Sambo -- not 1861 or 1704, but 1657

[Joel S. Berson]

Not just HDAS but even the OED has the 1704 instance.  And in
addition to the HDAS 1838 generic use, the OED has one from 1735:  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.

But I found a reference to a specific "Sambo" from 1657, via
EEBO.  See ADS-L archives, 2008 Sep 11, Subject: "Sambo" 1657,
antedates OED 1704-.  (The OED entry has not yet been revised from
the 1989 edition.)

Joel

At 1/29/2010 10:24 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>HDAS files contain two refs. to slaves actually named "Sambo" (1704 and
>1768). OED has an 1818 that is unlikely to be generic.
>
>Judge Haliburton's _Clockmaker_ (Series 2)  1838, p. 30 seems to use
>the name generically: "And Sambo...is sold a second time ag'in."
>
>Henry Louis Gates (_Signifying Monkey_, p. 95) cited an undoubted ex. from
>1846: "Here, 'Sambo,' you dam jiggery toe nigger."
>
>The name was in common (white) use by the 1850s. There's even a rare plural
>by 1864:
>
>1864 in _Arkansas Historical Qly._ XII (1953) 360: Hundreds of spectators -
>ladies, gentlemen, civilians, soldiers, "Sambo's," etc., crowded around.
>
>JL
>
>
>
>On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 9:12 PM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> <
>JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>"
> >              <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> > Subject:      Sambo
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I found an 1861 usage of "Sambo" to mean a black man.
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/december/george-opdyke.htm
> >
> > Harper's Weekly    December 21, 1861
> >
> > <quote>
> > Some writers from Port Royal have stated that the negroes will not work,
> > but that when work is offered them they will fly to the woods. This is
> > indignantly denied by other writers, and by several officers of the
> > expedition, who state that the contrabands work willingly and
> ably. It would
> > not be surprising if poor Sambo, after a dozen generations of slavery,
> > should want to celebrate his sudden emancipation by a brief holiday.
> > </quote>

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