[Ads-l] Antedating of "Nigger" as a Neutral or Favorable Term Used by Blacks

Sun Dec 8 21:29:46 UTC 2024

There are a number of such examples on [ my entry for the word ]( https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/n-word ). I sent these to the OED over a year ago. Expurgations are my own.

Clarke, Lewis. Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke. Boston: David H. Ela, 1845, 38–39. [ HathiTrust Digital Archive ]( https://www.hathitrust.org/ ).

"When I stepped ashore here, I said, sure enough I AM FREE. Good heaven! what a sensation, when it first visits the bosom of a full grown man—one, born to bondage—one, who had been taught from early infancy, that this was his inevitable lot for life. Not till then, did I dare to cherish for a moment the feeling that one of the limbs of my body, was my own. The slaves often say, when cut in the hand or foot, "plague on the old foot, or the old hand, it is master's—let him take care of it—N[——]r don 't care if he never get well." My hands, my feet, were now my own. But what to do with them was the next question."

Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. Auburn: Derby and Miller, 1853, 186. [ HathiTrust Digital Archive ]( https://www.hathitrust.org/ ). 

"Patsey is twenty-three—also from Buford's plantation. She is in no wise connected with the others, but glories in the fact that she is the offspring of a "Guinea n[——]r," brought over to Cuba in a slave ship, and in the course of trade transferred to Buford, who was her mother's owner."

Jackson, John Andrew. The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina. London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1862, 12–13. [ HathiTrust Digital Archive ]( https://www.hathitrust.org/ ). 

"Mack English, having turned a wishful eye on Rose, wrapped himself up in his big cloak, and went to the n[——]r-house in the night, and called a slave named Esau, and told him to tell Rose to come to him as he wanted her."

Jacobs, Harriet A. The Deeper Wrong, or, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. L. Maria Child, ed. London: W. Tweedie, 1862, 158. [ HathiTrust Digital Archive ]( https://www.hathitrust.org/ ). 

If dey did know whar you are, dey won't know now. Dey'll be disapinted dis time. Dat's all I got to say. If dey comes rummagin 'mong my tings, dey'll get one bressed sarssin from dis 'ere n[——]r."

-----Original Message-----
From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, December 8, 2024 2:43pm
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Antedating of "Nigger" as a Neutral or Favorable Term Used by Blacks

Good point, Dave. If you come across any such usages, I'd be happy to forward them to the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, or point out how you can do that directly.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of dave at wilton.net <dave at WILTON.NET>
Sent: Sunday, December 8, 2024 9:35 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Nigger" as a Neutral or Favorable Term Used by Blacks

Note that all the OED's examples of 19th century Black usage of this sense of the word are actually by white people ventriloquizing Black speech. There are many, easily found examples by Black writers in archives of writings by freed enslaved people and in other sources.

There's really no excuse for this institutional racism.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, December 8, 2024 8:40am
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Antedating of "Nigger" as a Neutral or Favorable Term Used by Blacks

nigger (OED, I.1.c., 1831)

1809 Republican (Savannah, Ga., 11 Mar. 3 (America's Historical Newspapers)

[Letter to the editor:] Massa say, he tell me bring fork — when me bring fork, me say, present arms." Me no tink massa cratch out him own head sitch story, to ruin poor nigger character. ... MASSA NIGGER.

NOTE: I suppose it is possible that this letter to the editor was a fictional story written by a white person.

***

1809 Star (Raleigh, N.C.) 7 Sept. 180 (America's Historical Newspapers)

The other evening, allured by the splendour of a fine moon, I looked from my covert to observe how matters sped about me, when I was attracted by the appearance of an old African Negro ... While these ideas occupied me, the old Negro fixed his eyes serenely on the moon, and with the native wildness of his country, sang these words.

O! poor Nigger he will go.
Hummunday.

***

Fred Shapiro

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