Title: Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

General Information about Item:

Verbal Folklore
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Informant:  Peter Rizzotti
Date Collected: 10-2-21

Informant Data: 
Peter Rizzotti was born on May 13, 2000, in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Peter’s mother is from Boston, MA and his father is from Ridgewood, New Jersey. He has one younger brother. Peter is a senior on the men’s lacrosse team at Dartmouth and a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He was raised Catholic in a traditional family home. Peter shared that some of his earliest memories were his mother singing Ba Ba Black Sheep to him before bed as a child.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: 
“Ba Ba Black Sheep” was the only lullaby that Peter’s mother sang to him growing up. She would sing this lullaby to his little brother and him whenever they could not fall asleep or if they awoke from a nightmare and were scared. He talked about how his mother is not the warmest individual, but whenever she sang them “Ba Ba Black Sheep” she was tender and loving.

Cultural Context: 
This lullaby was first written in England in 1744 but matched to a tune in Philadelphia in 1879. There is now controversy over the negative racial implications associated with the lyrics, and there are now versions released with adjectives other than ‘black’ including ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘hopping’, and ‘pink’. Peter was sung “Baa Baa Black Sheep” by his mother because her own mother also sang the lullaby to her growing up. This shows how family traditions are passed down through generations.

Item: 
Ba Ba Black Sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for the dame,
One for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Associated file: 

Informant Comments: 
My parents did not really sing lullabies to my brother and me often, but my mom sang “Baa Baa Black Sheep” to us whenever we had trouble falling asleep or had a bad nightmare. I really used to like it when she sang to us and sometimes I would fake not being able to sleep just so she would sing to me.

Collector Comments: 
Peter is one of my very good friends who does not share much about his childhood so it was great to hear him talk about a tender memory he has with his mom. It was harder to get information out of him which I think can be attributed to masculinity.

Collectors Name: Jennifer Wendelken

Tags: Dartmouth, student, male, English, verbal, family, childhood