"Sambo" 1657, antedates OED 1704-

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Thu Sep 11 20:21:22 UTC 2008


In the 1960s and earlier, scholars and professors of American literature commonly referred to the character in _Huckleberry Finn_ (orally and in print) as "Nigger Jim."  Yet, as realized by a graduate-school friend of mine, James McIntyre (after encountering great skepticism, he eventually published the finding), nowhere in the book is the character so designated. The closest is a reference to "Miss Watson's nigger Jim."

Racist projection meets careless reading!

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:45:39 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Re: "Sambo" 1657, antedates OED 1704-
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>FWIW, it seems to me that
>
>"This _Negre Sambo_"
>
>does make it possible to interpret "Sambo" as the slave's actual name: "This Negre[,] Sambo [by name,] ...". Unless, of course, there were, at the time, a set of individuals that were generally referred to as Sambos" and "Negre" specifies a member of the subset, "Negre Sambos." The nursery tale is no help, since "black Sambo" has the same structure as "Negre Sambo" or "ching-chong Chinaman" and such.

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