, The Daily Picayune (Times-Picayune), Don't
Comprehend, Page 2, Column 5, New Orleans, Louisiana. (GenealogyBank)

DON'T COMPREHEND.--The Concordia Intel-
ligencer says "several loafers were lynched in
Natchez last week upon various charges insti-
tuted by the Kangaroo court. The times grow
warm; we can see another storm coming, not
unlike that which prevailed in the days of the
Murrel excitement. In Natchez, as in New
Orleans, they are driving away all of the free
negroes." What is a Kangaroo court, neigh-
bor?
[End excerpt]

The text of the Daily Picayune story suggests there is an article
using the term "kangaroo court" in June, July, or August of 1941 in
the Concordia Intelligencer. There is a searchable digital copy of the
June 16, 1841 Concordia Intelligencer at the LOUISiana Digital
Library. When I searched it last year I could not find "kangaroo" in
that issue. Now the link that I once had to this newspaper issue is
broken.

The Chronicling America website has a list of libraries that have the
Concordia Intelligencer newspaper.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016573/holdings/

Very few libraries have coverage in the relevant months of 1941. These
two institutions might:
Center For Res Libr, Newsp Proj, Chicago, IL
Tulane Univ, New Orleans, LA

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