Lyr Add: Whar de Shot Gun Rules no Mo'e

Subject: Lyr Add: Whar de Shot Gun Rules no Mo'e
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 08:35 PM

Lyr. Add: Whar de Shot Gun Rules no Mo'e
Frank J. Smith ("Native Hoosier"), 1880

1
De day's ben long, de night's ben dark,
De furnace heat burn'd high,
Since 'pression's yoke de good Lo'd broke,
By word from out de sky.

Chorus.
But now we's gwine, can no mo'e wait-
To de happy sundown sho'e.
But now we's gwine, can no mo'e wait-
To de happy sundown sho'e.
De land dey call de Kansas State,
Whar de shot-gun rules no mo'e.
De land dey call de Kansas State,
Whar de shot-gun rules no mo'e.

2
We's waited long, we's toil'd an' prayed,
For safety in our home,
De rifle crack it answers back,
"De Ku Klux now am come."
Chorus.
3
Dey call us freed men 'fore de law,
But gibs us cruel hate-
De ballet box am all a hoax,
In most dem Soud'ren State.
Chorus.
4
On 'lection day, dey hunts us down,
An' tries to cut our throat,
For bein' roun' dem white-trash town
An' spectin' we mout vote.
Chorus.
5
From cotton field, an' cabin too,
De cry ob blood am come-
Oh Lo'd! do see d'y chil'n flee
To find dah rest an' home-
Chorus.
6
Far'well, oh Souf', de land we lub'd
We's lef' you clean dis time,
Ouyr tears an' blood have soak'd yo'r sod,
We seek de better clime.
Chorus.

Pub. R. R. Meredith & Sons, Chicago, 1880.

Typical of a number of songs about migration of Blacks to Kansas following the Civil War and during the Reconstruction period.
Carpetbaggers as well as 'white trash' southerners acted to keep Blacks from voting in elections.
These songs mostly were written in pseudo-Negro dialect. Kansas Historical Society.

Kansas Memory