The origin and meaning of the lyrics are subject to debate. Historically, the "Black Betty" of the title may refer to the
nickname given to a number of objects: a bottle of whiskey, a whip, or a penitentiary transfer wagon. However, in more modern song references, the term "Black Betty" alludes to a fast car or motorcycle.
David Hackett Fischer, in his book ''
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America'' (
Oxford University Press, 1989), states that "Black Betty" was a common term for a bottle of
whisky in the
borderlands between
Northern England and southern
Scotland; it later became a euphemism in the backcountry areas of the eastern United States. In January 1736, Benjamin Franklin published
The Drinker's Dictionary in the
Pennsylvania Gazette offering 228 round-about phrases for being drunk. One of those phrases is "He's kiss'd black Betty." Other sources give the meaning of "Black Betty" in the United States (from at least 1827) as a liquor bottle. In ''Caldwells's Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Washington Co. Pennsylvania of 1876'', a short section describes wedding ceremonies and marriage customs, including a wedding tradition where two young men from the bridegroom procession were challenged to run for a bottle of whiskey. This challenge was usually given when the bridegroom party was about a mile from the destination-home where the ceremony was to be had. Upon securing the prize, referred to as "Black Betty", the winner of the race would bring the bottle back to the bridegroom and his party. The whiskey was offered to the bridegroom first and then successively to each of the groom's friends. John A. and Alan Lomax's 1934 book,
American Ballads and Folk Songs describes the origins of "Black Betty": John Lomax also interviewed blues musician
Iron Head in 1934, almost one year after Iron Head performed the first known recorded performance of the song. In the resulting article for
Musical Quarterly, titled "'Sinful Songs' of the Southern Negro", Lomax again mentions the nickname of the bullwhip is "Black Betty". Steven Cornelius in his book,
Music of the Civil War Era, states in a section concerning folk music following the war's end that "prisoners sang of 'Black Betty', the driver's whip." In an interview conducted by
Alan Lomax with former Texas penal farm prisoner Doc "Big Head" Reese, Reese stated that the term "Black Betty" was used by prisoners to refer to the "
Black Maria" — the penitentiary transfer wagon. Robert Vells, in
Life Flows On in Endless Song: Folk Songs and American History, writes: In later versions, "Black Betty" was depicted as various vehicles, including a
motorcycle and a
hot rod. == Early recordings (1933–1939) ==