If you remember the insult yellow belly coward, chances are good you watched more than a few old-time western movies or read books set in the Wild West. When someone uses the term yellow-belly, the person to whom they are referring is supposed to be easily afraid, and even though it’s a popular cowboy-themed insult, it’s still used these days.
Back in 2013, Seth MacFarlane co-wrote, “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” The Guardian newspaper in the UK reported that Sarah Silverman was also part of the cast, playing the part of a prostitute. Charlize Theron and Liam Neeson joined the cast as did Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, and Neil Patrick Harris.
The expression was used in the newspaper article describing MacFarlane’s character.
[Seth MacFarlane] will play a yellow-bellied chicken farmer who is forced to corral his courage when an outlaw terrorises his town.
The book East of Eden was written by John Steinbeck (27 February 1902 – 20 December 1968) and published in 1952. It was the story of two brothers, and examined the theme of the power of free will over fate. The story was similar in nature to the story of Cain and Abel. The book is considered to be Steinbeck’s most ambitious work among his 30 published books, and even Steinbeck felt the novel was his most important work as an author. In Chapter 54 of his book East of Eden, he included the expression.
He stared between his knees at the floor. “No,” he said, “that’s not my right. Nobody has the right to remove any single experience from another. Life and death are promised. We have a right to pain.”
His stomach contracted. “I haven’t got the courage. I’m a cowardly yellow belly. I couldn’t stand it.”
He went into the bathroom and measured three teaspoons of elixir of bromide into a glass and added water until the red medicine was pink. He carried the glass to the living room and put it on the table. He folded the telegram and shoved it in his pocket. He said aloud, “I hate a coward! God, how I hate a coward!” His hands were shaking and a cold perspiration dampened his forehead.
INTERESTING SIDE NOTE 1: While East of Eden is regarded as his most important work, Steinbeck’s most famous novel is The Grapes of Wrath which was published in 1939 and resulted in Steinbeck being award the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year.
INTERESTING SIDE NOTE 2: Of Steinbeck’s 30 published novels, 17 were made into television or studio movies, including East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. In all, Steinbeck received three Academy Award nominations for writing.
But back in merry olde England, in 1796, the term was used humorously when speaking about residents of Lincolnshire with no hint of it referring to being cowardly or afraid of anything. Their background of their regimental flag was yellow, and as luck would have it, the frogs in low-lying marshlands that were drained for agricultural purposes had yellow bellies.
INTERESTING NOTE 3: The difference between a bog and a fen (which is what the marshlands in Lincolnshire were) has to do with the water supply source. Bogs are enclosed depressions filled by rain water; fens enjoy a steady source of ground water.
So in 1796, when someone in England spoke of the yellow-bellies, it was with the same jovial way they spoke of redcoats.
Digging back a few more years, the term is found in A Provincial Glossary with a Collection of Local Proverbs by Francis Grose and published in 1787. It is listed with this definition:
Yellow bellies. This is an appellation given to persons born in the Fens, who, it is jocularly said, have yellow bellies, like their eels.
What this indicates is that sometime between 1787 and 1865 (when the period of the Wild West era began), and somewhere between England and America, the term went from being a teasing commentary to an insult.
A bit of insight is found on Page 3 of the Saturday, April 16, 1842 edition of The Wisconsin Enquirer (sometimes known as the Wiskonsan Enquirer) is found in this news article about Mexico’s invasion of Texas.
This article appeared in a great many newspapers, including the April 2, 1842 edition of The Radical in Bowling Green (Missouri) and the Bloomington Herald in Bloomington (Iowa) on April 8, 1842 among others, and they all owe their story to the original story published by the Galveston Civilian in Galveston (Texas) published on March 12, 1842. The article read in part as follows:
We learn from Capt. Wright, of the N. York, that it is the intention of the Texans to “keep dark” until the Mexicans cross the Colorado, and then give them a San Jacinto fight, with an army from 5000 to 7000 men. God send that they may bayonet every “yellow belly” in the Mexican army. Wonder if Houston will save Santa Anna a second time?
What happened is that Mexico had taken over San Antonio, and Samuel Houston (2 March 1793 – 26 July 1863) issued a Proclamation on March 10, 1842 that called Texans to arms. The Proclamation read as follows:
If war should come upon us, we will make it our business. We will be authorized to meet and pursue our enemies with vengeance They have forgotten the generosity with which they were treated when they were placed at the footstool of Texan mercy were saved when even humanity would have justified retributive vengeance Should Mexico again disregard the exalted principles of civilized and honorable warfare, they shall feel that avenging arm that shall take of them full recompense for oppression and cruelty! Texans can and will be free! They would prefer death to degradation, or the loss of their independence.
INTERESTING SIDE NOTE 4: The Santa Anna the article spoke of was Antonio López de Santa Anna who was born Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (21 February 1794 – 21 June 1976) in the city of Jalapa, Veracruz. He modeled himself after the French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte and even went as far as to adopt the moniker of Napoléon of the West.
INTERESTING SIDE NOTE 5: Santa Anna was partly responsible for sparking the Texas Revolution when his brother in law, General Martin Perfecto de Cos sent 500 troops into Texas in August of 1835 and on to Gonzales in October of that year.
At the time the news article was published, it was reported that six hundred Texans were at Saguine with reinforcements going in so they would stand approximately a thousand men strong against the Mexican army.
Yellow belly was the Texas term for Mexican soldiers and the insult was based on the color of the Mexican soldiers’ uniforms. Between the harsh warning from Samuel Houston to Mexico’s army and how Texans felt about being invaded, it isn’t hard to understand how the term “yellow belly” came to be an insult.
What this indicates, however, is that there does not appear to be a link between the use of yellow belly in England and the use of yellow belly in America. What we do know is that in 1824, the expression was used with quotation marks so the insult was in its early stages getting established as an insult.
As Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, and in 1824 they were causing problems in Texas, Idiomation pegs the insult to sometime between 1821 and 1823.