A Barrel Full of Laughs, A Life of Sorrow
According to some Negro folk tales, at one time slaves were not
permitted to laugh in public. Legend says that
if slaves found something to be
funny and there were white people around, they were to run to the nearest
“laughing barrel” and wipe the smile off their face before they peered out.
Many believe the practice was the genesis of the term “barrel of laughs”
Wesley Brown’s award-winning novel, "Darktown Strutters,"
gives a vivid description of the practice that implied there was a potential of
insult to white people who may be in the presence of black
folks laughing. The unspoken insinuation that blacks might
possibly be 'snickering' at white people. Presumably, the unwritten Jim Crow
law was enacted on Southern plantations that did not permit whites to be
insulted by Negro laughter.
As a side note, Brown also explains the term Jim Crow derived from a
minstrel song entitled “Jump Jim Crow.” The book also tells of the inhumanities
suffered by slaves before, during and after the practice died out thanks to the
Emancipation Proclamation, even though many of the laws continued well into the
1950’s.
As the story goes, during slavery times, blacks were not allowed to
laugh on many plantations. When the urge to laugh became irrepressible, the
slaves had a “laughing barrel” into which they would lean way down, place their
head in the barrel and laugh; then go back to whatever it was they were doing.
Here one discovers that before and even after the American Civil
War, there were such things as barrels placed around the streets of southern
cities or the pathways of plantations for black people to stick their heads
into should they get the urge to laugh in public. It seems that local white
people didn’t want to hear their laughter, lest they gain the sense that it
might be aimed at them.
Author and poet Maya Angelou, in her book “Discovering Family Roots
in Slavery,” writes about how on many plantations slaves were not allowed to
laugh. There was a rule against it. So, when the urge to laugh became
uncontrollable, when the urge to laugh became irrepressible, they had what they
called “the laughter barrel.” At the moment when they couldn’t hold it in any longer
they would, under the pretext of getting something out of the barrel, lean way
down inside and let it all out. They would laugh and laugh and laugh, then wipe
the smile off their face and go back to what they were doing.
“Many churches had ‘shouting barrels’ into which overjoyed slaves
would place their heads in order not to disturb the church services,” Daniel
Lane and Roy Cunningham write in their book, “Notable Blacks of the Pee Dee
Section of South Carolina.”
There is little hard evidence to prove the stories other than those
passed along in the oral tradition of the familiar slave narrative. A book
titled, “Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel," edited by Alan Dundes
speaks of “laughing barrels at least eight times. Although the book is a compilation
of slave lore, legend and folk tales, there is some reason to believe the
stories were true. Many believe the tale is not founded in truth, but
considering the times, along with the way slaves were treated, it is not hard
to imagine such a course of action.
Making slaves laugh in a barrel isn’t as far-fetched as one might
think. As ridiculous as the practice seems, there were others rules that were
just as silly and many of them were dangerous. In the Deep South, blacks had to
either cross the street or get off the sidewalk to allow white pedestrians safe
passage. Failure to do so could result in a beating or worse.
Clearing the sidewalk was just one of the many humiliations heaped
upon slaves and later during the Jim Crow era. One such heinous and unwritten
law included “reckless eyeballin,” which fell harshly upon any black man who
had the nerve to look at a white woman. Emmet Till fell victim to such an
unwritten law when he supposedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman.
Till was beaten, shot and dropped in the river, his body weighted with a fan
blade tied around his neck with barbed wire.
Sadly, I actually had people in my family who talked of it and were
afraid of talking too loudly or even laughing around white men even though they
escaped the South and lived in Chicago. Emitt Till was killed while I was in
Chicago. This is not ancient history. They had "laugh barrels" in the
South for Negroes to stick their heads in because white men assumed blacks were
laughing at them. It is difficult to put that kind of treatment behind you even
though you know it is poisonous.
Personal experience with segregated movie theaters, swimming pools
and restaurants were small insults, but helped contribute to
internal anger among Negroes. Although seemingly harmless, more virulent
practices existed such as never addressing a white man by any other
name unless prefixed with "sir." The same applied to white women, but
they were to be called "mam." On the other hand, blacks were expected
to answer to names like "boy or uncle," while women were called
"gal" or "girl."
Writing in the Texas Monthly, in 1985, Gary Cartwright, delivered a
story titled, “The Final Gun.” In the story, Cartwright writes, “There was a
barrel in Saratoga called the laughing barrel, and blacks who felt themselves
in danger of laughing were required to stick their heads in it.” Saratoga is
located thirty-eight miles northwest of Beaumont, TX.
Whether or not “laughing barrels” existed or are just part of black
folk lore probably makes no difference other than to add insult to the injury
slaves faced regularly in the South. However, based on previous Jim Crow rules,
more than likely “laughing barrels” existed, as it seemed that no humiliation
was too low to be heaped upon black men and women.
Painting from the Winfred Rembert, Caint to Caint Collection, 2010
