"Old Aunt Jemima" is an
American folk song written by comedian, songwriter, and
minstrel show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century.
Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spec ...
performer
Billy Kersands (circa 1842–1915). The song became the inspiration for the
Aunt Jemima
Pearl Milling Company (formerly known as Aunt Jemima from 1889 to 2021) is an American breakfast brand for Baking mix, pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix for the brand was developed i ...
brand of pancakes, as well as several characters in film, television, and on radio, named "Aunt Jemima".
Kersands wrote his first version of "Old Aunt Jemima" in 1875 and it became his most popular song. Author Robert Toll claimed that Kersands performed the song over 2,000 times by 1877. There were at least three different sets of "Old Aunt Jemima" lyrics by 1889.
Often, "Old Aunt Jemima" was sung while a man in
drag, playing the part of Aunt Jemima, performed on stage. It was not uncommon for the Aunt Jemima character to be played by a white man in
blackface. Other minstrels incorporated Aunt Jemima into their acts, so Aunt Jemima became a common figure in
minstrelsy. Other songs about Aunt Jemima were written, such as "Aunt Jemima Song" and "Aunt Jemima's Picnic Day".
Lyrics
One version of "Old Aunt Jemima" began with a stanza expressing dissatisfaction with the dullness of worship services in white churches, such as a complaint about the length of the prayers. The song ended with the following two stanzas:
Some variants of the song substituted "pea-vine" for "bee line". Another version included the verse:
Sterling Stuckey maintains that Kersands did not write all of these lyrics, but adapted many of them from "slave songs" (such as
field hollers
The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to communi ...
and
work songs
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song.
Definitions and ...
).
References
Sources
*
*
*{{cite book
, last = Witt
, first = Doris
, year = 1999
, title = Black Hunger: Soul Food And America
, location = Minneapolis, Minnesota
, publisher =
University of Minnesota Press
The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018.
Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its boo ...
, isbn = 978-0-8166-4551-0
, via
Googlebooks.com}
American folk songs
1877 songs
Blackface minstrel characters
Blackface minstrel songs
Songs about fictional female characters
Songs about old age
Songs about farmers