The N-word at the time of Huck Finn

[George Thompson]

I apologize for the length of the following.  It is a compilation of nearly all of the passages in my notes from NYC newspapers and a few other sources, from the late 1810s to 1840, containing the word "nigger".

Nearly all of these passages are contemptuous, hostile and at the very least unfriendly, and require a very strong -- perhaps superhuman -- resolve to regard them in a dispassionate and academic spirit to be able to read them, especially in such a large and concentrated dose.  Those of you who would prefer not to have to summon up such spirit should delete this message now.

1824:   Mr Mathews next informs us that he went to a theatre, called the Niggers' (or Negroes') theatre, where he beholds a  black tragedian in the character of Hamlet, and just enters as he is proceeding with the speech, "To be, or not to be? that is the question; whether it is nobler in de mind to suffer, or tak'up arms against a sea of trouble, and by oppossum end 'em."  No sooner was the word oppossum out of his mouth, than the audience burst forth, in one general cry "Oppossum! oppossum! oppossum!" and [the] tragedian came forward and informed them, that he would sing their favorite melody with greater pleasure; when to please his audience, he gave them
OPOSSUM UP A GUM TREE
Opossum up a gum tree,
On de branch him lie;
Opossum up a gum tree,
Him tink no one is by
Opossum up a gum tree,
Nigger him much bewail,
Opossum up a gum tree,
He pull him down by the tail.
Opossum, &c.

Opossum up a gum tree,
Him know not what to follow,
Opossum up a gum tree,
With Nigger in the hollow.
Opossum up a gum tree,
Him know not what him ail;
But Nigger go up de gum tree,
        And pull him down by de tail.
Opossum, &c.

Opossum up a gum tree,
Have no fear at all,
Opossum up a gum tree,
Him never tink to fall.
Opossum up a gum tree,
Hip hop and skip and rail,
But Nigger him too cunning,
So he pull him down by de tail.
Opossum, &c.

When he had finished his song he walked up the stage, and when he got up the stage he soon came strutting down with, "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by the sun of York;" upon which a person in the boxes exclaimed, "You should play Hamlet, and not King Richard."  "Yes! yes!" says the man in black; "but I just thought of New-York then, and I couldn't help talking about it."
        Charles Mathews, Mr. Mathew's Trip to America, London: J. Duncombe, 1824, as reprinted in Richard L. Klepac, Mr. Mathews at Home, London: Society for Theatre Research, 1979, pp. 106-07.  Checked against The London Mathews, containing An Account of this celebrated Comedian's Trip to America. . . .  New-York: Charles Wiley, 1824, p. 9, which omits the text of the song.
        [Charles Mathews was an English entertainer, noted for his ability as a mimic and dialect comedian.  He had toured the U. S. to perform and to gather material for his next show.  This scene was supposed to have taken place at a performance at The African Theatre, the subject of my book, cited in my sign-off, below.]

1824:   Theatre Royal, English Opera House, Strand
        The PUBLICK are most respectfully informed that
        Mr. MATHEWS
        WILL BE
        AT HOME
        This Evening, THURSDAY, March 25th, 1824
***
Song -- "OPOSSUM UP A GUM TREE." -- (Real Negro Melody.)
***  [more sketches, another song]
PART II.  Hiring a help (Anglicé, a servant)  ***  [more sketches, 2 more songs]
        Song -- "ILLINOIS INVENTORY"
Maximilian the Nigger (Anglicé, Negro) and the snuff box -- Preparations to depart --
***
Playbill in The Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center.

1828:   ["Thomas Lilliford, a black man, aged about 30, who was killed in a scuffle in Cross street last evening, by a stab in the groin"]  [a witnss] testified that last evening about seven o'clock, he saw a man named William Miller, but commonly known at the Five Points as Bully Butcher, looking into the window of John Ward's grocery in Cross street, between Pearl and Orange sts.  He had a small jack knife in his hand, and said to the witness, pointing at the deceased, who was inside -- "There is the big nigger who is going to flog me, and he shall flog me to night; and I'll kill somebody with this knife before the night is over."
NY E Post, December 3, 1828, p. 2, cols. 1-2  [Miller was also a black man; he served a few years for this murder, and went on to a long career of evil after he got out.]

