Yankee Doodle Origins of the song
As children we all sang about Yankee Doodle and the feather in his hat. However, did you know that the lyrics we all enjoy were written by the British during the French and Indian War. The English Army was one of the best trained in the world. They were polished soldiers, well trained and well dressed. In comparison, the colonial soldier was really not a professional soldier at all but farmers and shopkeepers. They had little or no training in military tactics and as for uniforms anything went. They were an untidy, disorganized, and a ragtag group next to their English counterparts. An English doctor named Richard Shuckburgh rewrote the words to a popular melody as a slap in the face to the colonists.
Shuckberg took the popular melody and used it to call the colonists dandies and doodles which were terms for hicks or conceited jerks. No one is exactly sure where the word Yankee came from, but a popular belief is that it came from the Dutch Janke or Janneke which were variants of Johnnie. Macaroni in the song does not refer to a pasta noodle, but rather for someone who dresses so fancy that they look silly.
From 1754 – 1763 the British and colonists fought side by side during the French and Indian war. By 1770 Americans started to object to King George III over taxes they had to pay for the war. In addition, King George went back on his promise to protect colonists who wanted to travel west beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Tensions arose over taxation and other issues with sparks of rebellion being ignited. Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry John Hancock and Thomas Paine among many who formulated and spoke loudly of independence which gathered increased support among the colonists.
In April of 1775, 700 British soldiers marched out of Boston to capture weapons and ammunition the colonists had hidden. Their fifers and drummers taunted the colonists by playing Yankee Doodle as they marched along. On the village green of Lexington, Minutemen, farmers and shopkeepers, nervously faced the best trained army in the world. Shots were fired and eight colonists lay dead. Despite this confrontation, the British forces continued on with their search for hidden weapons in Concord.
Eventually, the British Army marched back to Boston. The colonists reverted back to their form of guerilla warfare consisting of hiding behind trees and rock walls. Using these tactics which the British soldiers were not used to, British soldiers were killed and the rest ran back to safer areas.
Supposedly, the colonial militia loudly sang Yankee Doodle as the British withdrew. They replaced the lyrics of Shuckburgh with their own, giving a musical insult to the British and a new view of the continental soldier.
Yankee Doodle became an unofficial theme song for the Colonial Army. Verses of the song were continually added and changed.
One verse from the British went: Yankee Doodle’s come to town for to buy a firelock,
We will tar and feather him and so will we John Hancock.
While a favorite verse of the colonists went:
Yankee Doodle is the tune that we all delight in;
It suits for feasts, it suits for fun, and just as well for fightin’.
References
Adams, L., & Ashland County Historical Society. (2021, July 3). Here's the meaning behind the lyrics of Yankee Doodle dandy. Ashland Source. https://www.ashlandsource.com/history/heres-the-meaning-behind-the-lyrics-of yankee-doodle-dandy/article_61eb2b48-da9f-11eb-813b-5f6b6ab48691.html
HarperCollins Publishers. (n.d.). The American heritage dictionary entry: Yankee. American Heritage Dictionary - Search. https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=yankee
History.com Editors. (2009, December 2). Battles of Lexington and Concord. HISTORY.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/battles-of-lexington-and-concord
A short history of "Yankee Doodle". (2016, August 28). Journal of the American Revolution. https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/12/short-history-yankee-doodle/
That Diss song known as ‘Yankee Doodle’ (Published 2017). (2017, July 1). The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/sunday-review/that-diss-song-known as-yankee-doodle.html
What is the song Yankee Doodle dandy" really about?". (n.d.). CliffsNotes Study Guides | Book Summaries, Test Preparation & Homework Help | Written by Teachers.
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/history/what-is-the-song-yankee-doodle-dandy-really-about Yankee Doodle. (2002, September 2). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle#
Yankee Doodle. (n.d.). The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. https://www.kennedy center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and
interactives/media/music/story-behind-the-song/the-story-behind-the-song/yankee-doodle/
-Jo Battistella