actually, there's a lot more to it than that.
Medford proudly bills itself as the birthplace of āJingle Bells.ā But should it?
First, Pierpont couldnāt have written the song in Medford in 1850 because he was in San Francisco at the time and wouldnāt return to Massachusetts for at least another year. In fact, as Hamill
told The Boston Globe last year, āJingle Bellsā was most likely written in Boston, where Pierpont briefly lived upon his return ā which leads to the second complicating aspect of the songās history.
āIt was first performed in this blackface minstrel hall in Boston in 1857,ā Hamill said.
As Hamill wrote in
a paper published this September in Cambridge Universityās theater history journal,
Theatre Survey, the story of āJingle Bellsā ā originally titled āOne Horse Open Sleighā ā is one in which āthe racial history of the song has remained hidden behind its local and seasonal affection.ā First performed on September 15, 1857, at the Washington Street minstrelsy,
Ordway Hall, the song was one of many attempts by Pierpont to cash in on the racist entertainment that was popular at the time.
In the study, Hamill found that such onstage minstrel shows were part of a larger genre of satire at the time that ālampoonedā black participation in wintry activities such as sleigh riding. The field often depicted black people ābehaving foolishly, grotesquely, and incompetently.ā Performances of āJingle Bellsā included stereotyped ādandyā characters that mockingly portrayed black people within Northern culture.
The song, however, has since āeluded its racialized pastā and is āa prime exampleā of how some popular 19th century musicās āblackface and racist origins have been subtly and systematically removed from its history,ā according to Hamill. It wasnāt until decades later that it became a Christmas song, much less the popular holiday anthem it is today. Upon the festive recitations of the song each season, thereās likely not much reflection upon its origins profiting off the racist caricatures of black people.