[Ads-l] Fw: Antedating of "Jim Crow" (System of Racist Laws and Practices)

[Shapiro, Fred]

In my "Note" below, the part about "you will already know ..." was inadvertently copied by me from an email to Henry Louis Gates.

Fred Shapiro


________________________________
From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, November 6, 2025 3:46 PM
To: American Dialect Society <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>
Subject: Antedating of "Jim Crow" (System of Racist Laws and Practices)

Jim Crow (OED, system of racist laws and practices, 1840)

1838 David Ruggles Letter 8 Aug. in Watchtower (31 Aug. 1838) 1 / 4 (Genealogy Bank)  The conductor of the car ... and three others forcibly ejected me from the car, and forced me into what they call the pauper [or Jim Crow] car.

NOTE:  "[or Jim Crow]" appears in the original publication   David Ruggles is new to me, but you will already know that he was a Black abolitionist-journalist-printer.  He was the first Black to own a bookstore.  He was also very active in the Underground Railroad.  One of the enslaved persons he assisted in journeying to freedom was Frederick Douglass.

Fred Shapiro



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