*Joy Reid posted a video on her Instagram account drawing attention to the racist origins of the Christmas song “Jingle Bells,” asserting that it was originally created to mock Black people.
In the footage, a Black man wearing a Santa hat stands beside a historical marker in Medford, Massachusetts, the location where James Lord Pierpont is said to have written the tune in 1850 (originally titled “The One Horse Open Sleigh”). The video claims the song was composed for minstrel-show performances in which white performers in blackface ridiculed Black individuals engaging in winter festivities. The accompanying caption suggests that the lyric “laughing all the way” could be linked to a minstrel-era stereotype called the “Laughing Darkie.”
The claim about the song’s alleged racist origins stems from a 2017 scholarly article by Boston University professor Kyna Hamill. While investigating the early history of “Jingle Bells,” Hamill found evidence that its very first known public performance took place at a minstrel show in Boston in September 1857, where it was presented by a performer in blackface.
In her peer-reviewed article, Hamill argued that over the past 160 years, the song’s “blackface and racist origins have been subtly and systematically removed from its history.” She explained that Pierpont, who was struggling financially and had multiple failed ventures, “capitalized on minstrel music and entered upon a ‘safe’ ground for satirizing black participation in northern winter activities.”
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She also noted, “Minstrel versions that burlesqued the sleigh narrative seem to have been particularly popular from around the fall of 1853 in the Boston performance halls.”
Reid’s video brought renewed attention to this interpretation of the carol, highlighting how popular holiday traditions can have complex and sometimes troubling historical contexts.
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