American History Not So Long Ago, Lets Not Forget, Aretha Franklin, Spanish Harlem (1971)

Cartoon-style painting of a crowd in orange uniforms gathered around a large wooden barrel labeled 'Laughing Barrel,' with a man in a white hat at the center, as if toasting or celebrating in a tavern-like setting.

👁️ Views

247 total views

American History Not So Long Ago, Lets Not Forget Because All Is Not [So] Ok. Aretha Franklin, Spanish Harlem (1971)

“Laughing barrels” in Mississippi and across the South were, according to historical accounts, barrels placed on plantations where enslaved people were forced to stifle their laughter to avoid punishment from white owners. Slaves would place their heads inside the barrels to contain the noise, turning a necessary act of survival into a quiet form of defiance.

TikTok +3

- Function: Enslaved people were often forbidden from laughing or making loud noises, as it was perceived as disrespect or a threat by plantation owners.
- Method: To express joy or amusement without being heard, they would run to a barrel, often placed in a convenient location, and laugh into it.
- Cultural Significance: The “laughing barrel” is often described as a site of suppressed emotion and a repository of African American humor and humanity under brutal conditions
  .

Cultural Reference: Some narratives suggest the phrase “a barrel of laughs” originated from this practice, though others consider that to be a separate, later idiom (as noted in some forum discussions, e.g., on Reddit).
Facebook +2

#image_title

Understanding the Laughing Barrels in Black History

The “barrel of laughs” originates from slavery, where Black people weren’t allowed to laugh freely on plantations.

0:58

TikTok·maikamoulite
The History behind the Laughing Barrel Did you know that slaves were not permitted to laugh when on the plantation? White people viewed slaves laughing as a form of disrespect to them. Some plantation owners had barrels set up on the plantation and when a slave heard something funny they would have to run off to one of these barrels in order to laugh. The slaves would stifle the noises they wanted to make by holding their heads over barrels (sometimes filled with water) to keep slave patrols and their white plantation owners from hearing them. The slaves would then go back to whatever it was they were doing. Now you know where the phrase “a barrel of laughs” comes from.
Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel | University Press of Mississippi

Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel | University Press of Mississippi. African American Studies Race And Ethnicity Literature Afri…

University Press of Mississippi