"Kinky" Used To Describe A Black Woman's Hair In The First Known Publication Of The Song "Cotton Eyed Joe" (1882)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update: October 21, 2022

This pancocojams post focuses on the use of the word "kinky" to describe a Black woman's hair in the first known publication of the song "Cotton Eyed Joe",  the 1882 novel Diddie, Dumps, and Tot, or Plantation Child-Life that was written by Louise Clarke Pyrnelle. 

This post also presents the standard English translation of those lyrics along with some information about that author, and an excerpt from the Preface to that book (as digitally given in the 2005 Gutenberg eBook form of that book). 

In addition, this pancocojams post includes my theories about the version of "Cotton Eyed Joe" that is included in Louise Clarke Pyrnelle's 1882 novel about White children growing up on a plantation before the Civil War and shortly afterwards.

The Addendum to this post presents some history of the word "kinky" as a referent for a certain type of hair.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, historical, and folkloric purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners. 

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on "Cotton Eyed Joe". Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/10/a-partial-time-line-with-lyrics-for.html "A Partial Time Line With Lyrics For The Song "Cotton Eyed Joe" (from 1858 to 1994)" and https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/10/are-some-cotton-eyed-joe-lyrics-racist.html  "Are "Cotton Eyed Joe" Lyrics Racist? No & Maybe Yes" for two of the posts in this series.  

This post also is the first post in an ongoing pancocojams series about the use of the word "kinky" as a hair descriptor. Click the tabs "kinky" and "terms that are used to describe Black people's hair" for subsequent pancocojams post in that series. 

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THE FIRST KNOWN PUBLICATION OF LYRICS FOR THE SONG "COTTON EYED JOE"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton-Eyed_Joe
"American publishing house Harper and Brothers published the first printed version of the song in 1882.[5] It was heard by author Louise Clarke Pyrnelle (born 1850) on the Alabama plantation of her father when she was a child.[6] That 1882 version was republished as follows in 1910:[7]

Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe,
What did make you sarve me so,
Fur ter take my gal erway fum me,
An' cyar her plum ter Tennessee?
Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,
I'd er been married long ergo.

His eyes wuz crossed, an' his nose wuz flat,
An' his teef wuz out, but wat uv dat?
Fur he wuz tall, an' he wuz slim,
An' so my gal she follered him.
Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,
I'd er been married long ergo.

No gal so hansum could be foun',
Not in all dis country roun',
Wid her kinky head, an' her eyes so bright,
Wid her lips so red an' her teef so white.
Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,
I'd been married long ergo.

An' I loved dat gal wid all my heart,
An' she swo' fum me she'd never part;
But den wid Joe she runned away,
An' lef' me hyear fur ter weep all day.

O Cotton-eyed Joe, O Cotton-eyed Joe,
What did make you sarve me so?
O Joe, ef it hadn't er ben fur you,
I'd er married dat gal fur true."
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Here's my standard English translation for those lyrics

Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe,
What made you treat me so,
For you took my gal [girl] away from me,
And carried her all the way to Tennessee
If it hadn't been for Cotton-eyed Joe,  [If it wasn't for Cotton -eyed Joe] 
I would have been married a long time ago.

His eyes were crossed, and his nose was flat,
And his teeth were all out, but what did people care about that
Because he was tall and he was slim,
And so my gal she followed him.
If it hadn't been for Cotton-eyed Joe,  
I would have been married a long time ago.

No gal so handsome (beautiful) could be found
Not in anywhere in this country round [Not anywhere in the entire country]
With her kinky hair, and her eyes so bright 
With her lips so red and her teeth so white.
If it hadn't been for Cotton-eyed Joe,  
I would have been married a long time ago..

And I loved that gal with all my heart,
And she swore that from he she'd never part [She swore that she'd never leave me.]
But then with Joe she ran away,
And left me here to weep all day.