1829:   Eliza Andrews, a boisterous strapping woman, was indicted for stealing a counterpane, the property of Betsey Scabley.  The latter, a yellow girl, testified that there was a counterpane taken from her yard by the prisoner last month.  She went to pledge it and could not.  The constable went with witness and prisoner and got it where the latter said it was.  She said that she stole it.
Pris.  I did not.  I went with you and shewed you where it was.
***
Pris.  New York can't charge me with stealing. -- but that d----d nigger has charged me with it, and she knows she lies.
Recorder.  Eliza, how came you by the counterpane?
Prisoner, (talking with the rapidity of lightning.)  Well, when I was out a black man came and left a counterpane, and my little girl told me, that a thick lipped nigger came and left it.  He came again, and I did'nt want it, but I told him where I thought he could pawn it.  I never stole any thing -- and that nigger had a grudge against me, and she's tried for a long time to fetch a haul on me, and I've been in Bridewell, where all my clothes [???; sic] to what I've got on, and these are not decent to appear before any body.  I know nothing more about the counterpane than what I've told, and I think it's very hard to haul me up for it.
***
        N-Y E Post, January 14, 1829, p. 2, col. 2

1829:   Nigger Cuffee's Wardrobe. -- [contents of a trunk seized in the Five Points, showing the dress of an "ultra exquisite;" the trunk and its contents are returned to the owner]
        Morning Courier & N-Y Enquirer, November 28, 1829, p. 2, col. 3

1830:   Mr. Editor, There is in C. street, not far from the H----, a kind of Sans Souci, at my request I was a short time since introduced there by a friend, judge my suspicion, on entering the corner to see about a dozen young men apparently Gentlemen, caressing and paying their devoirs to two or three big black niggers. I have been informed by my friend, that on Sunday evenings the rooms are thronged with visitors, who get refreshments &c. gratuitous, I shall drop in again, as I have had a pressing invite from one of the darkeys, and give some of the names of the visitors.  Yours, TRUTH.
         Hawk & Buzzard, July 3, 1830 (II:8) p. 4, col. 3

1833:   [from a book satirizing the ignorance and gullibility of English travelers: there has been a battle in the city between the Indians, who go about with tomahawks "plundering the blacks and whites" and "the whites and niggers under the command of Old Hays, as the field marshall is called."]
        [Asa Green]  Travels in America, by George Fibbleton, Esq.  Ex-Barber to His Majesty.  N. Y., 1833, pp. 41-432

1834:   The dock was covered with Long Island darkies and their truck, that attracted the New York she niggers. . . .  About 9 o'clock, Peter, the head sweeper of the market, who regulated every thing, . . . ordered all the niggers to take up their march; . . . an army of beings not to be sneezed at at all times -- some had eels dangling to a string, others crabs slung over their shoulder, many with fish dragging along the pavement, and others who could not drag themselves along.
        Ely's New York and Brooklyn Hawk & Buzzard, June 21, 1834, p. 1, col. 1

1834:   [Sweet Gallifield is accused of stealing a horse and cart to go joy-riding:] the nigger . . . drove down to the Five Points, and picked up a half dozen glossy wenches, [whom he drove to Bloomingdale; he left the cart in Laurens street].
        NY Transcript, August 5, 1834, p. 2, col. 2

1835:   In accordance with their usual off-hand mode of managing these matters, they marched down the Battery on Monday evening, and began what they termed the nigger hunt.  They unceremoniously seized some six of seven lusty and sable sons of the south, and to use the sentence of one of these seven they "swatted them," after which they drove them off the Battery.
        [Richard Ramare, a Frenchman, tries to protect a black, is beaten himself, can't id the thugs]
        NY Transcript, September 23, 1835, p. 2, col. 5

1836:   Land Sharks.  [A trunk containing linen and $200 stolen from the brig James McCabe; a cop, acting on information, arrests Edward Vandalcus, black, in the Five Points]
        NY Times, December 17, 1836, p. 2, col. 6; ["Five young 'nigger' ladies" are brought up as involved; there's no evidence, "save their being known as favorites of 'No Head Jack Delaware' and the other 'buck nigger' involved"; still, they're nicely dressed, and so are sentenced to 90 days as vagrants.]   NY Times, December 22, 1836, p. 2, col. 6
        [This newspaper is in no way connected with the current NY Times, which began publication in 1851.]

