A Chronological List Of Songs & Rhymes That Include The Words "Massa" (or Policeman) Don't Whip (or Catch) Me"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents a chronological list of examples of songs & rhymes that include the words "Massa (or policeman) don't whip (or catch or another verb) me".

The Addendum to this post provides information about a Bugs Bunny Cartoon that also includes a form of those words.

The Addendum to this post also speculates about the possible influence of these formulaic words/lyrics and the

The content of this post is presented for folkloric information.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE:
The first example on this list -an excerpt of an African American slave song- has no collection date that I can find. However, I believe that the song "Run Ni&&er Run" is documented as an antebellum African American slavery song.

Please add to this collection and share additions and corrections for the examples, information, and comments that are found in this post. Thanks in advance.

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FORMULAIC LYRICS/WORDS FOR THESE VERSES
The first line of these verses is "Massa" (master) or Mr. (last name) or policeman don't ("whip" or "whoop"; or "catch" or some other verb) me.

This line is usually followed by the words "Whip (or alternative verb) that ni&&er* or (alternative noun) behind the tree."
-snip-
*This modified spelling for what is generally known as "the n word" is used throughout this pancocojams post.

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CHRONOLOGICAL LIST
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

1.
..."ni&&er* flew, Dat ni&&er* tore his shirt in two; Dat ni&&er*, ni&&er*, he said don't ketch me, But git dat ni&&er* behind de tree"
-from Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember: An Oral History by James Mellon; retrieved from Google Books
-snip-
These words are included in a version of "Run Ni&&er Run" (also known as "The Pateroller Song")

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2.
T-U-TURKEY
T-u, tucky, T-u, ti.
T-u, tucky, buzzard's eye.
T-u, tucky, T-u, ting.
T-u, tucky, buzzard's wing.
Oh, Mistah Washin'ton! Don't whoop me,
Whoop dat Ni&&er* Back 'hind dat tree.
He stole tucky, I didn' steal none.
Go wuk him in de co'n field jes fer fun"
-from - Thomas W, Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise & Otherwise, originally published in 1922
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm, p. 7
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note: African American professor and collector Thomas W. Talley wrote that some of examples in his book were remembered from [United State] slavery times. It's likely this is one of those old rhymes or is a later variant form of an old rhyme.

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3.
"Policeman policeman don’t take me I have a wife and a family,
How many children have you got?
Four and twenty,
That’s a lot!"
-from Emily, December 10th, 2019 in https://www.mamalisa.com/blog/old-sayings-and-rhymes-from-the-1940s/ "Old Sayings and Rhymes from the 1940’s

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4. "Policeman, policeman don’t whip (blame) me,
Whip that [n word] behind that tree;
he stole peaches I stole none;
Put him in the calaboose just for fun."

Usually collected as a taunt
-from Jump-Rope Rhyme: A Dictionary edited by Roger D. Abrahams (Publications of the American Folklore Society, 1970 [p. 161]

[Pancocojams Editor -some of the citations listed]:

"Douglas (1916), 54 [London] Policeman, don’t touch me/I have a wife and family”

Daiken (1963) 27[Dublin, 1929] O Pleeceman, pleeceman, don’t take me/I’ve gotta wife and a family.”

Heck, JAF [Journal of American Folklore], 42 [Ohio]
Brewster, SFQ [Southern Folk Quarterly], 3, (1939) , 178. “Teacher Teacher”= Botkin (1944), 795

Ritchie (1965), 148 [Edinburgh]. “He stole sugar/He stole tea” "

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5.
"Policeman, policeman
Don't blame me.
Blame that boy
Behind the tree.

He stole sugar.
He stole tea.
Policeman, policeman
Don't blame me."

