"_Cut_ the fool" and "_cut_ the slave" (not really interesting)

[Wilson Gray]

books.google.com

Cassell's dictionary of slang - Page 375
Jonathon Green - 2005 - 1565 pages - Preview
(1)] _cut the fool_ v. [1930's-'60's] (US Black) to act the fool, esp.
when dealing with White people, to play tricks.

Last night, I was listening to a "genuine Negro jig" by the Carolina
Chocolate Drops, when I heard - for the first time, surprisingly - the
phrase,

"_cut_ the fool."

I'm familiar only with the standard, "_play_ the fool."

This immediately reminded me of StL BE jargon,

"_cut_ the slave" = "work for wages," etc.

At the time that this latter was discussed here, a few years ago,
there was a problem WRT how to analyse _cut_.  So, how about analyzing
_cut_ in "cut the slave" as being the same _cut_ as in "cut the fool"?
If course, that still leaves the problem as to what the semantics of
that _cut_ is, in the first place,
--
-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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