1837:   Thick lipped scoundrels may now daily be seen in Broadway, ogling, in the most impudent manner, the ladies promenading there; and after dusk no respectable female can walk the street, without being accosted by some dun Othello or another, who having heard the orators of the amalgamation school, has taken it into his numskull, "nigger little better than white folks -- someting."
        The Herald, January 23, 1837, p. 2, col. 5

1837:   [James Smith, alias John Hickson, arrested for assaulting colored women on Broadway: "Why, they was only niggers!  What's the harm in shoving a nigger?"  Required to post a $200 bond for 6 months, charged $2.12½ in costs]
        The Herald, March 9, 1837, p. 2, col. 4

1837:   ***  [scene at a coroner's inquest, in the home of the dead person]
        . . . an negro fellow, named James Hewlet, who has been for a long time notorious in this city as a spouter of tragedy, and prime conductor of private theatricals, was observed to be particularly officious.  He handed chairs to the gentlemen of the jury and to the coroner, who imagined he belonged to the house.  He poured words of consolation into the ears of the relatives of the deceased, begging them not to cry, &c. &c., and they mistook him for the servant of the coroner.  Watching his opportunity, Hewlet purloined a valuable watch, but was observed by a Mr. Vanderzee, an inmate of the house, who informed Mr. Brown, the coroner, that his nigger had stolen a watch.  "My nigger," said the coroner in surprise, "my nigger -- he's not my nigger; he belongs to the house!"  Upon this an explanation took place, and the officious black rascal was escorted to the police, from whence, after a hearing, he was committed to bridewell.  ***
        Morning Herald, June 12, 1837, p. 2, col. 4.  [Hewlett had been the star of The African Theatre, and when it folded had had either an unsuccessful career as a travelling performer, or a career that was more successful than one would expect, given the barriers he faced.]

1838:   We advise the Direction to send for Hewlett, the colored tragedian, and open with "Othello, or the Jealous Nigger."
        New Orleans Times-Picayune, [unknown month and day] 1838.  [I received this reference from a correspondent, who had not noted exactly where she had seen it. "Othello, or the Jealous Nigger" must have been the punch-line of a joke, since I have come upon it elsewhere.]

1838:   As soon as the cheering had subsided, the chairman introduced to the notice of the meeting, the celebrated nigger tragedian, Hewlett, who had obtained leave of absence from Blackwood's Island, as the playbills say, "for this night only," for the purpose of acting as a deputation to represent the respectable rogues now in confinement at the penitentiary.
        NY Herald, March 28, 1838, p. 2, cols. 2-?

1840:   Officer Lyndhurst deposed that he was in the Police office on the morning of the 1st of March last.  A person there who was all covered over with mud, and a face so black that he mistook him for a nigger, spoke to him.  The witness said, "what do you want with me, you nigger?"  The person answered "I'm not a nigger.  I'm a white man.  Don't you know me?  I'm Mr. Ely."  "What Mr. Ely," said the officer, "I know a Mr. Ely, a block and pump maker, but you ain't he!"  "Yes, I am," said Mr. Ely; "and on looking at him," said the witness, "sure enough, it was himself!"  "To show how black he looked," continued the witness, "Mr. Bloodgood [a police-court justice] mistook Mr. Ely for a nigger as well as I did, and said to him ‘`step up here you black scoundrel, and let us know what you've got to say for yourself.’"
        NY D Express, April 14, 1840, p. 2, col. 6  [Part of a long story of a bizarre mugging case.  Ely was the victim, but the mugger charged him with assault and had him arrested.]

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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