“More chain than he can carry”.

Hi everyone, thanks for looking at this thread.

A man involved in all the JFK business called Roger Craig was told, on asking after a friend, that his friend had died because he had “more chain than he could carry”. I was very surprised I couldn’t find this saying on Google! Have any of you heard of it? I’m assuming it just means succumbing to your ailments etc.

Thanks again for looking.

I've never heard of it. Do you have more context? Who was the dead friend? What did he do for a living?

If I had to guess with no context, I might think he'd been killed by the Mafia (or similar). Some people have been assassinated by groups like that by having a very heavy chain wrapped around them (or their feet) and then being thrown into a body of water.

It is an allusion to an ancient and exceedingly racist joke which I decline to repeat. It has to do with the discovery in a pond or swamp of the body of a black man wrapped in chain, the presumption of the speaker being that he had been trying to steal the chain.

probus said:

It is an allusion to an ancient and exceedingly racist American joke which I decline to repeat here. It has to do with the discovery in a pond or swamp of the body of a black man wrapped in chain, the presumption of the speaker being that he had been trying to steal the chain.

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Yes, this is exactly what came to my mind. But I would expect the plural "chains."

Trying to steal more chains than he could swim with.

Chain is frequently used uncountably.

Hey everyone, thanks for the answers!

I have no details about the friend who died, I just heard the phrase.

I suppose in those days it could very well have been a reference to a racial thing. Shame really because it’s a very poetic sounding saying for someone passing away.

Am I rubbish at googling, can anyone find it on the web?

Cheers again!

Why would anyone want to, given what I have told you about its origin and meaning? If you insist on using it in memoriam of your late friend, you may as well go the whole hog and include the N-word, which was part of the original.

Some people! Sheesh!

I seriously doubt it's a reference to a racial joke. It seems to be offered as a sincere epitaph on friend's passing. I imagine it's a metaphorical reference to life burdens as prisoner chains. There are numerous historical and biblical references to the burdens (literal and metaphorical) people carry in life as chains, shackles, or yokes.

I think the idea is that the deceased finally succumbed to all his physical and/or mental burdens. Given the phrasing, I can't help but wonder if the deceased committed suicide.

Although there were conspiracy theories on his death, Craig's own official cause of death was ruled as self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

If that interpretation is correct, don't you think the speaker would have used could rather than can?

probus said:

If that interpretation is correct, don't you think the speaker would have used could rather than can?

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He did.

AtticusL said:

A man involved in all the JFK business called Roger Craig was told, on asking after a friend, that his friend had died because he had “more chain than he could carry”.

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