O Cotton-eyed Joe, O Cotton-eyed Joe,
What made you treat me so 
O Joe, if it hadn't been for you,
I would have married that gal true [I really would have married that gal]"

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INFORMATION ABOUT LOUISE-CLARK PYRNELLE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Clarke_Pyrnelle
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This is a complete re-print of that Wikipedia page except for references.] 
"Louise Clarke Pyrnelle (June 19, 1850 – August 26, 1907) was an Alabama writer.[1] Her works drew heavily from her childhood experiences growing up on an antebellum plantation.

Life

Pyrnelle was born Elizabeth Louise Clarke on a cotton plantation in Perry County, Alabama. After the Civil War, the family moved to Dallas County, Alabama, where her father opened a medical practice. She was educated in lecturing, and worked as a governess and public speaker.[2]

In 1880 she married John Parnell. Her novel Diddie, Dumps & Tot; or plantation child-life was published in 1882 under the pseudonym "Pyrnelle" – a slight variation on her husband's name. She would publish only one other work during her lifetime: a story called "Aunt Flora's Courtship and Marriage". She died in 1907.[2]

Works

Diddie, Dumps & Tot; or plantation child-life, 1882

This novel was noted at the time for its use of the southern black vernacular, a dialect also used by Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris, and which was thought to add "authenticity" to writing about the American South. The novel offered a nostalgic and romanticized view of antebellum plantation life, and was popular during the 19th and 20th centuries.[2]

Miss Li'l' Tweetty, 1917
This posthumously published novel describes the childhood experiences of a young girl named 'Tweetty'.[3] Like Diddie, Dumps & Tot, its depictions of slavery were uncritical and nostalgic.[2]"

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EXCERPT OF THE PREFACE TO THAT PREFACE TO THAT 1882 NOVEL
Click https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17146/17146-h/17146-h.htm

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Diddie, Dumps & Tot, by Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle

[...]

Author: Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle

Release Date: November 24, 2005 [EBook #17146]

"PREFACE

In writing this little volume, I had for my primary object the idea of keeping alive many of the old stories, legends, traditions, games, hymns, and superstitions of the Southern slaves, which, with this generation of negroes, will pass away. There are now no more dear old "Mammies" and "Aunties" in our nurseries, no more good old "Uncles" in the workshops, to tell the children those old tales that have been told to our mothers and grandmothers for generations—the stories that kept our fathers and grandfathers quiet at night, and induced them to go early to bed that they might hear them the sooner.

Nor does my little book pretend to be any defence of slavery. I know not whether it was right or wrong (there are many pros and cons on that subject); but it was the law of the land, made by statesmen from the North as well as the South, long before my day, or my father's or grandfather's day; and, born under that law a slave-holder, and the descendant of slave-holders, raised in the heart of the cotton section, surrounded by negroes from my earliest infancy, "I KNOW whereof I do speak;" and it is to tell of the pleasant and happy relations that existed between master and slave that I write this story of "Diddie, Dumps, and Tot."...

The stories, plantation games, and hymns are just as I heard them in my childhood. I have learned that Mr. Harris, in "Uncle Remus," has already given the "Tar Baby;" but I have not seen his book, and, as our versions are probably different, I shall let mine remain just as "Chris" told it to the "chil'en."

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE #1
In her preface to her novel, Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle wrote that "The stories, plantation games, and hymns are just as I heard them in my childhood" and she wrote the story of 'Tar Baby' just as "Chris" told it to the "chil'en." ".

Pyrnelle wrote "Diddie, Dumps & Tot" thirty years or so after she heard those stories and songs and played those games when she was a child. It's reasonable to assume that the words she wrote weren't verbatim. Even if the "spirit" of the songs were as she remembered them, all of these words may not have exactly been what was said or sung. 

Among my other questions about Pyrnelle's recollection of "Cotton Eyed Joe", I wonder if an enslaved person or persons used the word "kinky" to refer to a Black woman's hair. Are there any other historical documentation of Black people using that term in the 1850s and 1860s when Pyrnelle presumably heard a Black person on her family's plantation singing that word in their song "Cotton Eyed Joe"? 

https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/12/kinky.html indicates that "When the adjective “kinky” showed up in English in the 1800s, Oxford says, it meant “having, or full of, kinks; closely curled or twisted: said esp. of the hair of some races.”

