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 pustkowie and his beloved Marta, Remus begins his long life of service to Kashubia. Book 2 "In Freedom and In Captivity" (chapters 16-30) Remus acquires a single-wheeled wheelbarrow, which he fills with Kashubian books and Catholic devotional items. These he sells for a nominal price as he wanders to and from various village and county fairs. Now grown tall and gawky, he cuts a strange and sometimes frightening figure; with his comical sidekick Trąba he gets into various adventures. The most important of these adventures concerns The King of the Lake, another Kashubian patriot who comes to a bad end.