[Ads-l] Antedating of "Chain Gang"

[George Thompson]

This "chain gang" also doesn't match my notion of a chain gang, which is a
group of convicts, shackled, doing hard labor on Parchman farm.  This chain
gang had been inmates of a debtors'
prison who were released during a hurricane, then gathered up and returned
to the prison --chained together, for convenience.

The provenance of this report is interesting, at least to those of us who
like to wallow in 200-years old newspapers -- and doesn't everyone?
The opening paragraph in the Post:  "Particulars of the dreadful and almost
unparralled [sic] HURRICANE, which has again very nearly desolated the
unfortunate Island of *Dominica*, from a *St. Christophers* paper, received
at the office of the National Advocate.  ROSEAU, July, 28"
This is identical to the opening paragraph in the National Advocate,
September 7, 1813, p. 2, cols. 3-5 & p. 3, col. 1, and the rest of the long
report was copied by the Advocate from a newspaper printed at St. Kitts in
late July.  So the Post waited nearly a week before sharing the report with
its readers, who, as a matter of political principle, would not read the
Advocate
The Advocate didn't say how the paper from St. Kitts came into its hands --
often the editor will thank a traveller or ship's captain for his kindness.
And, yes, the Post of 1813 is an ancestor to the bumf to be seen on
news-stands today.

GAT

On Wed, Apr 9, 2025 at 10:29 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Indeed, the cite doesn't describe New York, but rather Roseau on the island
> of Dominica. The full quotation reads:
>
> ---
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.newspapers.com_article_the-2Devening-2Dpost-2Dchain-2Dgang_169919822_&d=DwIFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=zxJuVn-AQkLunlR1rNIYl2Wfh6CzBuRiANMH4oivQs8HWB70qGyIbvTjLIYPH7OZ&s=wEumLUZnQV_6jEJ_EQiNB2PJ74F5Ec-K_k6vR2q1Ym4&e=
> The few prisoners confined for debt at the jail in Rosseau, in consequence
> of its delapidated state, were released upon parole of honor to surrender,
> and the chain gang of culprit's is delivered over to their owners.
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
> On Wed, Apr 9, 2025 at 10:20 AM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > The law that was passed in the late 1790s abolishing slavery in the state
> > applied only to babies born after the date of the law.  The mother and
> > older children were still held as slaves.  Slavery wasn't abolished until
> > 1828.
> >
> > Also: the scene described perhaps did not happen in New York State.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 8, 2025 at 7:15 AM James Landau <
> > 00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > On  Tue, 8 Apr 2025 01:03:42 +0000   "Shapiro, Fred" <
> > > fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> posted
> > > <chain gang (OED 1834)
> > > >>1813 New-York Evening Post 7 Sept. 3 / 4 (Newspapers.com)
> > > >>The chain gang of culprit's [sic] is delivered to their owners.
> > >
> > > I don't understand "culprits...their owners:".
> > > In 1813 slavery was illegal in New York.  Who are the "owners"?
> > >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society -
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=zxJuVn-AQkLunlR1rNIYl2Wfh6CzBuRiANMH4oivQs8HWB70qGyIbvTjLIYPH7OZ&s=jedLRIHsC75yUhzsV5CrWwb7V5w0ui9zbNCEPoJvB9g&e=
>


-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)

https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/HOP_WOA_3851

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