Source: Solomon (1980)
-retrieved from https://mudcat.org/jumprope/jumprope_display_all.cfm Mudcat.org Jump Rope Rhyme collection

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6.
"Policeman, Policeman,
Don't catch me,
Catch the naughty boy,
One two three."
-from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzhS9cmz8MQ
SunBreak Creations, Jan 10, 2015 [categorized as a children's nursery rhyme]

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ADDENDUM #1 - BUGS BUNNY CARTOON - "SOUTHERN FRIED RABBIT" [1953; Warning: Banned cartoon]
from https://www.vulture.com/2017/12/weird-cartoons-today-transform-minstrel-aesthetic.html "How Today’s Most Daring, Weird Cartoons Transform the Minstrel Aesthetic"
By Lauren Michele Jackson, Dec. 7, 2017
..."Bugs embraced the components of minstrel performance that audiences eventually came to take for granted as synonymous with cartoons. He is a trickster, antagonizing his scene partners for personal gain or the sheer hell of it, and resistant to anything that might resemble work. A study on minstrel musical arrangements in Looney Tunes shorts by musicologist Joanna R. Smolko directed me to the 1952 Southern Fried Rabbit. In the short, Bugs attempts to cross the visibly marked Mason-Dixon line only to be stopped short by Yosemite Sam in full Confederate uniform — Sam is following orders to keep Yankees from crossing. Bugs — a Yankee — again tries to cross, this time disguised as an enslaved black person. “Well, it’s one of our boys!” Sam exclaims before Bugs enters the frame, “blacked up” with brown coloring, sloped shoulders, and tattered clothes, playing “My Old Kentucky Home” on a banjo and singing along. Safely across, Bugs straightens up and changes the tune to “Yankee Doodle.” As Sam rushes over, knife raised, Bugs reverts back to his disguise: “Please, don’t beat me, Massa,” he cries, handing Sam a whip.*

The short is fascinating for many reasons, not least because of the effort put into Bugs’s costume. Bugs doesn’t need the disguise to be a minstrel — his gloves, tricksterism, language (“I’se coming, I’se coming”), and wily antics make him one. In dressing as a caricature of an enslaved black person, he is really blacking up twice. Southern Fried Rabbit demonstrates how the minstrel features embedded in animation eventually became normalized as conventional cartoon behavior. To audiences, these “vestigial minstrels” no longer signaled black caricatures — they were “just” cartoons. By the ’50s, in order for a cartoon like Bugs to become black (again), he has to do some more exaggerated play-acting. Bugs’s blackface within Southern Fried Rabbit is a sly wink to the minstrel aesthetic that forged his character in the first place.”...
-snip-
*Bold font is added to this excerpt to highlight this sentence.

My guess is that Bugs Bunny's "“Please, don’t beat me, Massa" is a take off from the formulaic words in songs and rhymes that are the subject of this post.

Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmk3E6uCVm4 for a full YouTube video of this banned cartoon short [6:44]

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ADDENDUM #2 -
"Hey, mister policeman, I don't want no trouble
I just want to drop my jigglin'* down to the floor"...
-from Reggae song "Policeman" by Surinamese Dutch singer/songwriter Eva Simons (April 10, 2015)
-snip-
Here's a question and reply about the word "jigglin' from *Discussion about what the word “jigglin’” means in that song:
From https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/335662/meaning-of-jiggelin-word-from-the-song-policeman-of-eva-simons July 2015
"I can't find any definition about this word. Does anybody knows what does it mean? Maybe some kind of drugs?

Here are the opening lines of the song in question:

Hey, mister policeman

I don't want no trouble

I just wanna drop my jiggelin' down to the floor

Hey, mister policeman

Why you wanna holla at me?

I just wanna drop my jiggelin' down to the floor"

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Reply
[no name given, edited Jul 5 '16

"I think that jiggelin' is a contraction of "jiggling buttocks" - "jiggling" being similar in meaning to "wobbling".

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/jiggling

To move or rock lightly up and down or to and fro in an unsteady, jerky manner
So, the speaker is saying that she simply wants to lower her jiggling backside (or perhaps her jiggling body as a whole) towards the floor (eg the dance floor of a nightclub), presumably as a dance move - ie, that she simply wants to go dancing.

She is finding the conversation with the policeman frustrating, as it is preventing her from reaching the aforementioned night club, where she can proceed with the "jiggelin'".
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wrkODqsyZE for a video of this song which was recently added to Just Dance 2020.
-snip-
I wonder if the words "Hey, mister policeman/I don't want no trouble" were influenced by the formulaic words that are the subject of this post. If so, are there any songs/rhymes like those "Massa, don't whip me" or "policeman don't catch me" rhymes/songs in Suriname?

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