The Battle for Christmas

by Stephen Nissenbaum

  67. See William McFeely, Yankee Stepfather: General O. O. Howard and the Freedmen (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968); Eric Foner, Reconstruction America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (New York: Harper & Row, 1988); Carter, “Anatomy of Fear;” William C. Harris, Presidential Reconstruction in Mississippi (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967), 88–89; Claude F. Oubre, Forty Acres and a Mule: The Freedmen’s Bureau and Black Land Ownership (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978), esp. pp. 1–89. The Civil War origins of a potential land-reform policy are discussed in LaWanda Cox, “The Promise of Land for the Freedmen,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 45 (1958), 413–440.

  68. Henry Watson to his daughter Julia Watson, Dec. 16, 1865, ms. in Frost Library, Amherst College. This letter was brought to my attention by Wesley Borucki. Watson added that “The [black] women say that they never mean to do any more outdoor work, that white men support their wives and they mean that their husbands shall support them.” Such hopes to abandon “outdoor work” suggest intriguingly that these freedwomen harbored bourgeois aspirations—i.e., to work in the home and be supported by their husbands.

  69. Carter, “Anatomy of Fear,” associates the “Christmas Riots of 1865” with the long history of rowdy behavior on this holiday but does not go on to associate the holiday with gestures of paternalist largesse on the part of whites.

  70. Texas State Gazette [Austin], quoted in The Daily Picayune [New Orleans], Nov. 21, 1865 (“waiting for the jubilee”—the writer had traveled through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana); Daily Picayune, Dec. 27, 1865 (“their old masters”).

  71. Henry Watson to Julia Watson, Dec. 16, 1865. “As for work,” one South Carolina planter told a visiting reporter, “[T]he freedmen were doing absolutely nothing. He had overheard one of his girls saying that she hadn’t seen any freedom yet, she had to work just as hard as ever. And that was the feeling of a great many of them. Then, as he had said, they were waiting for January, and nothing could be done with them till they became convinced that they must work for wages” (The Nation I [1865], 651).

  72. For example, the provisional governor of South Carolina, James Lawrence Orr, wrote: “[During] Christmas week, which has always been a holiday for the negroes they will congregate in large numbers in the villages and towns where they will get liquor and while under its influence I fear that collisions will occur between them and the whites. When once commenced no one can tell where the conflict will end” (Orr to Gen. Daniel Sickles, Dec. 13, 1865; quoted in Carter, “Anatomy of Fear,” 358n).

  73. Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, Dec. 21, 1865; quoted in Carter, “Anatomy of Fear,” 358); The Nation I (1865), 651.

  74. Shreveport Gazette, reprinted in Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, Nov. 23, 1865 (“growing more insolent”); ibid., Nov. 24, 1865. For other reports, see the following (all 1865); ibid., Nov. 28 (Louisiana, Texas); ibid., Nov. 30 (Georgia); ibid., Dec. 23 (Texas, citing San Antonio Gazette); ibid., Dec. 23 (Virginia); National Intelligencer [Washington], Nov. 29 (Mississippi); Washington Evening Star, Dec. 26 (Mississippi, citing the Vicksburg Journal); Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 28 (Texas).

  75. New Orleans True Delta, Dec. 15, 1865, reprinted in National Intelligencer [Washington, D.C.], Dec. 30, 1865.

  76. The Daily Picayune [New Orleans], Nov. 14, 1865.

  77. General Howard’s address to the freedmen was printed in the New Orleans Times, Dec. 10, 1865, and quoted in Carter, “Anatomy of Fear,” 360. McFeely, Yankee Stepfather, 105, quotes “a la mode Santa Claus.” Colonel Strong’s speech was quoted in The Daily Picayune [New Orleans], Nov. 28, 1865. (Colonel Strong was General Howard’s inspector general; he had been sent to Texas by Howard himself.) Not all agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau were willing to do this dirty work. At least one, Thomas Conway of the New Orleans office, continued into the fall to advise freedmen that they could apply for free land through the end of December (McFeely, Yankee Stepfather, 179; Oubre, Forty Acres, 34). And another, General Edgar Gregory—formerly a radical abolitionist—was reported to have given a somewhat incendiary speech to Texas freedmen, telling them that they were entitled to free land and urging them not to sign unfavorable labor contracts (The Daily Picayune [New Orleans], Nov. 28, 1865). It was agents such as these that the Southern press regarded as the “bad white men” who were corrupting the black population. For the official mission of the Freedmen’s Bureau, see Carter, “Anatomy of Fear,” 360.

