[Ads-l] 1780 Use of "Sam" to refer to the U.S. (precursor to "Uncle Sam"?)

[Baker, John]

Having now read the full poem, I think it’s reasonably clear that France is personified by Puff the barber.  Puff has a grudge against Mother (the United Kingdom), although he disavows this and acts civilly, and she has in the past made him sweat until he cried _peccavi_ (“I have sinned”).  Puff, a much more important character in the poem than Sam, flatters and pretends to help Molly, and has “sent his boys in boats, well-arm’d, across the Ferry.”  Molly calls him her “Great and Good Ally.”  However, Puff is insincere to Molly too, and she eventually escapes from her betrayer (this section, I think, being wishful thinking on the author’s part).

I’m skeptical of the theory that Sam is a precursor to Uncle Sam or is in any way a personification of the rebellious colonies.  That role clearly is taken by the title character, Mary Cay (also referred to as Molly or Moll), and Sam himself disappears from the poem after the first few verses.  Possibly his name is a reference to Sam Adams, with whom a New York Tory in 1780 likely would be familiar.

It is a strange little story.  Molly, who is only 13, first is badly whipped for stealing sugar plums.  Then she is bundling with Sam; bundling was the practice of a man and a woman sleeping together while fully clothed.  It was in concept nonsexual, but there was a widespread understanding that the clothing did not always prevent sex, and the author probably means to imply that 13-year-old Molly and Sam are lovers.  Molly initially is both “drubb’d” (beaten with a stick) and  and “coax’d as a beauty,” but she and Puff later receive “little else but kicks and cuffs, Black eyes and bloody noses.”


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of Steven Losie
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2024 4:44 PM
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Subject: 1780 Use of "Sam" to refer to the U.S. (precursor to "Uncle Sam"?)

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To play devil's advocate, could "Sammy" in this poem be the personification
of France? Molly (the thirteen colonies) are "bundled now" with Sammy
(France) as of the January 1780 publication date, since the Treaty of
Alliance was signed in February 1778.

If that is the case, I would venture to guess that "Molly" is an allusion
to Moll Flanders - a fictional English criminal and thief who spends many
years in the American colonies before recognizing the error of her ways,
returning to England at the end of the book.

"Sammy" might be Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer credited as the
founder of New France in North America. The modern national personification
of France is "Marianne," which dates to the French Revolution, which would
be several years after this poem was written.

The "truants for assistants" might be Spain and the Netherlands, providing
support for the U.S.-French alliance.

Looking at the first verses:

II. To shew that Good from Evil comes,
According to the Scripture,
When Mary Cay stole sugar plumbs,
You know how Mother whipp'd her.
III. She whipp'd her up and down the house,
Till Moll was in a fluster,
Yet swore she did not care a louse
For all her mother's bluster.

"Mary Cay" might be the "Massachusetts Colony" and the "sugar plumbs" would
then likely be a reference to the Sugar Act of 1764 that Massachusetts
defied.

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