12/18/2022 0 Comments Baa baa black sheep lyrics![]() ![]() A similar controversy emerged in 1999 when reservations about the rhyme were submitted to Birmingham City Council by a working group on racism in children's resources, which were never approved or implemented. This was based only on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery as an exercise for the children there and not on any local government policy. 1744 with the lyrics very similar to the contemporary version:įurther information: Loony left § Baa Baa White SheepĪ controversy emerged over changing the language of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" in Britain from 1986, because, it was alleged in the popular press, it was seen as racially dubious. The rhyme was first printed in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, the oldest surviving collection of English language nursery rhymes, published c. ![]() Rather than being negative, the wool of black sheep may have been prized as it could be made into dark cloth without dyeing. This explanation was advanced during debates over political correctness and the use and reform of nursery rhymes in the 1980s, but has no supporting historical evidence. This has particularly been taken to refer to the medieval English "Great" or "Old Custom" wool tax of 1275, which survived until the fifteenth century More recently the rhyme has been alleged to have a connection to the slave trade, particularly in the southern United States. Katherine Elwes Thomas in The Real Personages of Mother Goose (1930) suggested the rhyme referred to resentment at the heavy taxation on wool. ![]() 1765Īs with many nursery rhymes, attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the rhyme, most of which have no corroborating evidence. Illustration for the rhyme from Mother Goose's Melody, first published c. ![]()
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