  78. Columbus [Miss.] Sentinel, reprinted in New Orleans Daily Picayune, Nov. 28, 1865. See also ms. letter of Henry Watson to Julia Watson, Dec. 16, 1865, Amherst College Archives.

  79. John S. Garvin to Governor Parsons; quoted Carter, “Anatomy of Fear,” 361. Many blacks were arrested and otherwise harassed during the weeks before Christmas.

  80. Unpublished memoir of Sally Elmore Taylor, quoted in Joel Williamson, After Slavery, 249–250. For another expression of white fear, see ibid., 251 (a white planter, watching his former slaves slaughtering a hog on December 4, “shuddered … to see the fiendish eagerness in some of them to stab & kill, the delight in the suffering of others”).

  81. National Intelligencer [Washington, D.C.], Dec. 30, 1865.

  82. Alexandria Gazette, Dec. 28, 1865 (“too much whiskey”); Washington Star, Dec. 30, 1865 (“much bad whiskey”); Richmond Daily Whig, Dec. 29, 1865 (“some colored men”); National Intelligencer [Washington, D.C.], Dec. 28, 1865 (“no political significance”).

  83. Richmond Daily Whig, Dec. 27, 1865.

  84. The Daily Picayune, Dec. 31, 1865.

  85. Ibid., Dec. 27, 1865. In any case, the Picayune noted, readers could take heart from the knowledge that “the negro population will be found, as it has always been found in the South, to be docile.”

  86. Richmond Daily Whig, Dec. 25, 1865.

  Epilogue

  1. Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery: An Autobiography (New York, 1901), 133. (He added, referring to the turn of the century, “This custom prevails throughout this portion of the South to-day.”) The following material appears ibid., 133–136.

  2. This paragraph and the following ones are from Ira de A. Reid, “The John Canoe Festival: A New World Africanism,” Phylon 3 (1942), 349–370; see also Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 150 (it is Levine who explains the term dicty).

  3. William Carleton, “The Midnight Mass,” in his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1834), 1, 13–102 (esp. 46–54).

  4. Cited in Kevin Danaher, The Year in Ireland (Cork: Mercier Press, 1972), 241–242.

  5. Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Ireland, Its Scenery, Character, etc. (3 vols., London, 1861–63 [orig. published in 1841), vol. 1, 23–25. The Halls refer to this as “the only Christmas gambol remaining in Ireland of the many that in the middle ages were so numerous and so dangerous as to call for the imposition of the law, and the strong arm of magisterial authority” (ibid., 25).

  6. Colm Kerrigan, Father Mathew and the Irish Temperance Movement, 1838–1849 (Cork: Cork University Press, 1992), passim (the pledge figure is from p. 82).

  7. Ibid., 76–77 (social advancement), 107–127 (repeal).

  8. See entry of Dec. 23, 1842, where he “[gave] audience to half the world, some humbly begging for a little help, some asking merely for a loan….” David Thomson, with Moyra McGusty, eds., The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840–1850.A Selection (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), 59.

  9. Ibid., 25. (Dec. 25–26, 1840). Two years later, on New Year’s Eve, 1842, Mrs. Smith wrote that she and her husband would “drink it [the old year] out in negus upstairs and punch below” (ibid., 60).

  10. [New York] Irish World, Dec. 28, 1872. For a different reading of temperance, see Paul Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815–1837 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1978); and, of working-class immigrants and the
reform of holiday celebrations, see Roy Rozenzweig, Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870–1920 (Cambridge and New York, 1983), 65–92, 153–170.

  11. These dates appear in James H. Barnett, The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture (New York: Macmillan, 1954), 20.

  12. Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, in the Year 1855, ch. 91, 549; Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, in the Year 1856, ch. 113, 59–60.

  13. John R. Mulkern, The Know-Nothing Party in Massachusetts: The Rise and Fall of a People’s Movement (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990), 79, 89–90, 101, 108–11 (the quotation is on p. 108). The Know-Nothings lost control of the state legislature in the 1856 elections. See also Ronald P. Formisano, The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s—1840s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).

  14. Boston Daily Bee, Feb. 8, 1856; see also Boston Courier, Feb. 8, 1856, for a letter pointing to the financial effects of the bill. (While Rep. Vose was a Know-Nothing, he was also a leader of the opposition to the temperance legislation that had passed the previous year.)

