Background
His fraternal great-grandmother, Racheal Williams, was born 1810 in Colonial Virginia, and was commonly referred to as a mulatto.
His fraternal great-grandmother, Racheal Williams, was born 1810 in Colonial Virginia, and was commonly referred to as a mulatto.
He recorded "Fox Chase" and "John Henry" and worked in medicine shows. He gained his nickname following an accident whilst hoboing in 1930. Born Arthur Jackson in Jonesville, South Carolina, United States, to David Jackson, a farmer and native of Virginia, and Emma Jackson, Arthur was the fourth of six children.
She may have had a Caucasian mother or father, most likely, a caucasian father, as this would have been typical for the time period.
Peg Legal Sam taught himself to play harmonica as a small child but resented school, left home at the age of 12, and never stopped roving. He shined shoes, acted as a house boy, cooked on ships, hoboed, then made a living busking on street corners.
He lost his leg trying to hop a train but made a peg out of a fencepost, bound it to his stub with a leather belt and kept moving. His ability to play two harmonicas at once (while one went in and out of his mouth) made him an attraction and he went on to perform in patent-medicine shows.
He could also play notes on his harmonica with his nose.
Peg Legal Sam gave his last medicine-show performance in 1972 in North Carolina, but continued to appear at music festivals in his final years. He died in Jonesville in October 1977, at the age of 65.