trad songs on women's rights movement

Subject: trad songs on women's suffrage movement
From: Charcloth
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 04:26 PM

just looking around for historical songs used concerning the women's rights movement of the mid 1800's
or any info (or songs) concerning Deborah Sampson, a black women discharged from George Washington's army because she was "discovered" not to be a male.

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 05:00 PM

Here's a bio ofDeborah Sampson but it doesn't say anything about her being black. Hers is an incredible story, though, and I'd like to thank you for bringing it to our attention. I'd not heard of her, before.

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 05:03 PM

For that matter, it doesn't say anything about her being white either.

Or mention the color of her hair or eyes...

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 05:09 PM

There is also another good piece on her by someone doing genealogy research and finding she was an ancestress, here.

Not found any songs, yet.

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 06:13 PM

Well, it's not mid-1800's, closer to the 1890's, but this site has three songs of the Suffragette movement: Click here.

It's a pdf file, so you have to have Adobe Acrobat to read it. If I get time in the next day or two, I will print them out and try to get them entered, if they aren't already in the DT. For some reason, in Acrobat it won't let me copy and paste.

There is also a Smithsonian Folkways album from 1958 entitled "Songs of the Suffragettes."

Hope this helps,

kat

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: Charcloth
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 12:23 AM

Thanks Kat. I just ran across a short reference to Deborah Sampson in a book I have titled, Chronicle of America ISBN # 1-872031-50-1 on page 182 it reads
"Negro woman serving as soldier, Boston...Robert Shirtliffe was discharged from a Mass. regiment this month. There would be nothing unusual about such a release except for the fact that "Robert" is actualy a Negro woman named Deborah Sampson. She served in the Continental Army for 3 years & was wounded by sword & gun. General Washington discharged her with kind words & sent her enough money to "bear her expences to some place where she might find a home"
I found it interesting & was hoping someone might have written a song about it. It does kind of remind of the song "Jack A roe"

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: Charcloth
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 12:34 AM

Hum, after reading the bio's it makes you wonder if the Chronicle book is as acurate as it is supposed to be(in regard to her ethnic origin.) Oh well it is still a fascinating story anyway. Thanks for the helps

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 12:54 AM

You're welcome. Were any of the other songs for the women's movement helpful?

I hope we are able to find some songs about Deborah. I've found two more interesting articles about her:

from www.minervacenter.com/faq.htm comes this,

"Questions about Deborah Samson Gannett (1760-1827), Revolutionary War soldier

"How do you spell the name of the famous woman soldier of the American Revolution? I've seen both Deborah Sampson Gannett and Deborah Samson Gannett.

"The correct spelling is Samson, without a "p." The primary source docuemts recording her birth and family history make this quite clear. The misspelling, however, is extremely common. Evidence evidence on this question is developed in an article by Patrick J. Leonard in MINERVA: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military VI (Fall, 1988).

"Was Deborah Samson Gannett an African-American? Pictures and many references represent her as white, but some books list her as an African-American.

"The story that Deborah was African-American keeps resurfacing for some reason, but there is no shred of truth in it. Benjamin Quarles, the pioneering historian of The Negro in the American Revolution, which was published in 1961, stated flatly that "The female combatant and former school teacher Deborah Sampson [sic] . . . was not a Negro."

"The story first appeared as the result of a misreading of a passage in the book by William C. Nell entitled Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, published in 1855. Nell mentions two black Revolutionary War veterans who were remembered by a man named Lemuel Burr, the grandson of one of them. According to Nell, Burr "often speaks of their reminiscences of Deborah Sampson." This is all Nell wrote; he does not suggest that Deborah herself was black, but apparently some readers jumped to the conclusion that black veterans would not have "reminiscences" about any but other black veterans. Deborah was well known -- indeed notorious -- in her day; she went on lecture tours and her life was the subject of a book called The Female Review. Many of the men who served in her unit no doubt told their "reminiscences" of the woman soldier to their grandchildren.

"The picture of Samson that is generally reproduced comes from The Female Review. It shows a white woman with long loose curls. It was drawn from life and since it was sold to people who had seen Samson in her stage appearances, it cannot have been too inaccurate. Indeed, a striking feature, her large chin, appears in the faces of some of her living descendants.

"The genealogy of Deborah Samson (which, by the way, is the correct spelling) is quite clear. On both sides she was descended from Mayflower families. There is no possibility of an extramarital affair between Deborah's mother and a black man. First of all in the Puritan town of Plympton, MA, a town of only 1,300 inhabitants, such an affair could not have remained secret. Adultery and/or rape would have had consequences. Second, black skin color is a dominant genetic trait and so would have appeared in at least one of Deborah Samson Gannett's three children by Benjamin Gannet Jr.

________________________________________________________

And, this one naming her an Official Heroine of Massachusetts. There is certainly enough material for a good ballad!

