Siamese Connection (1879, 1884); Underdog (1884)

[Baker, John]

        So "Sambo," as a derogatory name for Africans and African-Americans, was not taken from The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman (1899)?  (Little Black Sambo was from India, but the early illustrations portrayed Sambo as stereotypically African.)

        I guess not.  Westlaw has examples of Sambo as a name for slaves as early as 1802.  And then there is this odd passage from the April 1839 issue of the Princeton Review (via Making of America), in an article about China:

<<Among the river population when a boat with strangers is passing, Dr. Downing remarks, "you will frequently see the mothers in the boats holding up their babies to see the Fan-quis as they pass, just as with us they are apt to do, when they show a child a chimney sweeper or a Sambo, if they wish to quiet them when they cry, or to make them cry when they are quiet.">>


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 5:52 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Siamese Connection (1879, 1884); Underdog (1884)


Trivia from inside my head :

Major Charles G. Halpine was an Irish-American Civil War officer best known during his Fifteen Minutes of Fame as "Private Miles O'Reilley," the lyricist behind the minstrel smash, "Sambo's Right to be Kilt."

"O'Reilley" favored the use of African-American troops in combat - then a wild-eyed liberal position - because by providing more targets, they'd save the lives of some white guys.

The past *is* a different country.  It's weird there.

JL