"Ten Little Indians" is an American children's counting out rhyme. It has a

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...

number of 12976. In 1868, songwriter

Septimus Winner Septimus Winner (May 11, 1827 – November 22, 1905) was an American songwriter of the 19th century. He used his own name, and also the pseudonyms Alice Hawthorne, Percy Guyer, Mark Mason, Apsley Street, and Paul Stenton. He was also a teacher ...

adapted it as a song, then called
Ten Little Injuns
, for a

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...

Lyrics

The modern lyrics for the children's rhyme are: \relative c' \addlyrics

Minstrel song

Songwriter Septimus Winner created an elaborated version of the children's song, called "Ten Little

Injun There is an ongoing discussion about the terminology used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas to describe themselves, as well as how they prefer to be referred to by others. Preferred terms vary primarily by region and age. As Indigenous ...

s", in 1868 for a minstrel show.

Derivative songs and books

It is generally thought that this song was adapted, possibly by Frank J. Green in 1869, as "Ten Little

Nigger In the English language, ''nigger'' is a racial slur directed at black people. Starting in the 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been increasingly replaced by the euphemistic contraction , notably in cases where ''nigger'' is Use–menti ...

s", though it is possible that the influence was the other way around, with "Ten Little Niggers" being a close reflection of the text that became "Ten Little Indians". Either way, "Ten Little Niggers" became a standard of the

blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...

minstrel shows. It was sung by

Christy's Minstrels Christy's Minstrels, sometimes referred to as the Christy Minstrels, were a blackface group formed by Edwin Pearce Christy, a well-known ballad singer, in 1843, in Buffalo, New York. They were instrumental in the solidification of the minstrel ...

and became widely known in Europe, where it was used by

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

in her 1939 novel of the same name, about ten killings on a remote island. The novel was later retitled ''

And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery fiction, mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, who described it as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 N ...

'' for the American edition, although the original title remained in use for the UK publication until 1985, and it remains one of her most famous works. The Spanish and Russian titles of Christie's novel today are still ''Diez negritos'' and «Десять негритят», respectively, and the German children's song, with a different melody, is called "Zehn kleine Negerlein". Variants of this song have been published widely as children's books; what the variants have in common is 'that they are about dark-skinned boys who are always children, never learning from experience'. For example, it had been published in the Netherlands by 1913; in Denmark by 1922 (in ''Börnenes billedbog''); in Iceland in 1922 (as "Negrastrákarnir"); and in Finland in the 1940s (in ''Kotoa ja kaukaa: valikoima runosatuja lapsille'' and ''Hupaisa laskukirja''). The Bengali poem "Haradhon er Dosti Chhele" ("Haradhon's Ten Sons") is also inspired by "Ten Little Indians".

Criticism of racist language

Because of changing sensibilities over the words used, modern versions for children often use "aeroplanes", "soldier boys" or "teddy bears" as the objects of the rhyme, among others. Icelandic publisher Skrudda's unaltered republication in 2007 of the 1922 Icelandic version of ''Ten Little Negroes'' caused considerable debate in that country, with a strong division between those who saw the book as racist and those who saw it as "a part of funny and silly stories created in the past". In Kristín Loftsdóttir's assessment of the debate, she states: The republishing of the book in Iceland triggered a number of parodies or rewritings: ''Tíu litlír kenjakrakkar'' ("Ten little prankster-children") by Sigrún Eldjárn and

Þórarinn Eldjárn Þórarinn Eldjárn (born 22 August 1949) is an Icelandic writer, particularly well known in Iceland for his humorous poetry books for children. Life and work Þórarinn is the son of Kristján Eldjárn, the third president of Iceland (in off ...

; ''10 litlir sveitastrákar'' ("Ten little country-boys") by Katrín J. Óskarsdóttir and Guðrún Jónína Magnúsdóttir; and ''Tíu litlir bankastrákar'' ("Ten little banker-boys") by Óttar M. Njorðfjörð.Sigrún Eldjárn and Þórarinn Eldjárn, ''Tíu litlir kenjakrakkar'' (Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 2007); Katrín J. Óskarsdóttir and Guðrún Jónína Magnúsdóttir, ''10 litlir sveitastrákar'' (

ella Ella is a feminine given name, which also used as a surname. Ella (or similar) may also refer to: Places United States * Ella, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Ella, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Ella, Pennsylvania, an unincor ...

Vildarkjör,

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

; Óttar M. Norðfjörð, ''Tíu litlir bankastrákar'' ( eykjavík Sögur, 2008).

1945 version

The following version of the song was included in the first film version of ''

'' (1945), which largely took Green's lyrics and replaced the already sensitive word "nigger" with "Indian":

Citations

Cited and general references

* * *

External links

* {{Authority control 1868 songs 10 (number) American children's songs American folk songs American nursery rhymes Race-related controversies in music Racism in the United States Fictional dectets Songs about Native Americans Songs with unknown songwriters Traditional children's songs And Then There Were None