Canton Massachusetts Historical Society

DEBORAH SAMSON

OFFICIAL HEROINE OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

By: Patrick J. Leonard

"On May 23, 1983 Governor Michael J. Dukakis signed a proclamation which declared that Deborah Samson was the Official Heroine of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Two news services stated this was the first time in the history of the United States that any state had proclaimed anyone as the official hero or heroine. It was another first for Deborah Samson.

"Who was Deborah Samson? Why was she designated the Official State Heroine? And why, in 1985 did the prestigious United States Capitol Historical Society issue a commemorative medal in her honor?

"Schoolmarm Deborah Samson was never mentioned among the beauties of her day when the topic of female pulchritude arose in the decorous social circles of Plympton and Middleborough, Massachusetts in the 1770's; but Private Robert Shurtliff was always mentioned in glowing terms as being one of the toughest, strongest, and most patriotic soldiers in the Massachusetts Fourth Regiment at the 1782 and 1783 campfires and taprooms of what is now known as West Point, New York. Shurtliff's physical endurance was legendary.

"What no one suspected for quite a while, except possibly a tactful clergyman in Bellingham, Massachusetts, was that Deborah and Robert were one and the same person. And what a gal she was!

"When Jonathan Samson, Jr. and Deborah Bradford were married on October 17, 1751, it was a union between a couple who were direct Mayflower descendants. In fact, Governor William Bradford was the great grandfather of the blushing bride; and the blond six foot groom had among his ancestors the famed but bashful Captain Myles Standish and his first wife Barbara Thorne; and the love birds John Alden and Priscilla Mullens of the "speak for yourself, John" legend when the then widowed Standish asked the much younger Alden to plead his suit with the fair Priscilla.

"Things looked pretty good for Jonathan and Deborah when they were first married, but Jonathan sadly lacked the business acumen and willingness to work hard of his prosperous father, and the couple were soon living in poverty.

"At least seven children were born to the couple, Jonathan III, Hannah, Elisha, Ephraim, Deborah, Nehemiah, and Sylvia, who was born when it was believed her father had been lost at sea off the coast of England in 1766. Deborah was not quite six at the time. However, recent research has proved that Jonathan was not lost at sea, he had abandoned his family and moved to Maine where he continued to live in poverty and where he died in 1811 and was buried in the paupers lot in a Fayette cemetery.

"Deborah Bradford Samson simply could not provide for her brood and it became necessary for her to "bound out" some of the children. Deborah, aged five, was taken by a spinster and she was then sent to work in the home of the elderly widow of the Reverend Peter Thatcher. Some months later, Deborah was taken to the daughterless home of a Middleborough farmer, Deacon Jeremiah Thomas, the proud father of no less than ten sons.

"There Deborah spent about ten years, growing to be almost five foot eight inches tall, almost a foot taller than the average woman of her day, and taller than the average man. Hours of strenuous farm work broadened her shoulders and hardened her muscles. While doing these chores she dressed in male clothing. As customary with farm girls of the era in her circumstances, she received no formal schooling. Being an intelligent, spirited person who refused to accept second class citizenship she obtained an education by having the Thomas boys review their studies with her each evening after they returned from school, and the laborious farm chores were done for the night.

"When Deborah became eighteen, she secured a job, of all things, as a school teacher! The one room school house in which she taught is still existent today, part of a neat Cape codder in Middleboro. She supplemented her income by spinning and weaving at various homes and at Sproats Tavern, a gathering place for the men who discussed the battles of the Revolutionary War and the heroic exploits of some local young men, including Ebenezer Sproat, the six foot, six inch giant son of the tavern owner, Ebenezer well on his way to become a Colonel in the Second Massachusetts Regiment.

"Patriotism and the love of adventure finally got the best of the tall schoolmarm, and there is inconclusive evidence that she disguised herself as a man and signed Muster Master Israel Wood's sheets as "Timothy Thayer of Carver" but changed her mind overnight and did not report for duty the following day. A scandal of sorts ensued, and the pious Deacons of the third Baptist Church which Deborah had joined sometime before, interrogated her but she would not admit to the 'scandalous' behavior. Things got a bit warmer for Deborah, and a short time later she donned male apparel and walked to Bellingham, Massachusetts where her distant cousin, the Reverend Noah Alden, who had served Deborah's congregation in Middleboro, now had a parish. His parsonage was diagonally across the street from a tavern where recruits from the area were mustered in.

"There, on Monday, May 20, 1782, Muster Master Noah Taft looked up from his table into the cold blue eyes of a tall rangy blond young man with a firm jutting jaw and a prominent nose, who identified himself as Robert Shurtliff and stated he wanted to join the army for the balance of the war. Taft paid the youth sixty pounds bounty money, after first deducting his fee, and as Shurtliff signed, Taft may have noticed that he was left-handed and unable to bend the index finger of his left hand due to an old injury. The signature was bold, legible and still exists in Massachusetts records.