  15. This point is made in William B. Waits, The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving (New York: New York University Press, 1993), 8.

  16. Interview recorded by Alan Lomax, on “Leadbelly: Go Down with Aunt Hannah” (The Library of Congress Recordings, vol. 6; reissued by Rounder Records, 1994: CD 1099).

  17. “I begin to whoopie” is from Peetie Wheatstraw, “Santa Claus Blues” (1935), Peetie Wheatstraw (1930–1941), da Music, CD 3541–2; “New Year’s Blues” is from Tampa Red, “Christmas and New Year’s Blues” (1934), from Complete Works, vol. 6, 1934–35; Document Records DOCD-5206; “valentine’s Day” is from Walter Davis, “New Santa Claus” (1941), from Complete Works, vol. 7, 1940–46; on Document Records DOCD-5286. One blues song that does deal with children and presents (sung from a woman’s perspective, it is about a man who has abandoned his woman and children during Christmas week) ends by reporting happily that another man has entered the singer’s life—“there’s a big fat Santy [Santa] walkin’ in my front door.” See Victoria Spivey, “Christmas Without Santa Claus” (1961) on Woman Blues (text by Victoria Spivey: Prestige / Bluesville Records? V-1054. For another Christmas-reunion blues, see Floyd McDaniel, “Christmas Blues” (1992), The Stars of Rhythm ‘n’ Blues, CMA Music Productions CD, CM-10007.

  18. Robert Johnson, “Hellhound on My Trail” (1937: from The Complete Recordings, Columbia C2K-46222; 1991) [King of Spades Music, 1990]; “Every day is Christmas” is from Joe Turner, “Christmas Date Boogie” (1948 / 9: from Tell Me Pretty Baby, Arhoolie CD 333 (1992) [text by Joe Turner]; “like a rooster” is from Champion Jack Dupree, “Santa Claus Blues,” from The Joe Davis Sessions, 1945–46 (Flyright FLY CD 22, 1990). The term Christmas could actually become a euphemism for sex, as in the blues song “Merry Christmas, Baby.” After an opening verse that makes the association between Christmas and sex—by repeating the words of the title and adding, “you sure did treat me nice”—the second verse opens with a line in which the very term Christmas has come to mean “sex”: “I’m comin’ home, comin’ home for Christmas right now.” By the end of the song we have come to hear the repeated refrain “Merry Christmas, Baby” to mean simply Thanks for the great sex, baby. See Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, “Merry Christmas, Baby” (1991) on I Want to Groove with You, Bullseye Blues/Rounder Records CD BB 9506 [text by L. Baxter and J. Moore: St. Louis Music Corp., 1948]. The association of Christmas with leisure in African-American rural culture has remained so strong that the idea of working on Christmas Day is powerfully symbolic. In Howlin’ Wolf’s “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” for example, the singer suggests how hard his lot is by simply noting that he spent Christmas Day in his “overalls” [text by Chester Burnett, Arc Music Corp., BMI].

  19. “Dresser drawers” is from Sonny Boy Williamson, “Santa Claus” (1960), [text by Rice Miller] Bummer Road (Chess/MCA CHD-9324, 1991); “this very Christmas night” is from Charley Jordan and Verdi Lee, “Christmas Tree Blues,” in Charley Jordan: Complete Recorded Works, vol. 3 (1935–37), Document Records CD, DOCD-5099; “backdoor Santa” is from Clarence Carter, “Backdoor Santa” (1960), from Snatching It Back: The Best of Clarence Carter Rhino/Atlantic CD (1992), R2–70286 [text by Clarence Carter Carter and Marcus McDaniel: Screen Gems-EMI, BMI]; “even if my whiskers is white” is from Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Christmas Eve Blues” (1928: Complete Recorded Works, vol. 3: Document Records DOCD 5019); “hang your stocking by the head of the bed” is from Charley Jordan and Verdi Lee, “Christmas Tree Blues” (cited above); “on your Christmas tree” is from Peetie Wheatstraw, “Santa Claus Blues” (cited above, note 14): the same image is used in Charley Jordan, “Santa Claus Blues” (1931), on Complete Recorded Works, vol. 2: Document Records DODC-5098. Other Christmas blues include: Bessie Smith, “At the Christmas Ball” (1925: Complete Recordings, vol. 2); Will Weldon, “Christmas Tree Blues” (1937), on Will Weldon as Casey Bill: The Hawaiian Guitar Wizard, 1935–38; Blues Collection/EPM, 1994” by W. Weldon; Sonny Boy Williamson [John Lee Williamson], “Christmas Morning Blues” (1938: Complete Recorded Works, vol. 2: Document Records, DOCD-5056); Lightnin’ Hopkins, “Santa,” on Mojo Hand, Golden Classics CD (Collectible Records Corp., Narbeth, Penn., CD-5111; Walter Davis, “Santa Claus Blues,” from Complete Works, vol. 6); Charlie Johnson, “Santa Claus Blues,” from Complete Works, vol. 2 (1931–34); and Freddie King, “Christmas Tears” (from 17 Hits).

