[Ads-l] Antedatings of =?Windows-1252?Q?=93tar_baby=94_?=(1839, earliest), minor note

Stephen Goranson goranson at DUKE.EDU
Sun Feb 28 14:28:39 UTC 2021


Given Bonnie Taylor-Blake’s excellent research, she (you) may well already know this, but concerning
***A piece appearing in The Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 11 April 1886, reports that a version of the Tar Baby tale "from the pen of a South Carolina lady"
appeared in the April 1865 issue of The Southern Cultivator, but I've been
unable to find that.)***

The Southern Cultivator and Dixie farmer 44 May 1886 p. 222 reprinted the story from “May [not April] 1865” [Google Books]

Also know to others (including OED) what we or I now call a rag doll was in 19th c. commonly called a rag baby. I (idly) wonder whether there are variants of a pure tar fashioned baby or one with added hat, etc. or starting with a rag baby and coated with tar, story-wise.

Stephen

https://books.google.com/books?id=pnNNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=%22southern+cultivator%22+tar-baby&source=bl&ots=S248A_QZAC&sig=ACfU3U3RGfeUmhU_kPWsprWzB-wVjwA3hw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHxsyP4YzvAhWvSTABHfg5CR8Q6AEwAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=tar-baby&f=false


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