| "Jimmy Crack Corn (Blue-Tail Fly)" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Virginia Minstrels | |
| Published | 1840s[1][2] |
| Genre | Minstrel, folk |
| Songwriter(s) | Traditional |
 | This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: References should only be after punctuation as per MOS:CITEPUNCT. (May 2023) |
"Jimmy Crack Corn" or "Blue-Tail Fly" is an American song which first became popular during the rise of blackface minstrelsy in the 1840s through performances by the Virginia Minstrels. It regained currency as a folk song in the 1940s at the beginning of the American folk music revival and has since become a popular children's song. Over the years, several variants have appeared.
Most versions include some idiomatic African American English, although General American versions now predominate. The basic narrative remains intact. On the surface, the song is a black slave's lament over his white master's death in a horse-riding accident. The song, however, is also interpreted as having a subtext of celebration about that death and of the slave having contributed to it through deliberate negligence or even deniable action.[3][4][5][6]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
citewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
virminwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Mahar, William J. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture, pp. 234 ff. University of Illinois Press (Champaign), 1999.
- ^ Harris, Middleton & al. The Black Book, 35th ann. ed., p. 32. Random House (New York), 2009.
- ^ Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, pp. 199–200. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1993. ISBN 0-19-509641-X.
- ^ Friedman, Alfred B. (ed.). The Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English Speaking World cited in "Jimmy Crack..." at Mudcat.org. Archived December 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine