This video features Lead Belly's "Sukey Jump" from the 2015 box set 'Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection'. ...
-snip-
The comment feature is turned off for most of the YouTube sound files of Lead Belly.
Thankfully, this sound file has a few comments. Here are two of those comments:
"Lyrics
Somebodys dead mama killed a hope the other day somebodys dead mama killed her hope the other day
Somebody dead mama killed er hope the other day and then did mine and then did mine one day she did one day and then did mine
**
Reply
2. @alonzogarbanzo, 2021
"I may be wrong (and with Huddie's lyrics there often disagreements over what he sang) but I believe the correct lyric, and one that makes perfect sense, is a question: "Somebody, did Mama kill a hog the other day?". I don't know how a "dead mama" could kill anything, but I do know that "hoe" in his time only referred to an agricultural tool, and "killing hope" sounds a little too "modern" for late 19th-century Shreveport. As I said, I might be wrong, but I submit another interpretation."
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This post also showcases four sound files of the Folk/Blues musician/vocalist Huddie Ledbetter (Lead belly; Leadbelly) performing songs that were played and danced to at Black American "sukey jumps" ("sookey jumps").
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, socio-cultural, and entertainment, purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Huddie Ledbetter (Lead belly) for his musical legacy. Thanks to those who are I quoted in this post, and thanks to the publishers of these sound files on YouTube.
Most of the content of this post was given in a now deleted 2013 pancocojams post on this subject. That post had no discussion thread comments.
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WHAT THE PHRASE "SUKEY JUMPS" MEANS
"Sukey Jumps" is a no longer used African American English referent for country dance gatherings for Black folks and the fast paced dance music that was performed at those gatherings.
The word "sukey" rhymes with "LOOK ee".
Most of the information about sukey jumps comes from several 1939/1940 recordings of Folk/Blues singer/musician Huddie Ledbetter (Lead belly) as well as interviews of Lead belly that were conducted & recorded by folklorist/collector Alan Lomax. From Lead belly's comments, it appears that the term "sukey jumps" was used in the Deep South (states such as Louisiana, Texas, & Mississippi) prior to the end of slavery in the United States (1865) and at least until 1940.
According to online sources who quoted Lead belly or others, the music for sukey jumps was provided by musicians/vocalists who sang and/or played the accordion, fiddle, and/or guitar..
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ADDITIONAL SHOWCASE YOUTUBE SOUND FILES
Leadbelly - Topic
Sep 4, 2018
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group
Monologue on Square Dances or Sookey Jumps · Lead Belly
Go Down Old Hannah -- The Library of Congress Recordings, V.
6
℗ 1994 Rounder Records Manufactured and distributed by
Concord Music Group
Released on: 1994-01-01
-snip
Here's my partial transcript of this recording: Additions and Corrections are welcome.
In the beginning of the recording folklorist Alan Lomax introduces Lead belly as a person from Louisiana who [at the time of that recording] lived in "New York on the East Side, playing his guitar, making records, and demonstrating for peace whenever he gets a chance to.]
From .22 to 1;24
Lomax-"I want him to tell you the way they put on the square dances down there in Louisiana when he was a boy growing up in the back woods.
What did they call square dances?
Lead belly - "Sukey jumps"
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Lomax- "Why they'd call them "sukey jumps"?
**
**
Lomax- "You know what "sukey" means.
**
Lead belly- "Well that's how we call the cows. We say "sukey, sukey, sukey" shushing the cows away.
Sometimes we'd holler "One dollar day, one dollar food a day. Anything you feel like singin' almost."
**
Lomax- "So what kind of music did they have?"
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Lead belly- "Well they had a fiddle, sometime an accordion".
**
Lomax- "And the band would sing?"
**
Lead belly- "There was a man named Full House, he would play the fiddle, he was the first fiddle and afterwards Full House would ??? Full House playin goes like this
Example #3: Green Corn - Leadbelly (come along cholly)
songs1994, Uploaded on Mar 3, 2009
-snip-
"Cholly" is a nickname for "Charles" (similar to "Charlie").
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Example #4 -LEAD BELLY ~ Poor Howard (Po' Howard)
3006khz, Published on Dec 30, 2012
Poor Howard (Green Corn). The audio is hard to hear, but, i think this is one of Lead Belly's coolest tunes.
-snip-
Some lyrics for "Po' Howard"/"Green Corn" are found in the pancocojams post http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/leadbelly-po-howard-and-green-corn.html.
SELECTED QUOTES ABOUT "SUKEY JUMPS"
[Sukey, a dimin. of proper name Susan, but ? Welsh Gypsy
sukar, to hum, to whisper (cf. black sal under black adj.); in sense 3, the
immediate root was presumably the mid-18C+ nursery rhyme ‘Polly put the kettle
on’]
1. a male homosexual.
2. a lower servant girl.
1734 [UK] Proceedings Old Bailey 27 Mar. 143/2: But there was a Vagabond Creature, one Sukey, that persuaded me to it.
1759 [UK] Proceedings Old Bailey 25 Apr. 156/2: She
said she had been to carry a white petticoat and three pewter plates to pawn
for Sukey at Mrs Hinkle’s.
3. a kettle.
sukey jump (n.)
(US, Sth) a country dance held for and by African-Americans;
also attri.
1946 [US] Salt Lake Trib. (UT) 9 Dec. 7/6: I was at a sukey jump — a cotton pickers dance.
1950 [US] Shreveport Times (LA) 17 Dec. 31/8: [T]o
while away the lonely evenings in the piney woods and enliven the sukey-jumps
and breakdowns.
1967 [US] Shreveport Jrnl (LA) 2 Aug. 12A/2:
[Leadbelly] began performing at ‘sukey jumps’ and ‘breakdowns’ in cabins and
dance halls.
1973 [US] Arizona Republic (Phoeniz, AZ) 22 July
N-4/1: [Leadbelly] was [...] an entertainer at all-night dances, sukey jumps
and barrelhouses.
1978 [Can] Calgary Herald (Alberta) ‘The Canadian’ 28
Jan. 17/2: At 15, [Leadbelly]’d play all night at suker-jumps (play parties)
and breakdowns (square dances) for 50 cents and all he could drink .
1989 [Can] Shreveport Times (LA) 15 Jan. 11-F/2:
Leadbelly’s songs [...] ‘Sukey Jump’.
1992 [US] (con. 1890s) Wolfe & Lornell Leadbelly
18: Sukey, or sookie, was apparently a Deep South slang term dating from the
1820s and referring to a servant or slave. A sukey jump, therefore, was once a
dance or party in slave quarters.
2005 [US] Dly News (NY) 8 May 42/1: [G]igging at
raucous ‘sukey-jump’ parties.
Digital edition © Jonathon Green 2026."
Source #2
From
"sukey (also "sookie") an early 19th-century word for a slave, so a "sukey jump" was a party in slave quarters. The term came to mean any lively get-together with music and dancing. (Leadbelly, who played for sukey jumps, said that he believed it to be an old word for "cow".)"
Source #3
“In most cases the [Black] slave fiddler developed at least two completely different repertoires for accompaniment and white dances, often called “frolics” or [for Black dances] called “sukey jumps”."
**
Source #4
from [Google Book] The Devil's music: a history of the blues By Giles Oakley p. 65
"Leadbelly suggested an explanation for the last half of the phrase: “Because they dance so fast, the music was so fast and the people had to jump”. He would take his windjammer accordion his guitar and go over to play for the dancers
Jaw bone walk. Jawbone talk
Jawbone eat with a knife and fork
One of the first songs he heard was Poor Howard.
Poor Howards was a poor boy; he went all around the plantations playing for the sukey jumps. He was the first man who started sukey jumps all around the world. And when poor Howard was gone, everybody sang this song:
Poor Howard’s dead and gone
Left me here to sing this song.
Poor Howard’s dead and gone
Left me here to sing this song."
**
Source #5
from [Google Book] the magazine Black World/Negro Digest Apr 1962 article about Leadbelly, page 22
"Besides the jumps, or play parties, there were breakdowns for square dancing. The accordion, fiddle, and guitar supplied the music, which usually kept on until dawn”...
While still a boy his uncle Bob taught him how to play the guitar. Then, at the sukey jumps, he learned about the accordion.
“I was good as they had on the windjammer,” he boasted. The first piece I ever learned to play was “Po Howard”, from Jim Fagin, an’ “Green Corn” from Bud Coleman.
These were dance tunes, and that was the beginning."
**
Source #6
from http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4280 Req/ADD: Poor Howard/Green Corn (from Leadbelly) posted by BrooklynJay
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:51 PM
... Here are ... notes to Poor Howard, transcribed from page 53 of Lead Belly - No Stranger To The Blues:
Transcribed from 1940 Library of Congress sessions now available on Lead Belly/Gwine Dig A Hole To Put The Devil In, Rounder CD 1045....
"He [Po' Howard] was the first fiddler after Negroes got freed in slavery times. Po' Howard was a Negro, used to play for 'em at the sooky jumps and the number he played it was "Po' Howard, Po' Boy." ...Because they dance so fast, the music was so fast and the people had to jump, so they always called them sooky jumps...Sooky, well that's a cow - sometimes when you tell it "sooky, sooky, sooky", you know, sookin' the cow away."
Huddie Ledbetter, 1940"...
**
Source #7
from http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Sukey
"Sukey \s(u)-key\ as a girl's name. Diminutive of Susan (Hebrew) "lily". First used in the 18th century, and revived in the 20th [century]."
[commenter] Max Haymes:
"From Eric Partridge: "sukey. A kettle: low (-1823); ob.origin: cf. Welsh Gypsy 'sukar, to hum, to whisper.hence, 2, a general servant or SLAVEY: from ca 1820; ob. Ex 'Sukey'; a lower-class diminutive of 'Susan', a name frequent among servants." ("The Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang" p.927. [Penguin Books] 1986. Rep. 1st pub. 1937.)"