The first OED example—from a Jan. 6, 1844, entry in the Congressional Globe, a predecessor of the Congressional Record—is a reference to a black person’s “kinkey” hair.”…

That website documents that "kinky" was used during those time periods by White people as a descriptor of (most) Black people's hair. However, is there any 19th century documentation of the word "kinky" used by Black people to refer to their hair?  

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE #2
I question the authenticity of the first known publication of the song lyrics for "Cotton Eyed Joe" in 1882 by (White American) Louise Clarke Pyrnelle in her novel Diddie, Dumps, and Tot, or Plantation Child-Life. That novel, written in so- called "Black dialect, is about growing up in an Alabama plantation from 1850 to 1865.

Count me as being VERY skeptical about whether any lyrics to Pyrnelle's version of "Cotton Eyed Joe" except the chorus were actually sung by enslaved Black people on that plantation (or anywhere else). I believe that it's likely that Louise Clarke Pyrnelle composed the verses for that song as an entertaining parody that expressed and reinforced 19th century stereotypes of Black people.

I believe that an enslaved person or some enslaved persons probably sung the chorus to "Cotton Eyed Joe" on the plantation where Pyrnelle lived until she was 14 or 15 years old. However, I don't believe that the verses to "Cotton Eyed Joe" that Pyrnelle wrote in her novel were sung by those enslaved people.

Here are my thoughts about Pyrnelle's version of "Cotton Eyed Joe":
1. Pyrnelle would have been unable to provide a verbatim transcription of "Cotton Eyed Joe"

If we assume that Pyrnelle was trying to provide an accurate, authentic transcription of that song (or any other song or story in that 1882 book), that would have been a superhuman feat that would have been beyond the skills of anyone in the 19th century prior to the availability of tapes and other recordings.

**
2. Pyrnelle's description of "Cotton Eyed Joe" was meant to be a back handed parody of a very popular 1843 minstrel song "Dandy Jim Of Caroline" about a Black man who praises himself as being very handsome and therefore irresistible to women. Furthermore, Pyrnelle's description of the (presumably) Black woman who Cotton Eyed Joe wooed and won was meant to be a parody of subsequent songs published after "Dandy Jim Of Caroline" that featured women who praised themselves as being the "prettiest gal in the city-o". Click http://bluegrassmessengers.com/sugar-in-the-coffee-o--version-7-carson.aspx for lyrics to "Dandy Jim Of Caroline" and for lyrics for "THE GAL IN THE CABBAGE LINE"
I believe that Pyrnelle's 19th and early 20th century White readers probably understood that her version of "Cotton Eyed Joe" was a parody. I believe that her readers back then would have gotten the joke that

a. it would have been ludicrous that women back then would have been considered "Cotton Eyed Joe" to be so irresistible to lots of women and that a Black woman would have been considered to be the most beautiful woman in the country

Or

b. it would have been an example of how ignorant and backwards (White people believed) Black people to be that they thought that a man who was so ugly (by their beauty standards) would have been considered so irresistible to women and would have won the heart of the most beautiful woman in the country

**
3. Even if it wasn't a parody of "Dandy Jim Of Caroline" and that song's parodies, Pyrnelle's version of "Cotton Eyed Joe" was meant to be a taken as a joke and an example of how ignorant and foolish (White people in the 19th century) believed that Black people were.

After describing "Cotton Eyed Joe" as having crossed eyes, a flat nose*, and no teeth, the lyrics continue with the description of him being tall and slim. The lyrics indicate that those  those features made up for those prior descriptors that were given as negatives.

 According to her views and her readers views, any sane person (i.e. any White person) would know that a man who fit that description wouldn't be able to woo and win all the women he met and would certainly not be able to woo and win a woman who was described as being the "handsomest" (most beautiful) girl in the entire country.     

