John the Conqueror second cousin/That little Johnny Conqueroo", and in "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" it is called "John De Conquer Blue". John the Conqueror was an African prince who was sold as a slave in the Americas. Despite his enslavement, his spirit was never broken and he survived in folklore as a sort of a trickster figure, because of the tricks he played to evade his masters. Joel Chandler Harris's Br'er Rabbit of the "Uncle Remus" stories is said to be patterned after High John the Conqueror. Zora Neale Hurston wrote of his adventures ("High John de Conquer") in her collection of
The Life and Adventures of Remus Majkowski worked on "Life and Adventures" from his college days on, and the novel was only published in its three-book entirety shortly after his 1938 death. Book 1 "At the Pustkowie" (chapters 1-15) Chapter 1 consists of an introduction delivered by an unknown narrator, who stumbles upon Remus's memoirs. From the second chapter on, Remus himself is the narrator. As a young orphan growing up in the "pustkowie" (a forest clearing), Remus is cheerful and fulfilled despite all the hard work and a speech impediment which makes him practically incomprehensible. He is troubled, as he grows up, by visions of