  20. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Cambridge: MIT, 1968), 4–18, 145–154. For ongoing vestiges of carnival, see Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (London: Methuen, 1986), 171–190.

  21. But it appears that in many places Thanksgiving itself came to take on some of the aspects of carnival. For an account of this development, see Harriet Beecher Stowe’s historical novel Oldtown Folks (Boston, 1869), ch. 27: “How We Kept Thanksgiving.” For a contemporaneous perspective, in 1818 the Farmer’s Cabinet (an Amherst, N.H., newspaper) printed an article lamenting the “frolicks of Thanksgiving” and wishing that “the period annually set apart as a season of devout thanksgiving … were in reality a season of heart-felt and religious gratitude … when the heart and not the appetite should be the source of thanksgiving.” The same editorial suggested that Thanksgiving had also become at least semi-commercialized, a time when “farmers and merchants make their calculations to profit by its return, in the disposal of their various articles.” (Farmer’s Cabinet, Dec. 26, 1818; reprinted from the New Hampshire Patriot).

  22. “Hanukkah was probably attached to a solstice feast already celebrated in Jerusalem by Jews friendly to Greece.” Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine During the Early Hellenistic Period (translated from the German; 2 vols., Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), I, 235; see also ibid., 303.

  23. Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (New York, 1896), 389–398 (Chanukah exception is on p. 396).

  24. Increase Mather, A Testimony Against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in New-England (London, 1687), 41–42.

  25. See, for example, Michael Strassfeld, The Jewish Holidays, A Guide and Commentary (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), 187–196. This chapter bears the title “Purim: Self-Mockery and Masquerade.” See also Francis Spufford, “Pleasures and Perils of Purim,” in Times Literary Supplement, June 5, 1992. Spufford terms Purim “a carnival as Bakhtin described carnivals.”

  26. Daniel Miller, “A Theory of Christmas,” in Daniel Miller, ed., Unwrapping Christmas (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 3.

  Acknowledgments

  I WROTE this book in the course of three nonconsecutive years (and an additional summer) during which I lived away from my Amherst, Massachusetts, home. Serious work began in 1989–90, when I was James P. Harrison Professor of
History at The College of William and Mary. That appointment included the services of a helpful research assistant, Nigel Alderman, as well as the obligation to deliver several public lectures that managed to transform my Christmas project from a minor arrow in my scholarly quiver into a serious endeavor. John Selby of William and Mary’s History Department helped set up those lectures (and my entire year); Marianne Brink, Ann and Bob Gross, and Chandos Brown helped make the year both intellectually and socially memorable.

  Much of the book was researched and written during the 1991–92 academic year, when I held a residential fellowship (funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities) at the American Antiquarian Society. But the AAS was more than a wonderful library. It has long been my second home, and the members of its staff are like family. Nancy Burkett (now the AAS librarian) and Joanne Chaison (now reference librarian) were each head of readers’ services when I first came to know them. Today Marie Lamareaux occupies that position. All three wore themselves out on my behalf, and without ever losing the graciousness that has long been a hallmark of the AAS. Laura Wascowicz spent hours of what seemed to be her own time hunting down children’s literature for me, and her cataloguing skills enabled me to locate items I would never have encountered on my own. Dennis Laurie went beyond the call of any possible duty several times, doing research in newspapers I had not even asked to see. Tom Knoles always made the imposing AAS manuscript division user-friendly. Georgia Barnhill sprang into action whenever she found a picture she thought I might be able to use. Although John B. Hench worked in an office across the street, he was always a benevolent force and a supportive presence. Finally, there were the rewarding conversations with fellow readers at the AAS, readers who included Robert Arner, Catherine Brekus, Nym Cooke, Cornelia Dayton, Alice Fahs, Billy G. Smith, and Ann Fairfax Withington.