"Old Aunt Jemima" is an American folk song written by comedian, songwriter, and

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 ...

performer Billy Kersands. The song became the inspiration for the

Aunt Jemima Aunt Jemima was an American breakfast brand for pancake mix, table syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix was developed in 1888–1889 by the Pearl Milling Company and was advertised as the first " ...

brand of pancakes, as well as several characters in film, television, and on radio, named "Aunt Jemima". Kersands wrote his first version of "Old Aunt Jemima" in 1875 and it became his most popular song. Author Robert Toll claimed that Kersands had performed the song over 2,000 times by 1877. There were at least three different sets of "Old Aunt Jemima" lyrics by 1889. Often, "Old Aunt Jemima" was sung while a man in drag, playing the part of Aunt Jemima, performed on stage. It was not uncommon for the Aunt Jemima character to be played by a white man in

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 ...

. Other minstrels incorporated Aunt Jemima into their acts, so Aunt Jemima became a common figure in minstrelsy. Other songs about Aunt Jemima were written, such as "Aunt Jemima Song" and "Aunt Jemima's Picnic Day".

Lyrics

One version of "Old Aunt Jemima" began with a stanza expressing dissatisfaction with the dullness of worship services in white churches, such as a complaint about the length of the prayers. The song ended with the following two stanzas: Some variants of the song substituted "pea-vine" for "bee line". Another version included the verse: Sterling Stuckey maintains that Kersands did not write all of these lyrics, but adapted many of them from "slave songs" (such as field hollers and

work songs A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either one sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or one linked to a task that may be a connected narrative, description, or protest song. An example is " I ...

References

Sources

* * *{{cite book , last = Witt , first = Doris , year = 1999 , title = Black Hunger: Soul Food And America , location = Minneapolis, Minnesota , publisher =

University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...

, isbn = 978-0-8166-4551-0 , via
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} American folk songs 1877 songs Blackface minstrel characters Blackface minstrel songs Songs about fictional female characters Songs about old age Songs about farmers Aunt Jemima