Jimmy Crack(-ed?/-s?) Corn

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>And is "Jimmy" a slang expression with a specific meaning, or just an
>arbitrary name?  Neither the HDAS nor the OED provided any enlightenment,
>though the OED cited the same verse in what looks like possibly the
>original version: "Jim crack corn, I don't care...Massa's gone away."

The sheet music from 1846 at the LOC site shows "Jim crack corn I don't care".

Maybe somebody already has decisively clarified the meaning of this, but on
quick Web-search and book-browse I don't find a convincing story.

I note that the phrase was styled "Jim crack-corn" with a hyphen in some
old instances, suggesting that "crack-corn" was thought to be a single
item, perhaps = "cracked corn".

I casually speculate that the "Jim" might be equivalent to the Scots
adjective "jimp", meaning (MW3): "(1a) slender and trim; (1b) neat and
spruce; (2) scanty, skimpy."

A probable cognate or variant appears as "jimmy" in HDAS, I believe (=
"stylish; fashionable; spruce; neat; fit"), with an 1836 US citation (with
spelling "Jemmy"). This is in the first sense; it is plausible that the
very-closely-related second sense ("skimpy") occurred in the US also.

Then "Jim crack corn" might mean essentially "impoverished" (= "scanty
food" or so). Then the chorus might be interpreted as "I'm poor but I don't
care, the master is gone." This can be further interpreted variously but
the other words in the song suggest to me that nostalgia was intended, at
least superficially.

Just one speculation.

-- Doug Wilson