Annie Christmas, also referred to as Keelboat Annie or Big Annie, is one of the few female protagonists to appear in American tall tales, that is, extravagant tales focused on the exploits of one exceptional character. Christmas is also one of the earliest original heroines in African American folklore. While there are various tales relating to Annie Christmas, she is always described as a vanquisher of bullies and as a symbol of female enterprise, courage, strength, and determination. Today Christmas is less well known, but she is nonetheless a powerful emblem of African American female resilience, bravery, and accomplishment. Furthermore, she is regarded as an example of an occupational folk heroine, that is, a larger-than-life character who personifies all the skills and values necessary to succeed at a particular form of industry. Christmas is unusual in this regard, as occupational folk heroes are nearly always men. The character is thought to be called Annie Christmas because she liked to pull boats laden with children’s toys up the Mississippi to be given on Christmas.
The exact origins of Annie Christmas tales are not known. Some folklorists claim that her character was developed in the 1930s by the New Orleans–based writer Lyle Saxon (1891–1946) and a colleague to provide Louisiana with figures equivalent to Joe Magarac, the semifolkloric champion of steelworkers, and the legendary giant lumberjack, Paul Bunyan. According to folklorists who favor this theory, Christmas subsequently became entangled with other characters associated with the Mississippi. These characters include the likes of Tugboat Annie, who first appeared in print in the Saturday Evening Post during the 1920s, and Lee Christmas (1863–1924), a Louisiana railroad worker who became a famed mercenary in Central America. However, some people maintain that the legends about Christmas have been handed down through generations via oral tradition and have subsequently gone on to appear in print. According to some authorities, the figure of Annie Christmas first appeared in print in Gumbo Ya-Ya, an anthology of tales published in 1945. In the tales’ basic narrative, Annie Christmas’s birth occurred around 1850 in the Delta swamps around the source of the Mississippi; however grounded in time her birth may be in folklore, these same stories present her as a timeless character, always remaining the same age. Christmas was said to have worked as a stevedore on flatboats and keelboats (large flat boats made from logs). She was highly adept at navigating a stretch of the Mississippi around New Orleans in her boat Big River’s Daughter. Christmas was a manual laborer, a figure embodying physical strength and female industriousness. As a respected keelboat captain Christmas defied the norms of patriarchal, male-dominated society. Since a keelboat must be pulled or poled along a river by its captain, maneuvering such a vessel requires great strength and determination, especially when transporting people or heavy bales of cotton. As Christmas possessed this strength, she is said to have been afraid of nobody and totally self-reliant. Christmas also had a reputation in tales for being a defender of the downtrodden, physically confronting their antagonists with superhuman might.
The various tales of Annie Christmas record many acts of superhuman strength. Christmas is said to have singlehandedly towed a loaded keelboat from New Orleans to Natchez so quickly that the keelboat skimmed across the water. Meanwhile, another tall tale tells of how Christmas skillfully maneuvered her vessel during a particularly perilous rescue, averting disaster. Indeed, such was Christmas’s boating prowess and strength that the expression “strong as Annie Christmas” was frequently used to compliment real-life feats of strength. This strength and power was also demonstrated by Christmas’s reputed ability to walk up a gangplank carrying a sack of flour under each arm with another one on her head, or to lift men with one hand. She is also credited with raising barrels of whisky from the floor to a bar counter singlehandedly.
Such strength was possible given Christmas’s imposing stature. According to legend, Christmas stood six feet eight inches tall and weighed more than 250 pounds. Christmas is also said to have worn men’s clothing during the day, and sometimes she is described as having a neat moustache. Indeed, some of the legends say that women were often unable to tell that Christmas wasn’t a man and many unknowingly made love with her. However, Christmas is also described as wearing women’s clothes in the evenings, particularly a gold, green, or red satin dress, which she would accessorize with a hat decorated with a turkey feather. This feather signaled Christmas’s status as a champion fighter. According to some people, Christmas wore women’s clothes in her role as a madam of a floating bordello, the owner of one of the many water-borne brothels that served the port of New Orleans.
Another distinctive feature of Christmas’s appearance is the pearl necklace that she wears around her neck, each representing a man that she had subdued in a fight. It is said that this necklace measured twenty feet long by the time Christmas died. One of the more famous of those bested by Christmas was Mike Fink, the semilegendary tough, combative king of the keelboats. Alternately, other people suggest that Christmas’s necklace was made from men’s ears, noses, eyes, or teeth that she managed to snatch from those she vanquished during fights. Another important element of Christmas’s appearance was that she did not wear a tignon, the head covering that French colonial law required Creole women to wear and that became a stylish accessory during the nineteenth century.
Christmas was the mother of twelve children: all sons according to some sources, but other accounts say her brood was half girls and half boys. Christmas’s children would escort her, six on each side, wherever she traveled. Whether or not Christmas was ever married is a matter of debate; some say that she was a widow, while others maintain that Christmas never wed. According to some legends, Christmas was highly attractive to men and was married six times. It is said that she literally loved all six husbands to death, so powerfully passionate a lover was she. Christmas became so fearful of her overpowering effect on men that she decided to stop marrying after her sixth husband died.
Christmas’s death varies from tale to tale. According to one account, she died heartbroken after her lover, a fellow gambler, had died. Another version says Christmas was shot during a fight in a New Orleans gambling den. Those who arranged Christmas’s funeral ensured that her prowess on the water was highlighted, for Christmas’s body was sent down the river and out to sea on a barge while other boats whistled in salute. According to some versions of Christmas’s funeral, her twelve children stood on the barge with her coffin, and they all floated down the river and were never seen again.
Victoria Williams
See also Fakelore; Febold Feboldson; Joe Magarac; John Henry; Paul Bunyan; Tall Tales; Women in Folklore
Further Reading
Alvarado, Denise M. 2015. “Annie Christmas: A New Orleans Voudou Loa, Daughter of the Mississippi and Defender of Victims of Bullies.” The Voodoo Muse Online Magazine of Sweet Tea and Conjure. http://www.voodoomuse.org/annie-christmas.html. Accessed July 9, 2015.
de Caro, Frank. 2015. “Legends, Local Identity, and a New Orleans Cookbook.” Folklife in Louisiana: Louisiana’s Living Traditions. http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/LFMcookbook.html. Accessed July 10, 2015.
“Folklore Made to Order.” 1948. Milwaukee Journal. June 10. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19480610&id=UuFQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vCMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3748,4738189&hl=en. Accessed July 9, 2015.
Perkins, Agnes Regan. 1997. Myths and Hero Tales: A Cross-Cultural Guide to Literature for Children and Young Adults. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Tallant, Robert, Lyle Saxon, and Edward Dreyer. 2006. Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales. Gretna, LA: Pelican.