Q: Poem "Negro Cuffee"?

[Wilson Gray]

I should have added:

"As negro Cuffee in the market stood": MS Eng 623

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 7:12 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> Harvard (surprise!) has a copy:
>
> http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01423
>
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Q: Poem "Negro Cuffee"?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> A correspondent asks:
>>
>>>The enquiry about "coffey" leads me to ask about a similar word from
>>>a poem or song from the mid-eighteenth century that I have long been
>>>trying to identify. Â I have found the poem in only one manuscript,
>>>and I have not yet found a printed version.
>>>
>>>The piece is a 34-line dialogue in dialect, with air and recitative.
>>>A title was added to the manuscript later: "A Song / Negro Cuffee"
>>>(first line "As Negro Cuffee in the Market stood"). Â It presents two
>>>slaves, male and female, who are in the market place selling wares
>>>(in one case, "grass") and who banter about their affections. Â It is
>>>more likely British than colonial North American--although there
>>>could be some island involvement..
>>
>> This may be a false trail, but -- I have the faintest trace of a
>> memory of encountering this in one of the books I've read about
>> slavery in colonial America, but unfortunately have no notes about it.
>>
>> Joel
>>
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>>
>

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