Jingle Bells, Racist?

Seriously? One of the most well-known 

and beloved of all Christmas songs recently came

under attack by a professor at Boston University

whose declared, just in time to make everyone

feel less jolly about the upcoming holiday, that

"Jingle Bells" which was originally titled,

"One Horse Open Sleigh" is racist in origin.

According to the historical research website,

American Music Preservation,

the song was inspired by a one horse sleigh race

held each year in Medford, Massachusetts.

 Resident James Pierpont wrote this "racy little ditty" at

Simpson's Tavern, a local boarding house, which

had the only piano in town. 

The song was first published in 1857.

After he wrote the song, Pierpont paid little notice

to it's increasing popularity until 1864, when a story

about the song appeared in the Salem Evening News,

and he accepted the credit for writing it.

And while there has been speculation that Pierpont

borrowed lines from a minstrel song written by Stephen Foster

while writing "Jingle Bells" this has remained unproven.

The only other mild controversy concerning this favorite holiday 

song is the continual debate as to whether the song was actually

written in Medford, or in Savannah, Georgia where 

James Pierpont later moved and performed as a church organist.

He also supported the South during the American Civil War,

writing such patriotic songs as "Strike For The South"

and "We Conquer Or Die".

Could Pierpont's support for the South be the real motive

behind his song being deemed racist?

There has been an ongoing assault by the political Left in

this nation, not only to demonize any and all things American,

but to systematically purge the history of our nation, and in

particular what the profoundly ignorant elitists in the media

and in higher academia call,

"The Lost Cause of the Confederacy".

  The professor making this outrageous claim insists

the holiday song, "Jingle Bells" was often used

 in minstrel shows, which were a popular form of

entertainment in the mid-to-late Victorian era in America.

Today we regard this type of entertainment of the past

 insulting to black Americans, however, "buffoonery in black face"

was far more popular in the big cities of the North and the East

then in any of the war devastated cities of the South.

After the War, blacks were no longer slaves in the South,

but their new found freedom was certainly not embraced by

many white citizens residing in the North. This was especially

conspicuous in many of the big metropolises like

New York, Philadelphia, and surprise, surprise, even Boston!

which regularly and eagerly hosted traveling minstrel shows.

JINGLE BELLS

Originally titled,

 "One Horse Open Sleigh"

Dashing through the snow

In a one horse open sleigh

O'er the fields we go

Laughing all the way

Bells on bob tail ring

Making spirits bright

What fun it is to ride and sing

A sleighing song tonight.

Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way,

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh.

Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way,

Oh, what fun it is to ride

In a one horse open sleigh.

"The Sleigh Race"

"A Brush For The Lead"

Prints by Currier and Ives

"Jingle Bells"

(1857)

An American Christmas Carol

Written by James Lord Pierpont

(1822-1893)