“JINGLE BELLS”: From Minstrel Stage to Global Holiday Anthem.

By George Omagbemi Sylvester | Published by saharaweeklyng.com

“A Song’s Roots in Racist Entertainment, Not African Bondage”

Every December, millions around the world (including countless Africans) raise their voices to sing “Jingle Bells,” heralding the festive Christmas season with joy and cheer. The familiar refrain “Jingle all the way” fills streets, homes, malls, schools, and churches, becoming part of the soundtrack of holiday celebration. But beneath the bright bells and festive rhythm lies a history that many do not know — one that does not originate with snowy sleigh rides alone, nor with a symbol of African suffering in bondage, but with a darker chapter of American cultural history: the minstrel show and the racist entertainment industry of the 19th century.

Dispelling a Myth — No Evidence of Jingle Bells as Slave Restraints. A claim circulating online and shared across social media is that the song Jingle Bells is tied to the bells shackled to the feet of enslaved Africans to prevent escape. This narrative (while emotionally powerful) is not supported by credible historical research or primary sources. Historians who have studied the song’s origin find no documented evidence that the bells referenced in the song were ever used in that form of bondage or that the song was written about such practices. The song’s lyrics describe sleigh rides in snowy landscapes — a setting completely disconnected from the lived geography and conditions of enslaved Africans in the United States. Moreover, rigorous academic and archival research into the song’s creation and performances do not link the melody or original lyrics to slave restraints or such specific symbols of oppression.

Let us be clear: the Atlantic slave trade and the brutal systems of bondage inflicted countless horrors on Africans and their descendants — atrocities that deserve remembrance, recognition, and rightful place in human history. But the specific claim about “Jingle Bells” being directly linked to bells used on slaves’ feet is not documented in credible historical record and should not be perpetuated as fact. Doing so risks confusing myth with history, even as it speaks to very real broader legacies of violence.

So What Is the True Origin of “Jingle Bells”?

The song we know today was originally written by James Lord Pierpont in 1857 under the title “The One Horse Open Sleigh” and was published in Boston, Massachusetts. It was not written as a Christmas song, and its lyrics make no mention of the holiday — yet it became associated with Christmas decades later.

Pierpont himself had a complex personal history that reflects the deeply divided America of his time. Born into a New England family, he later moved to Savannah, Georgia. While his father was an abolitionist clergyman, James Pierpont diverged sharply from that stance: with the outbreak of the American Civil War, he became a supporter of the Confederate cause and even wrote songs expressing his allegiance.

Minstrel Shows: Where “Jingle Bells” First Lived

Perhaps most troubling (and most ignored) is the first known performance context of the song.

In September 1857, “The One Horse Open Sleigh” debuted at Ordway Hall in Boston as part of a minstrel show performed in blackface, delivered by entertainer Johnny Pell and his troupe.

Minstrel shows were a distinctly racist form of popular entertainment in 19th-century America: white performers would paint their faces black, caricature African Americans, and mock Black culture for white audiences, reinforcing degrading and stereotypical images. They were not benign entertainment; they were systematic performances that commodified and ridiculed people of African descent.

This fact matters. It places Jingle Bells squarely in the cultural machinery of racial mockery — not as a song about sleigh rides alone, but as part of a broader racist performance tradition that normalized inequality and dehumanization long before the Civil Rights Movement and long after slavery had been abolished in the North.

As theatre historian Kyna Hamill (Boston University) has shown, the earliest documented performance of the song occurred on a minstrel stage and was part of a genre of songs that lampooned Black people’s participation in common winter activities, complete with stereotyped caricatures. These performances were part of a genre of blackface songs that profited from racist tropes common in American culture before, during, and after slavery.

The Irony of Cultural Forgetting. For Africans today (particularly in diaspora communities) singing “Jingle Bells” has become an expression of Christian joy and universal festive spirit. Yet that joyful singing often happens without awareness of the song’s troubling early context. There is a profound irony here:

A melody once delivered on racist stages has become a global emblem of unity and celebration. Yet most who sing it have never confronted its history.

This irony is not unique to “Jingle Bells.” Much of Western popular culture carries with it legacies and traces of historical injustice — from blues music shaped in contexts of Black struggle, to spirituals born out of pain and hope. But understanding that history is not an act of cancellation; it is an act of respect for truth and memory.

What Scholars Say

While Jingle Bells is not explicitly a song about slavery, scholars argue that we must acknowledge how racist entertainment traditions helped shape what became the song we know today:

Kyna Hamill, theatre historian, emphasizes that the song first appeared in the repertoire of minstrel shows — a form that reinforced racial stereotypes and profited from demeaning representations of African Americans.

Historian analyses point out that the song’s history “has quietly eluded its racialized past,” becoming popularized later as a Christmas staple while its early context was forgotten by mainstream audiences.

These interpretations help us understand why today’s celebrations, though joyful, should be informed by context and critical memory.

Reclaiming Memory, Without Denying Joy

Africans and people of African descent around the world should not be made to feel ashamed of celebrating Christmas or singing Jingle Bells. The song as it exists today (with its cheerful chorus) carries no overt racist text, and millions sing it without any malicious intent. What must change, however, is the narrative of ignorance surrounding it.

The past we inherit is neither tidy nor always righteous. Human history is filled with beauty born in struggle and joy that rises above pain. To sing Jingle Bells while understanding its roots is not to erase joy, but it is to honor truth.

In Summary: Understanding Without Simplifying. The idea that Jingle Bells was literally a “SIGNAL of OPPRESSION” for enslaved Africans, using bells tied to feet, is a myth that should not be elevated as fact. However, the song does have a racially charged origin story, connected to minstrel shows and one of the most blatant expressions of systemic mockery and racism in 19th-century America.

As Africans engage with global culture, historical awareness must go hand in hand with celebration. To acknowledge the shadows in our cultural heritage is not to diminish the light, though it is to ensure our joy is grounded in truth and resilient against forgetting.

Only then can we sing our songs (even the joyful ones) with clearer minds, open hearts, and remembrance of those whose histories were overlooked.