I am very familiar with the institution of slavery in the American South, but not the music of the slaves, aside from spirituals. Hopefully, a music historian or ethnomusicologist can help me with this question, which is prefaced.

In my research for a recent project, I came across alleged lyrics for a song sung by slaves in Colorado County, Texas relating to slave patrollers, with the lyrics (in part) “run n****r, run, patroller gonna get you.”

I had thought, since the only mention of this song comes from a 1933 article in the Colorado County (Texas) Citizen, and lyrics are listed by a man who claimed he heard it sung as a child, and his age really doesn’t seem to have been able to match that he’d have heard it or been old enough to remember it, that it may be apocryphal (although the song has been repeated in a few books and thesis, it has only one primary source—the the 1933 article). I thought it odd that the slaves would refer to themselves this way in song.

This weekend, I rewatched “12 Years A Slave” and one or more of the songs sung by the slaves in the film also included the pejorative “n /* /* // er” or “n/ /* / */a,” and began thinking about this topic again.

From the WPA Slave Narratives, you do see some ex slaves refer to themselves and slaves generally by this pejorative. In some of J. Mason Brewer’s “negro folklore,” the word is also used. I do not recall seeing in the slave narratives any song lyrics with the pejorative, although at least one narrative I’ve seen mentions a field song not including the pejorative.

My question is (a) was this pejorative or its variants used in the folk and field music of slaves in the south and (b) what are some examples?