-snip-
It's important to reiterate that enslaved Black people [females only?] weren't the only ones who were given the name or nickname "Sukey". For instance, here's an excerpt from an article about the children's rhyme "Polly Put The Kettle On"-which includes the line "Sukey take it off again":
"In middle-class families in the mid-eighteenth century "Sukey" was equivalent to "Susan http://www.tutorgigpedia.com/ed/Polly_Put_the_Kettle_On#Origins. That rhyme was first published in 1803.
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Source #8
from http://www.word-detective.com/2009/10/sukey-jump/ "Word Detective: Sukey Jumps"
"Leadbelly was absolutely right about the roots of “sukey.” The word “sook” has long been used in rural dialects in England and Scotland to mean livestock, specifically young animals (the word itself is a form of “suck,” as in nursing). In the US, “sook” is applied to mature cows as well, and “sook” or “sookie” is commonly used to call cows, pigs, etc. It’s certainly not difficult to imagine the term being applied in a demeaning sense to servants and slaves in the early 19th century US."
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RECONSIDERING* LEADBELLY'S EXPLANATION ABOUT THE MEANING OF THE WORD "SUKEY" IN THE TERM "SUKEY JUMP"
I'm unsatisfied with the explanation that Lead belly gave to folklorist Alan Lomax that "sukey" in the term "sukey jump" was derived from the term for a cow, and was used to as a field call for cows.
First, the word "sukey" as it related to cows appears to be pronounced differently than the word "sukey" in "sukie jump" was pronounced. Quoting the editor of the word detective. com site (Quote #8 given above) "sook" as it relates to cows is pronounced like the English word "suck". In contrast, the first syllable in the word "sukey" (that refers to the "Black slave quarter" dances is pronounced to rhymes with the English word "look".
I've also read that "sookie" as it relates to cows is pronounced "sue-eee". The first syllable is pronounced like the female name "Sue" or the English word "sue" and the ending "e" is elongated. Again, the word "sukey" in "sukey jumps" isn't pronounced that way. Thus, I think this is an example of words being spelled the same but having different pronunciations and different meanings. Or, perhaps the pronunciation of that word has changed over a period of time.
Also, I think that that explanation that Lead belly gave that the referent "sukey jumps" came from the field calls for cows doesn't ring true because there doesn't seem to me to be any connection between a cow, or calling a cow, and Black informal dance gatherings or the fast paced music that was performed at those gatherings. The only connection between cows and jumping that I can think of is the "Hey Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme in which the cow jumps over the moon. Furthermore, in American society and perhaps other "Western societies", it's insulting to call a female a cow. I'm just not convinced that a dance gathering- outdoor or indoor- would be named after cows.
It's possible that Lead belly actually believed the explanation that he gave to Alan Lomax. It's also possible that he was purposely pulling the wool over that White folklorist/collector's eyes -just for the fun of it.
-snip-
In my previous title for this section, I used the word "Debunking" instead of "re-considering".
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AN ALTERNATIVE THEORY ABOUT THE SOURCE OF THE WORD "SUKEY" IN "SUKEY JUMPS"
Given the information posted above that the female nickname/name "Sukey" was documented as a referent for servants and slaves in the early 19th century, I believe that a case can be made that the nickname or name "Sukey", a diminutive of the female name "Susan" ("Susannah"), could have been frequently given to enslaved Black females in the American South. Therefore, at least in some areas of the South, "Sukey" could have become a generic referent for Black female slaves.
It seems to me that a case could be made that those gatherings of Black people dancing could have been named "Sukey Jumps" as a reference to the Black women ["Sukies"] who would be found enthusiastically dancing [jumping all around] at those gatherings.
ADDENDUM [added to the original May 12, 2013 pancocojams post on November 17, 2013]
It occurs to me that "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" is a sukey jump song as it is usually sung nowadays. The traditional, antebellum version of that song was a sad lament about the impossibility of picking a bale of cotton a day. But Lead belly transformed that song into a fast paced, enthusiastic song in which he boasted ["lied" in the tall tale meaning of that word] about "picking a bale of cotton a day". Read this review of about that song written by Barry Weber http://www.allmusic.com/song/pick-a-bale-of-cotton-mt0011917299. The sukey jump form of "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" that was popularized by Lead belly is the only form of that song that is known nowadays.
Part of my problem with "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" -and I admit that I really have a lot of problems with it when sung by young children as an easy to learn, movement song, is that those children-and their teachers-rarely know the history of that song, and mistakenly think that is how enslaved Black people sung it. I could go on and on about my concerns about the song "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"-and I'll probably publish a separate post about that song. But suffice it to say here that Lead belly's style of singing "Pick A Bale of Cotton" was in the style of a "sukey jump".
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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
@gooodies4u1, 2023
"As a older AKA its amazing to see how the songs been modified over the years." -snip- Unfortunately, this commenter didn't respond to a request for the words that she knew for this chant.]