[Ads-l] Very Early Reference to Custom of "Cakewalk"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I have been looking at scholarship concerning the custom of the "cakewalk."  I have a sense that the theories of scholars about this custom and the term "cakewalk" are questionable conjectures.  The OED's first use of the term is dated 1863, and I am not sure whether that citation really refers to the custom of slaves mocking their masters and whether the phrases "takes the cake" and "piece of cake" are related to the custom.  However, I have found a relevant citation that seems to clearly indicate that cakewalking goes back a long ways:

1844 Edgefield (South Carolina) Advertiser 7 Aug. 2/4 (Chronicling America)  But yet one thing remained to be attended to — the performance, of an ancient play called "Walking for the Cake".

I suggest that the OED and the forthcoming Oxford Dictionary of African American English include this 1844 precursor in square brackets in their entry for "cakewalk."

Fred Shapiro



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