slavery — Words of the week

The English language has a lot of words for ‘talking a load of crap’ – balderdash, claptrap, waffle, baloney, guff, bull, poppycock… I could go on. ‘Bunkum’ is yet another one of these monikers for spouting a bunch of rubbish. But unlike its counterparts, it has a uniquely well-documented origin. Come with me to early 19th-century America, and specifically to the United States House of Representatives.

On 25 February 1820, lots of old white men (some things don’t change) were tensely debating whether to allow Missouri to become a state. Now, my American history is patchy at best, but I understand from the internet that this was controversial because Missouri was a slave-owning state. And letting it join could set a precedent for allowing slavery across the entire western frontier.

The debate had been raging in the House continuously for nearly a month. Various congressmen had delivered lengthy, dramatic speeches each day, and every conceivable argument for and against slavery had been repeated. It was all going in circles and everyone was desperate to stop talking and start voting.

Enter Felix Walker, representative for Buncombe County in North Carolina. In a moment of apparent madness, he decided that this was the perfect time to start a long, rambling speech. When his exasperated colleagues tried to cut him short by interrupting, shouting and generally trying to drown him out to force the vote, he insisted he wasn’t trying to persuade Congress, but ‘speaking for Buncombe!’. Walker’s colleagues immediately saw through this blatant publicity stunt to impress voters back in North Carolina, and he was shouted down after only a sentence or two.

Not long after this, the phrase ‘speaking for Buncombe’ caught on in Washington as a way to describe a politician giving an empty, bombastic speech meant solely for pats-on-the-back and electioneering rather than to make any actual political points (sound familiar…?). In the 1830s and 1840s, the spelling shifted phonetically to ‘bunkum’, and the term moved from meaning ‘political bollocks’ to ‘general bollocks’. A writer called Thomas Chandler Haliburton then popularised the term internationally in his Sam Slick collection (which I’ve never heard of, but which was apparently Canada’s first international best-selling novel). Then in the late 19th century, ‘bunkum’ was shortened to ‘bunk’, which is where we get the verb ‘debunk’ from.

Now, don’t feel sorry for Walker. As well as being a supporter of slavery, according to historical accounts, he knew he was going to be cut off – he simply wanted to make sure he was seen trying to speak for the people. Later, he handed his massive 4,879-word (yup) speech straight to local newspapers who published the whole thing as if he’d delivered it in full. So he was able to send copies home and impress his voters without actually having read any of the words on the floor.

Despite this, there’s something quite satisfying about the fact that Felix Walker – slave-owner, defender of human bondage and white supremacist – is now remembered as a funny historical footnote who gave us the word ‘bunkum’. Fingers crossed, many of the modern-day racist politicians we continue to allow into the limelight will be remembered for similarly stupid moments.

(Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the House of Representatives eventually struck a deal called the Missouri Compromise: Missouri joined as a slave state while Maine joined as a free state to keep the power equal. A geographical boundary line was then drawn to decide where slavery could and couldn’t exist in the future.)

I was watching an American show the other day (‘Alaska Daily’, if you’re interested – well worth a watch) and someone described something as ‘a cakewalk’. Which got me thinking – where does the term come from?

Just in case you’re not sure what a cakewalk is (as I think it’s a fairly American term), it’s used to refer to something that’s easy to do, like ‘that exam was a cakewalk’ (a statement I’ve never said, ever). The more British alternative is probably ‘a walk in the park’.

After a bit of research, it turns out ‘cakewalk’ has some murky origins, which may well make it a problematic term today. In the 19th century, African-American slaves used to perform a dance on Southern plantations which mocked the stiff waltz-style dance moves of their white enslavers. Slave owners saw this and, apparently missing the point entirely, went on to hold dance competitions at so-called ‘plantation parties’. Slaves would wear their smartest clothes and perform these dances with the best being rewarded with cakes as prizes. Yuck. Over time, the dance itself became known as the ‘cakewalk’.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the cakewalk moves – linked arms and high kicks – were adopted by a wider audience in the US and Europe, where they were often performed in vaudeville shows. It was also in the early 20th century that the term came to be used as a metaphor for any task or situation seen as easy or effortless. That wasn’t because winning a cakewalk was easy – it was because the dance steps were fluid and graceful, and the dancers’ hard work made it look like it was simple to do. This use was popularised by soldiers in World War I who used the term to describe battles or campaigns they won relatively easily.