"Sambo" 1657, antedates OED 1704-

[Joel S. Berson]

Wilson, I believe you've misread the Wikipedia article.  The
paragraph you quoted refers to the model for the name "Sambo" as used
in "Lttle Black Sambo".  The reference to "the height of the British
Empire" can hardly date back to 1657, or the 1704 of the OED's
earliest citation, or the 1735 of "J. ATKINS Voy. to Guinea, Brazil &
W. Indies 170 If you look strange and are niggardly of your Drams,
you frighten him; Sambo is gone, he never cares to treat with dry
lips."  The next section of the Wikipedia article, "Alternative
origins", discusses the same origin from Spanish and Portuguese that
the OED supposes.

As for the possibility that "Sambo" is the Negro's actual name, I do
agree that the excerpts I quoted do not rule that out.  One might
have to read much of Ligon's book, looking at how he uses the names
of other persons, particularly blacks, to decide whether he is using
"Sambo" stereotypically.

At the very least, I think one can argue that it fits the OED's
definition for sense 2:  "A *nickname* for a Negro."

Joel

At 9/11/2008 03:45 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
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>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.
>
>Wikipedia:
>
>The origins of the word "Sambo" stem from an occurrence believed to be
>at the height of the British Empire. An unknown slave ship had docked
>in the then-popular Morecambe Bay area to buy various [and] sundry
>items; once back at sea it was noticed that a black member of the
>ship's staff had been left ashore. This man's name was Sambo; shunned
>by the people of Morecambe, he was made to live out the remainder of
>his days on the outskirts of the villages at that time. To this day
>there is a monument known as 'Sambo's Grave' on the coast of the
>Lancashire village of Heysham.
>
>But this merely begs the question, in the old sense.
>
>-Wilson

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