Arthur “Peg Leg Sam” Jackson
December 18?, 1911 – October 27, 1977
Episode Intro: Have you heard of a highwayman who traversed the East Coast, peddled “snake oil” in medicine shows, and whose Piedmont blues influenced thousands? And he did it playing two harmonicas at the same time? You perhaps haven’t heard of anyone like Arthur “Peg Leg Sam” Jackson from Jonesville, South Carolina.
Let’s get cracklin’, shall we?
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You may have not heard of Arthur “Peg Leg Sam” Jackson, but his legacy lives on in the influence of Piedmont style blues out of the Carolinas and beyond. He’s referred to as “Peg Leg Sam” because of the loss of one leg below the knee due to a train accident. Peg Leg Sam sang and played the harmonica with the likes of Pink Anderson (the namesake of Pink in Pink Floyd), Henry “Rufe” Johnson, Charles Henry “Baby” Tate, and Louisiana Red.
Did you know that Peg Leg Sam, although he passed away in 1977, made it into a European Best Film of the year in 2001? Yes, the very first clips of him dancing in the documentary, Born for Hard Luck (1976), are featured in the popular French movie, Amélie.
Sources for today’s story are: Many! As always, refer to our show notes at talesfromthehearth.com, that’s talesfromthehearth.com.
Check out our episode’s Pinterest board for links to the documentary and photos of Peg Leg Sam and those he influenced https://www.pinterest.com/TalesfromtheHearth/arthur-peg-leg-sam-jackson/
If you have the time, I highly recommend viewing the 29 minute documentary about Peg Leg Sam, called Born for Hard Luck (1976), located on the free folkstreams.net platform. You should probably view it with subtitles. If you only have 5 minutes, view a performance of the song “Greasy Greens” at the 16:25 minute mark. 18 minutes in is quite the harmonica show! The Born for Hard Luck (1976) film is by Tom Davenport, located on the free Folkstreams.net.
Another great reference is South Carolina Blues,’ by Claire DeLune
The One Takeaway I hope you get from this story is: Follow your dreams, and do what you love to do!
Now I hope you enjoy the fabled story of Arthur “Peg Leg Sam” Jackson!
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According to Arthur “Peg Leg Sam” Jackson, he was born for hard luck.
“You look at me, you look at a man that was Peg: you look at me, you look at a man that was born for hard luck. I was born on the 13th day, odd day, on Friday, on a bad luck day. To show you that I IS in hard luck, if I go up the street walking fast, I run over something. I’m in such hard luck, if I go up there walking slow, something run ofer (sic) me. I’m in such hard luck, if I’m sitting down I’m in everybody’s way. I’m in such hard luck, if it’s raining down soup at this very minute, everybody’d be standing there with a spoon—why, I’d have a fork. Yes sir, I was born for hard luck….”
Peg Leg Sam could have been born on the 13th of December, though it would have been a Wednesday in 1911, and not on a Friday. Some sources have his date of birth as either December 8, December 28, or most commonly December 18th, 1911 in Jonesville, South Carolina (located just east of Spartanburg).
Peg Leg Sam was not born for hard work, according to his brother, Monroe, in the Born for Hard Luck (1976) documentary film. Peg Leg Sam lived a hard life working on his family’s farm in a one room home with five brothers and sisters, only attending school when it rained. “If I’d a-stayed at home I wouldn’t have known a thing, wouldn’t have been able to do anything but plow a mule. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing,” Peg mused on his situation.
Jackson was given his first harmonica (called a “harp” in the rural South) as a Christmas present and was eager to play the song, “Reuben,” on the instrument. He picked up tips from other nearby musicians such as Biggar Mapps, Sun Jennings, Butler Jennings, and Elmon “Keg-Shorty” Bell, but his mastery came from hours and hours of practice. His mother was a musician too, playing the church organ and accordion.
Peg Leg Sam started catching the trains also early in life. “Sometimes it be 4 or 5 years before I’d see him. Sometimes I thought he was dead,” his brother, Bill, went on to relay in the Born for Hard Luck (1976) documentary film.
According to Peg Leg Sam, he suffered from frostbite in Buffalo (losing parts of his ears and fingernails), harvested sugar cane in Florida, dug out potatoes in Maine, preached sermons in Baltimore, spent time in reform school and on a prison farm in Georgia, marrying one or two or a few brief times in there. And when he stowed away on a ship bound for Havana, the crew threatened to throw him overboard with a weight. No worries, Peg Leg Sam would go on to work the ships for three years, saving up until he could spend it all in one night in Jacksonville.
Around 1930, Peg Leg Sam earned his name when he fell off of a train around Raleigh, North Carolina, mangling his face, and losing his leg below the knee. He went on with life, quickly fashioning his peg leg out of a fence post to get right back onto the road.
For fifteen years from 1936 to 1951 Peg Leg Sam worked and played for a few months each year at Fenner’s Tobacco Warehouse in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He was featured there daily on a morning radio broadcast, which extended into local television in later years.
Can you tell that it’s hard to tell fact from fiction with Peg Leg Sam? He sure has the gift of the gab. What is known is that he made it to plenty of places. Many folks remember meeting Peg Leg Sam up in Canada, New York, the Caribbean, all the way up and down the East coast.
His gift for gab and showmanship led him to working for many years in traveling medicine shows. In many rural areas, the only outside entertainment occurred when the medicine show came into town. A “doctor” or “healer” would tout the benefits of a healing ointment, liniment, or “snake oil” available for purchases to the crowd, while the entertainers would work them with their music, stories, antics, and zippy one liner dialogues.
Peg Leg first met guitarist “Pink” Anderson from neighboring Spartanburg, South Carolina while Pink played in Dr. “Smiley” Kerr’s medicine show in 1922. Peg learned from Pink, and busked corners and became a medicine show fixture across the rural South for Dr. Frank Kerr, Dr. Thompson, and Dr. Silas Green. Peg Leg Sam’s first medicine show was in the 1930’s with Doc Thompson in Chesnee, SC.
Peg Leg Sam was known as the last black medicine show performer when he gave his last full performance in 1976. The documentary Born for Hard Luck (1976) shows one of Peg Leg Sam’s shows, the only medicine show to be filmed. In a true “it’s a small world after all,” moment, only two minutes into the film, it shows clips of a medicine show with Peg Leg Sam and Chief Thundercloud (Oklahoman Potawatomi Native American, Leo Kahdot), occuring at the Chatham County Fair in my hometown of Pittsboro, North Carolina in 1972. Strange, huh? Pianist and trumpetist Chief Thundercloud passed away in 1973, and that’s when Peg Leg Sam hung up his hat from touring regularly and returned to Jonesville, SC—where he was actually called Peg Leg Pete.
Peg Leg Sam and fellow South Carolinian Henry “Rufe” Johnson played and recorded often together, even filming radio commercials for used cars and trailers.
Blues enthusiasts and historians Pete Lowry and Bruce Bastin recorded many of Peg Leg Sam’s works and wrote many of Peg Leg Sam’s stories on album covers. They introduced him into performing at local college and blues festivals across the East Coast and the South, often transporting him and other musicians.
Peg Leg Sam died October 27, 1977 in Jonesville, South Carolina. Before his death in 1977, he mentored a young Freddie Vanderford, who carries on Peg’s unique tradition of harmonica style today. Countless others claim influence from Peg Leg Sam’s unique style of blues and entertainment.
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Now you have it! What are your thoughts on Arthur “Peg Leg Sam” Jackson!? Reach out and let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s story.
