Nigger in the woodpile

A Democratic Party parody, titled "The Nigger in the Woodpile", lampooned what they claimed were Republican efforts to play down the antislavery plank in their 1860 platform. Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, who had worked as a laborer splitting wooden rails as a young man, is sitting on top of the pile.

A nigger in the woodpile or fence is a figure of speech[1] originating in America meaning "some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed—something suspicious or wrong".

Commonly used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usage has declined since then, and use of the phrase by public figures has often been followed by criticism over the racism of the term "nigger".

Origin

Both the "fence" and "woodpile" variants developed about the same time in the period of 1840–50,[2] when the Underground Railroad was flourishing. The evidence is slight, but it is presumed that they were derived from actual instances of the concealment of fugitive slaves in their flight north under piles of firewood or within hiding places in stone walls.[3][4] Another possible origin comes from the practice of transporting pulpwood on special railroad cars. In the era of slavery, the pulpwood cars were built with an outer frame with the wood being stacked inside in moderately neat rows and stacks. However, given the nature of the cars, it was possible to smuggle persons in the pile itself, possibly giving rise to the term.

Usage

Historic

An American film comedy titled A Nigger in the Woodpile was released in 1904,[5] and the idiom was common in literature and film during the 1920s and 30s. Examples include the original 1927 version of the Hardy Boys book The House on the Cliff (pg. 77), where Frank Hardy uses the expression (removed when the story was revised in 1959), and the old-time band Skillet Lickers recording a song called "Nigger in the Woodpile" in 1930.[6]

Dr. Seuss used the term in a 1929 cartoon "Cross-Section of The World's Most Prosperous Department Store", wherein customers browse through a department store looking for items to make their lives more difficult. The panels show a series of scenarios based on popular figures of speech: a man with a net trying to catch a fly for his ointment, another looking at monkey wrenches to throw into his machinery, one examining haystacks with matching needles, and finally a man looking at a selection of "niggers" for his woodpile.[7]

A visual gag in the Looney Tunes cartoon "Porky's Railroad" from 1937 refers to the phrase.

The phrase is also used in The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham. One of the American characters, on the brink of closing a business deal, says to the narrator, "I'll fly down to Texas to give the outfit the once-over, and you bet I'll keep my eyes peeled for a nigger in the woodpile before I cough up any ... dough."[8]

Agatha Christie used the phrase as the title of Chapter 18 of the 1937 Hercule Poirot novel Dumb Witness, which was later published in the U.S. as Poirot Loses a Client. The chapter was later retitled "A Cuckoo in the Nest". The phrase was also used by a character in early editions of Christie's novel And Then There Were None (originally released under the title Ten Little Niggers), but was changed in later editions to "There's a fly in the ointment."

W. C. Fields used variations of this phrase in two of his films: In You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) he said there was "an Ubangi in the fuel supply", and in My Little Chickadee (1940) he said there was "an Ethiopian in the fuel supply".

Contemporary usage by politicians in the United Kingdom

The phrase declined in use during the 20th century, and now the occasional use of this phrase by public figures has often been followed by controversy and apology.

Lord Dixon-Smith

In July 2008, the leader of the British Conservative Party, David Cameron, was urged to sack Conservative peer Lord Dixon-Smith, who said in the House of Lords that concerns about government housing legislation were "the nigger in the woodpile". Dixon-Smith said the phrase had "slipped out without my thinking", and that "It was common parlance when I was younger".[9]

Anne Marie Morris

In July 2017, the phrase was again used by a British Conservative Party politician, Anne Marie Morris, who said that Brexit without a deal with the European Union was the "real nigger in the woodpile". With her job on the line she later apologised, saying "The comment was totally unintentional. I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused."[10][11][12] She was suspended the same day, however, by the party's Chief Whip, on the orders of party leader, the Prime Minister Theresa May.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of NIGGER IN THE WOODPILE". merriam-webster.com [broken link?].
  2. ↑ "nigger, n. and adj., §P2" OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 11 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "nigger, n. and adj., etymology" OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 11 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Heavens to Betsy" (1955, Harper & Row) by Charles Earle Funk
  5. ↑ Stewart, Jacqueline Najuma (2005). Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-520-23350-6.
  6. ↑ Steve Leggett. "Skillet Lickers, Vol. 4: 1929–1930 – The Skillet Lickers – Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards – AllMusic". AllMusic.
  7. ↑ Frank, Priscilla (27 May 2015). "One Particularly Upsetting And Racist Dr. Seuss Cartoon Is Heading To Auction". Huff Post.
  8. ↑ The Razor's Edge (Vintage International) (Part Seven, Chapter 3, p. 244).
  9. ↑ Lucy Cockcroft (9 July 2008). "David Cameron urged to sack Tory peer after 'nigger in the woodpile' remark – David Cameron is facing calls to sack a Conservative peer who described concerns over government housing legislation as "the nigger in the woodpile" during a House of Lords debate.". The Daily Telegraph.
  10. ↑ "MP Anne Marie Morris apologises for racist remark". BBC. 10 July 2017.
  11. ↑ "Tory Brexiteer describes UK leaving EU without deal as 'real n***** in the woodpile'". 10 July 2017.
  12. ↑ "Listen As Tory MP Recorded Saying Brexit No Deal Is A 'N***** In A Woodpile'". 10 July 2017.
  13. ↑ "Theresa May orders Tory MP to be suspended after using N-word". The Guardian. 10 July 2017.
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