In the Swamp

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

Last Friday night I went to see 12 Years a Slave at the theater. I had read Solomon Northup's narrative a while back, as well as some of the critics' reviews, so I somewhat knew what to expect. But, WOW! This film was extremely powerful. It was intense from beginning to end, and without a moment of comic relief . . . as I believe it should be. The cinematography was spellbinding and the characters so well played that it was almost as if stepping back into a time we have difficulty understanding today.

In one haunting scene Solomon Northup, after being kidnapped in Washington D.C. and sent to Louisiana, ends up at his first plantation. There, along with a group of other slaves, he is introduced to the plantation's white foreman and the overseer. The foreman, a slight weaselly-looking man provides a lesson to the new group of enslaved workers by singing "Run Nigger Run." In this scene the foreman asks the slaves to clap "like this," starting a beat, then starts into the song that served as a warning to those that might attempt to run away.

Oh run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Nigger run nigger flew

Nigger tore his shirt in two

Run run the patty roller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Nigger run, run so fast

Stoved his head in a hornets nest

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Nigger run through the field

Black slick coal and barley heel

Run nigger run the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Some folks say a nigger won't steal

I caught three in my corn field

One has a bushel

And one has a peck

One had a rope and it was hung around his neck

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Oh nigger run and nigger flew

Why in the devil can't a white man chew

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Hey Mr. Patty roller don't catch me

Catch that nigger behind that tree

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Nigger run, run so fast

Stoved his head in a hornets nest

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

Nigger run, run so fast

Nigger, he got away at last

Run nigger run well the pattyroller will get you

Run nigger run well you better get away

The "pattyroller" mentioned in the song, of course, referred to the slave patrol that monitored roads, paths, plantations, farms, cities, and towns throughout the slave states.

Interestingly, early attribution for the origin of the song is given to the slaves themselves, and much like the foreman, it was originally sung to fellow slaves as a warning. Apparently, like many other minstrel,"Ethiopian," or "plantation" songs, "Run Nigger Run" was appropriated by whites and sang at the minstrel shows. Its earliest printed appearance according to one source I found was in 1851 in White's Serenaders' Song Book. The song's title is shown in the table of contents above on page 66.

The song was remembered by several former slaves in the WPA Slave Narratives as being sung by both the slave patrol and fellow slaves. Here is a version recorded in the 1920s.