*A "flat nose" is the only descriptor in that song which identifies Cotton Eyed Joe as being Black. Unfortunately, even in 2022, describing someone as having a flat nose, is still considered to be really insulting.)

**
4. According to 19th century Euro-centric beauty standards, the fact that a person had kinky hair would negate her or him being considered beautiful. That was still largely the case in the 2oth century and unfortunately, to a large extent is still considered the case in 2022.

The fact that Pyrnelle used the word "kinky" as a description for a Black woman's hair in the song "Cotton Eyed Joe" further reinforces my belief that her version of "Cotton Eyed Joe" wasn't a verbatim transcription of that song as sung by enslaved Black people in her family's plantation between 1850 to 1865 when she lived on that plantation. Pyrnelle's use of the word "kinky" further reinforces my belief that she meant that song to be a parody.

**
I wonder if any enslaved Black people in the United States or elsewhere ever used the referent "kinky" as a referent of or a description for their hair. 

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Here's some biographical information about Louise Clarke Pyrnelle from Encyclopedia of Alabama http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2525. That article was written by Joyce Kelley, Auburn University

"Children's author, teacher, and public speaker Louise Clarke "Pyrnelle" Parnell (1850-1907) was best known for her books Diddie, Dumps, and Tot, or Plantation Child-Life (1882) and Miss Li'l' Tweetty (1917), which presented the institution of slavery in a romanticized and paternalistic light. After marrying, she took as her pen name Louise Clarke Pyrnelle, a slight alteration of her husband's surname.

Elizabeth Louise Clarke was born on a cotton plantation near Uniontown, Perry County, on July 10, 1850, owned by her father, Richard Clarke, a wealthy physician, and mother, Elizabeth Carson (Bates) Clarke of Petersburg, Virginia. The family relocated to Alabama from Virginia in 1852. Pyrnelle was the second of the family's three girls and grew up surrounded by the everyday activities of the plantation. The novels and stories she later produced all offer a romantic depiction of the antebellum plantation life Pyrnelle knew as a child, particularly regarding the interactions between the African American slaves and the white plantation family.

Louise's father fought briefly in the Civil War, serving as the captain of a regiment he organized called the Canebrake Rifle Guards, until he was wounded in battle. By the end of the Civil War, the family was suffering financially; Clarke sold the plantation in 1865 and set up a medical practice in Selma, Dallas County.

[...]

Traveling to New York City, Louise studied elocution at Anne Randall Diehl's College of Education and at the Delsarte Academy. After graduation, Louise accompanied actress Mary Scott Siddons on a public reading tour through New England and Canada, where she read stories in what was then called "Southern Negro Dialect," an increasingly popular art form that aimed to capture the speech patterns of African Americans in the U.S. South. Doing so put her at the forefront of an 1870s literary movement led by authors such as Mark Twain and, slightly later, Joel Chandler Harris. Although most of these writers were white, the practice of attempting to transcribe black vernacular was not seen as controversial at the time but was heralded as a new literary innovation that made stories of the South more "authentic." Louise spent only one season on tour before going to Natchez, Mississippi, to be a governess and to give reading tours more locally."...

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ADDENDUM - SOME EARLY USES OF THE WORD "KINKY" (with a focus on "Kinky" as a referent for certain types of hair)

From https://www.etymonline.com/word/kink
"kink (n.)
"1670s, "knot-like contraction or short twist in a rope, thread, hair, etc., originally a nautical term, from Dutch kink "twist in a rope" (also found in French and Swedish), which is probably related to Old Norse kikna "to bend backwards, sink at the knees" as if under a burden" (see kick (v.)"...

**
From https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/12/kinky.html
..."When the adjective “kinky” showed up in English in the 1800s, Oxford says, it meant “having, or full of, kinks; closely curled or twisted: said esp. of the hair of some races.”

The first OED example—from a Jan. 6, 1844, entry in the Congressional Globe, a predecessor of the Congressional Record—is a reference to a black person’s “kinkey” hair."...

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