Talk:Nigger in the woodpile

message: keep this page. It is uselful to know the history behind the phrase as it seems American origin and living in the UK I didn't know its origin. There was a recent newsstory of someone executive using the phrase http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=135422007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.141.83.47 (talk • contribs) 11:39, 26 January 2007
:Prod & prod 2 remove, sent to AfD. --RedHillian 12:45, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Many historical phrases are not in use today.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.87.233.255 (talk) 02:04, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: I have a vague recollection of reading a variant on this phrase in several Louis L'Amor wild western / frontier novels. "There's more than one African in this woodpile." If someone finds a citation for this, please add it.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:B290:6700:6899:7D96:6B33:CB7F (talk) 17:13, 24 August 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: The expression is used in the lyrics of the Supertramp song "Potter."  I don't recall hearing the expression used elsewhere besides that.  It's not very common.  Dansan99 (talk) 00:34, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

text: The term 'there's something in the woodshed' in The Divine Comedy song 'Something for the weekend' refers to the classic literature book "Cold Comfort Farm" where Aunt Aga refers to "something nasty in the woodshed" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Comfort_Farm. Since it is set in Sussex, UK, it seems to not be referring to escaping slaves.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.44.19.228 (talk) 13:36, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Use in popular culture?

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Published definition explaining 1937 usage in glossary Pendergast, Bruce. Everyman's Guide to the Mysteries of Agatha Christie. Victoria : Trafford, 2004, p. 362.
The phrase refers to an African American hiding in your woodpile, you have not noticed him but you will when your wife gives birth to a baby with dark skin. Or your wood is being stolen. Or your slave is being smuggled north to Canada... Also African Americans were killed many ways other than lynchings. There are many photographs of mobs around a woodpile burning an African American. 
This sense of the phrase was well known in the 19th century. It is the one that comes to mind in early films and songs... EDLIS Café  22:15, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
replies: text:  It is not included because there is no evidence that this explanation is true. It seems to date from no earlier than the 1970s AFAIK. 82.20.31.86 (talk) 23:41, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

text: Aside from the common meaning, I believe it can also refer to a white person with a small amount of black ancestry, less than that covered by mixed-race terminology. Xcalibur (talk) 14:30, 31 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Interracial parentage meaning  

message: 1852 in Kans. Hist. Quarterly (1942) XI. 235 - "No `nigger in the wood pile' here..; white men are at the bottom of this speculation."
1862 Congress. Globe 3 June 2527/1 - "[These gentlemen] spoke two whole hours..in showing-to borrow an elegant phrase, the paternity of which belongs, I think, to their side of the House,-that there was `a nigger in the wood-pile'."
1897 Congress. Rec. 18 Feb. App. 61/1 - "Like a great many others ignorant of facts, he finds `a nigger in the wood pile' when there is neither wood pile nor nigger."
1911 Woodrow Wilson in Outlook 11 Aug. 944 - "If you go through the schedules you will find some nigger in every wood pile."
[1843 in H. Nathan D. Emmett page 315: ‘Nigger on[sic] the wood-pile barkin like a dog.’] [1845 in H. Nathan D. Emmett page 292: ‘Nigger on de Wood Pile] 
1847 — in ‘DARE’: ‘A Nigger in De Fence.’ This phrase was never so perfectly illustrated as by the law of Pennsylvania respecting the recovery of fugitive slaves.’
Nathan, Hans (1962). Dan Emmett and the Rise of Early Negro Minstrelsy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. (pages 195, 315,  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.20.31.86 (talk) 23:57, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origins with quotes, Unverified 

message: The "Origin" section includes this sentence: "The evidence is slight, but it is presumed that they were derived from actual instances of the concealment of fugitive slaves in their flight north under piles of firewood or within hiding places in stone walls." The opening emphasis on the lack of firm evidence is good, but the "it is presumed" is not good: Who is doing this presuming? One of the two sources cited in support of this speculation is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) entry, which actually offers nothing that supports this speculation. There's a lot of storytelling surrounding the Underground Railroad (quilt and song codes, etc.), and I think it's likely that this discussion is another example of that storytelling. Jk180 (talk) 14:21, 16 September 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Origin" section is speculative and poorly sourced 

message: Following up on the Derek Daly story, it appears this article is espousing misinformation as his page contradicts the facts presented here. I've added a few sentences taken from Derek Daly's article here as a stop-gap measure, but a major rework and revision of that section is needed.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:3D08:AA80:25F0:F0B0:D6F1:1A6C:2430 (talk) 03:07, 24 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Derek Daly's Story 

message: Found another use, in The Phacifist by Arthur C. Clarke, whoch can be seen on wikisource. 216.49.146.89 (talk) 05:04, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: See below. Martinevans123 (talk) 19:30, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Anotehr use to add 

message: Was used in the 1958 book Pawns in the Game by William Guy Carr 67.70.57.107 (talk) 19:22, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, William Guy Carr is certainly a notable naval officer, author, and conspiracy theorist (and possibly antisemite). But surely we don't expect the article to list every instance in every work by any notable? Martinevans123 (talk) 19:29, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: William Guy Carr