antedating banjo (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: antedating banjo (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That occurred to me too, but there may have been more than one
> banjer-frailin' Scipio in Maryland.
>
> (I checked the usual news-database suspects for the forms "banjer,"
> "banja," and "bajah" too, but found nothing.)
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 6:32 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
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>> 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 Re: antedating banjo (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Clearly he ran away from Maryland in 1747 to the less harsh
>> neighboring province of Pennsylvania, but didn't like it there either
>> and ran away again ten years later. Â (Perhaps this time to avoid
>> being drafted into service in the French and Indian War, when the
>> pacifist Quakers sent their slaves as substitutes.) Â Both Scipios are
>> described as short.
>>
>> Joel
>>
>> At 4/24/2012 02:05 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >Not quite so early, but also of interest:
>> >
>> >1757 _Pennsylvania Gazette_ (Phila.) (Nov. 17) 3: Run away from the
>> >Subscriber, living in Chester Town, Kent County, Maryland, some time in
>> >July last, a Negroe man, called Scipio, formerly the Property of Mr.
>> Marcus
>> >Kuhl, of the City of Philadelphia...; he is a little short thick
>> >Fellow...and plays well upon the Banjoe.
>> >
>> >On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 1:06 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
>> >Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>> >
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>> > > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > > Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>> > > Subject: Â  Â  Â antedating banjo (UNCLASSIFIED)
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > >
>> > > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> > > Caveats: NONE
>> > >
>> > > OED has 1764
>> > >
>> > > 1749-07-13; _Pennsylvania Gazette_ p 3 col 1 [Newsbank Early American
>> > > Newspapers]
>> > >
>> > > "Runaway, some months ago, from Capt. Thomas Prather, of Prince
>> George's
>> > > county, Maryland, a Negroe man, named Scipio, is of short stature,
>> plays
>> > > on the Banjo, and can sing."
>> > > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> > > Caveats: NONE
>> > >
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>> >
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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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Well, they all look alike.;-) But, of course, that's simply the way it
is. When I started high school, two problems struck me: 1) how to
learn which students were my classmates, when all white people look
alike; 2) how to keep a straight face while being bombarded with
laugh-inducing noises that I now know were nothing more than ordinary,
European-American, ethnic surnames.

But, seriously, folks, I'm struck by the use of "play _on_" instead of
merely "play." Nowadays, it seems to me, people say "play _a tune on_
the banjo," but only "play the banjo." OTOH, there is a spiritual with
the verse, "Little David, _play on_ your harp."

And yes, it was some time before I flashed on the fact that the "harp"
referred to was not a (mouth-)harp.
--
-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

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