Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black, also Sal, Sally) a generic name for a black woman; used as the equivalent of Uncle Tom n. (1)the inference is of one who is willing to curry favour with whites at the price of her autonomy.

1813		in Publications Colonial Society of Massachusetts X 140 ii n.p.: Let’s tell horrible tales of black Sall, And of babies curl’d headed and yellow [...] Note: Though not recognized in the dictionaries, ‘Sall’ appears to be a generic name for a negress, as Sambo is for a negro [...] Miss Smith makes cotton pincushions for the antislavery fair; and Master Smith thinks he should like to marry ‘Sally dear’ [DA].
[1858		Lambeth & Southwark Advertiser 25 Dec. 2/6: ‘Aunt Sally’ is a doll, like one of those ragmen hang up / The nobs [...] declare she’s bang up!].
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 54: Aunt Sally, who was a nigger as black as the ace of spades or the devil’s hind leg.
1860		N&Q Ser. 2 X 117: Aunt Sally is the heroine of a popular negro melody, in which the old lady meets with several ludicrous adventures.
1863		Leeds Intelligencer 23 May 2/6: A veritable Aunt Sally, a slave woman of 95 years old, who has lived all those years on the same plantation.
1883		McCook Wkly Trib. (NE) 27 Dec. 6/4: Uncle Joshua drew away his hand, and Aunt Sally, in her corner, frowned over her knitting.
1893		Sedalia Wkly Bazoo (MO) 1 Aug. 7/1: ‘After thirty years of slavin’ and sufferin’ and wearin’ old duds you want to turn me out doors! Very well, I’ll go!’ [...] Aunt Sally [...] was making ready for her departure.
1947		K. Lumpkin Making of a Southerner 155: If I knew their names I at once forgot them, contenting myself with ‘Sally’ or ‘Jim,’ or if they were old, perhaps ‘Uncle’ or ‘Auntie’.
1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 8: Aunt Sally, n. Female equivalent of an Uncle Tom. Used in a derogatory sense by younger Blacks to describe a member of the older generation.

2. a scapegoat, often unfairly so.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 22/1: It has already been stated that Burnard is editor of that most ghastly of so called ‘comic’ papers, Punch. As F. C. B. is a good Catholic, the poor old Pope, who used to serve as a kind of Aunt Sally for the staff in the palmy days of Douglas Jerrold and John Leech, now enjoys a complete rest for 49 weeks of the year.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 16/1: That poor, old battered Aunt Sally, the ex-Gracious Isabella of Spain, appears to have made a somewhat unhappy sensation in the halls of British royalty.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Mar. 16/1: Our artist presumes that this week’s Parliamentary Sports – N.S.W. v. Vic – will include a Loyal Jingo variety of ‘Aunt Sally.’.
c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. 30 🌐 Does the Lord hang a feller for makin’ an Aunt Sally of another feller, an’ laughin’ in his sleeve.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 71: He will play a sort of Aunt Sally.
1915		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 15 Oct. 1/2: [photo caption] The Old Black Mammy. ‘unt’ Sally Steptoe, who was nurse of the Bolling children.
1966		Punch 6 July 28: It’s easy to be rude about South Africa. Of all the aunt sallies [...] available there is none on which there is such general agreement, and small chance that she will hit back in any way which hurts.
1979		Bold Bawdy Beautiful xxv: That egregious Aunt Sally of the establishment, Mrs Mary Whitehouse.
2000		Guardian Rev. 25 Feb. 3: Watkins insists that the BBC ‘must not be made an Aunt Sally’.
2012		Mail On Line 24 Jan. 🌐 Such education works by setting up the Aunt Sally of an ‘intolerant’ rest of society.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Aunt Sally [...] The game was sufficiently widespread and popular that by 1898 ‘Aunt Sally’ was a colloquialism i [...] meaning someone who was the object of easy but unfair attack.