"Carve Dat Possum" is a
minstrel
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...
song attributed to
Sam Lucas
Sam Lucas (August 7, 1840 – January 10, 1916) was an American actor, comedian, singer and songwriter. His birth year has also been reported as 1839, 1841, 1848 and 1850.
Lucas' career began in blackface minstrelsy, but he later became one of ...
in 1875. Very popular in its time, it tells of hunting and preparing a
possum
Possum may refer to:
Animals
* Didelphimorphia, or (o)possums, an order of marsupials native to the Americas
** Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia
*** Common opossum, native to Central and South America
*** Virginia opossum ...
to eat. The chorus:
:''Carve dat possum, carve dat possum, children,''
:''Carve dat possum, carve him to de heart;''
:''Carve dat possum, carve dat possum, children,''
:''Carve dat possum, carve him to de heart.''
[Lucas, "Carve Dat Possum".]
The song, as published by Lucas, is in 2/4 time.
Although the song was first performed by Lucas, ''
The Pacific Appeal'' (San Francisco, October 25, 1879) notes that "it was only after a long epistolary discussion that
Henry Hart obtained a public acknowledgement that he was the genuine author."
References
Bibliography
*Johnson, James Weldon. ''Black Manhattan: Account of the Development of Harlem''. New York: Alfred A Knopf (1930).
*Lucas, Sam. "Carve Dat Possum" (sheet music). Boston:
John F. Perry & Co. (1875).
External links
"Carve Dat Possum"Internet Archive—
Peerless Quartet with Harry C. Browne (Columbia 2590).
"Carve Dat Possum"Library of Congress.
Stephen Railton & the University of Virginia.
Songs about mammals
1875 songs
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