The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #48667   Message #731829
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
17-Jun-02 - 08:38 PM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Kingdom Coming (in the Year of Jubilo)
Subject: Lyr Add: YEAR OF JUBILEE
Kingdom Coming is in the DT. Also see thread 6770: Doodle

The song is discussed in Newman L. White, American Negro Folk Songs, 1928, pp. 170-171. The song probably arose from the singing of Negro Union soldiers. See T. W. Higginson, 1870, "Army Life in a Black Regiment."

YEAR OF JUBILEE

Niggers, has you seed ole Mosser;
Red mustache on his face,
A-gwine 'roun' sometime dis mawnin',
'Spectin' to leave de place?

Nigger hands all runnin' 'way;
Looks lak we mought git free!
It mus' be now de Kingdom Come
Sometime to-morrer night.

Yanks locked him in de smokehouse cellar,
De key's throwed in de well:
It sho' mus' be de Kingdom Come.
Go ring dat Nigger field-bell!

@Negro @slavery @freedom
From Thomas W Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes, new ed. 1990, pp. 50-51, Univ. Tennessee Press.
There are many other versions from the 1860s and later, some by white musicians as well as black. For some very recent similar songs, enter jubilee in the DT and Forum Search.