Up next, is the story of how a band from Cincinnati name Ram Jam changed an African American labor chant, with a debated origin, into a rip-roaring guitar track that became an international smash and is now a standard of 70s classic rock, having been covered many times since. The stunning transformation & history of “Black Betty” NEXT on Professor of Rock.

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Up next, is the story of how a band from Cincinnati name Ram Jam changed an African American labor chant, with a debated origin, into a rip-roaring guitar track that became an international smash and is now a standard of 70s classic rock, having been covered many times since. The stunning transformation & history of “Black Betty” NEXT on Professor of Rock.

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The origin and meaning of the term “Black Betty” has been contested for well over a century. Research finds that one of the earliest accounts of the expression “Black Betty” goes all the way back to the ’Newton of Electricity’- Benjamin Franklin.

Yes, one of the first rock star personalities, and founding fathers of the United States, allegedly used the name “Black Betty” in 1736 while referring to liquor. “Black Betty” was also synonymous with a bottle of whiskey as early as 17th century London, and the British coined “Black Betty” as the nickname for a specific old-timey musket with black paint.

The Library of Congress has transcribed notes that ‘Black Betty’ was a ‘tree cutting song’ in the 1700s.

Add to the master list that “Black Betty” was a euphemism in the backcountry of Eastern America, a term for a sultry woman, a wagon transferring convicts, and the nickname for a dreaded whip that was brutally administered in southern prisons.

The provenance of the song “Black Betty” is just as debated and interesting as the origination of the expression.
Many historians claim that “Black Betty” became a marching cadence that was chanted, or sang, by African American slaves in the 18th century.

By the 20th century, there was no doubt that “Black Betty” had become a labor chant with some convicts in prison yards & chain gangs in the south.

The “Black Betty” chant evolved into a song that was first recorded in 1933- performed by blues musician James Baker, who was better known in those days as ‘Iron Head’ Baker. The song was first recorded in the field by U.S. musicologists John and Alan Lomax