Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. used by a white speaker of a black person, malevolent; thus bluegum nigger, bluegum moke, bluegum terror etc [the racist belief that black people’s bite was poisonous].

1891		Atlanta Constitution 18 Oct. 1/3: Their bite is as bad as a blue gum nigger.
1897		Times Democrat (Lima, OH) 23 July 7/4: Among the numerous superstitions of the old plantation days which still linger in the south none is more pronounced or more widely diffused than the belief in the fatal effects of the ‘blue gum nigger’s’ bite.
1908		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:iv 292: blue gum(med) nigger, n. phr. A negro whose gums are blue or black. The bite of such a negro is supposed to be poisonous.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 34: He had a nose like a sickle and a neck like a blue-gum nigger.
1922		(con. mid-19C) A. Gonzales Black Border 136: Blue gum, yallah eye, / Black nigguh berry sly.
1929		J. Sale Tree Named John 13: ‘Ah’d a cut yo’ clo’s off’n you wid it, you nappy-haided, blue-gummed heifer! Git!’ Aunt Betsey met the whimpering girl at the gate.
1933		J. Conroy Disinherited 293: A blue gum nigger!
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 10/1: Blue gum terror, a dangerous, vicious negro.
1952		E. Brown Trespass 158: Just who in hell you think you is, you blue-gum jigaboo?
1960		in Dundes & Pagter Urban Folklore (1975) 29: In 1915 my wife ran away with a blue-gum nigger.
1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 58: Lummy gave Joe Lon his blue-gummed smile.
1983		(con. 1860s) Irving L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 46: Color Allusions, Other than ‘Black’ and ‘Negro’ [...] blue-gum [1860s].
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 204: He actually used the term ‘bone-dumb bluegums’ in front of me once.

2. of a black person, having a very dark complexion.

1897		Irving Jones ‘Take Your Clothes and Go’ 🎵 You red-eye, blue-gum, flat-foot moke, you never have a cent, you’re always broke.
1931		R. Bass ‘Ole Miss’ in Botkin Folk-Say 51: Overlea was a regular blue-gummed African.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 17: Smoke was a blue-gum from lower Georgia.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 228: bluegum moke: n. A Negro whose gums are bluish rather than red. It is said that the bite of a blue-gum moke means certain death.
1960		P. Oliver Blues Fell this Morning 79: The extremely black-skinned man is looked down upon, the lowest grade being the ‘blue-gummed nigger’ in the Negro’s own offensive term.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 198: bluegum, n. –a Negro.
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 432: What makes you think I was spending time with some blue-gummed nigger girl?
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 30: Expressions like [...] blue gum, smokey, and smokey the fire bear are used both playfully and pointedly to characterize extreme blackness.