Definition of an American Yankee

Posted by Roger Saunders Apr 23, 2008

This famous song transitioned from a song of derision to an ad hoc National Anthem during the Revolutionary War but this was not the origin of the term. Yankee came from a Dutch term (Jhonki) describing hardworking, thrifty Puritan Englishmen who traded in Dutch ports of call during Oliver Cromwell's protectorate. The name stuck to these folks who resided mostly in the East Anglia.

As Puritans migrated to North America, their thrifty hardworking moniker followed and became synonymous with New Englanders. In the American Revolution, Britain saw these New England firebrands as instigators of the Revolution as they had been during the English Civil War. This is why all Americans who fought the British were called Yankees.

Prior to the American Civil War many Abolitionist groups headquartered in New England. Southerners pinned the entire north with the Yankee moniker, deriding them as puritanical and self righteous. During the two World Wars when the United States sent men to fight in Europe, the entire country earned the name Yank. The term Yankee had now gone full circle from a term of derision to one that Americans bore proudly.

This is evident in the popular American song that goes, I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, a Yankee Doodle, do or die; a real live nephew of my Uncle Sam, born on the fourth of July. Interestingly enough, in present day New England the term Yankee still retains some of its rancor. It describes someone who is tight fisted and will not part with their money without a fight! Of course, it is also a term of derision in the areas where the Boston Red Sox baseball team is strongly supported because these fans have a very healthy hatred of those Yankees who throw the old horsehide around in New York!