"Three days later at Worcester, Captain Eliphalet Thorp mustered Shurtliff and forty-nine other recruits into Captain George Webb's Company. Sergeant Gamble marched the volunteers to West Point where the men were given their uniforms and equipment. No such thing as a Physical examination in those days!

"Although the last major battle of the Revolution had been fought the previous October when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, a desperate guerilla warfare was still being savagely fought in some areas by determined Tories who refused to give up. The British still occupied New York City and other strongholds.

"One of the Tory units was a feared and specially trained band led by Colonel James DeLancy, and several merciless hand to hand struggles took place. In these wild skirmishes Shurtliff demonstrated his courage, strength, loyalty and fighting skill over and over again. Once when his group were ambushed near Tarrytown, Shurtliff suffered a forehead wound from a sabre slash and then was felled by a musket ball in the upper left front thigh. Just before the hapless Americans were annihilated, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat and his soldiers arrived and drove off the DeLancy attackers. Sproat, who had often seen Deborah Samson spinning in his fathers tavern in distant Middleboro, in the excitement of the rescue did not recognize the bloodstained and bleeding soldier as the prim schoolmarm Deborah Samson.

"At a field hospital a French doctor bound up the head wound, but was not advised of the thigh injury. When the doctor began to attend another wounded soldier, Deborah limped out of the hospital, and later, with iron nerve, using her knife, managed to extract the musket ball in her thigh. She was some time recovering from her wounds until she was able to rejoin her company.

"There is a pleasant legend that "Robert Shurtliff" was among the commando type warriors selected to defend Congress in Philadelphia from disgruntled unpaid soldiers; and while there, became ill, unconscious, and a Dr. Barnabas Binney found that the almost dead soldier boy was in reality an almost dead soldier girl. Binney reportedly had the unconscious soldier carried to his home without reporting his discovery, and there his wife and a nurse named "Mrs. Parker" took care of the soldier until she regained consciousness. It is highly doubtful that Robert Shurtliff was ever in Philadelphia.

"Whatever happened, it was discovered that Robert Shurtliff was in reality a woman, and because of 'his' heroic services, an Honorable Discharge was awarded to Robert Shurtliff on October 23, 1783.

"Deborah returned to her mother in Plympton, but Mrs. Samson was quite critical of her daughter's army exploits, so Deborah journeyed to the Stoughton home of her aunt, Alice Waters, the wife of farmer Zebulon Waters. Reportedly, she was dressed as a man when she arrived at the Waters farm and Aunt Alice had the impression the visitor was Ephraim Samson, one of Deborah's brothers.

"Some time later when 'Ephraim' met Sharon farmer Benjamin Gannett, Deborah decided to discard her male garb and become a female again as she and Benjamin soon became engaged and were married on April 7, 1785.

"The marriage was for the most part cursed with poverty, but blessed with three fine children. Son Earl became a Captain in the Militia and a successful business man; daughter Mary married Judson Gilbert and daughter Patience married Seth Gay. Early in their marriage, in spite of their own lack of material things, Deborah and Benjamin adopted an orphan, Susanna Baker Shepard, Deborah no doubt recalling her own unfortunate childhood.

"Benjamin Gannett was one of the unfortunate men who try to work hard and efficiently, but never manage to earn enough money to properly provide for their families. The Gannetts lived in a small three room structure opposite the corner of the present East and Billings Streets in Sharon. Money was a constant problem, and there are letters still existing in which Deborah mentions small sums of money she had borrowed from friends. The famous night rider, Paul Revere, now a prosperous man with a foundry and a home in nearby Canton, learned of the financial plight of Deborah. In fact she later borrowed ten dollars from him. Paul felt sorry for Deborah, and felt that she should be given a pension for her services in the war. He was a practical man with excellent connections, and as a result of his efforts, on January 19, 1792, the legislature granted Deborah thirty-four pounds with interest from October 23, 1783, the document bearing a well known signature, John Hancock, who was the Governor at the time.

"In a letter dated February 20, 1804 to Congressman William Eustis concerning Deborah's pension, Revere refers to Benjamin Gannett thus: Her husband is a good sort of man, though of small force in business. They have a few acres of poor land, which they cultivate, but they are really poor.

"In 1797 Herman Mann, an imaginative hack writer from Dedham, wrote a far from factual biography of Deborah titled: "The Female Review; Or, Memoirs of An American Lady." The book contained innumerable falsehoods and inaccuracies, Mann even succeeded in misspelling her surname. He unintentionally did one services for posterity. He commissioned Joseph Stone of Framingham (1774-1818) to paint a portrait of Deborah for the frontispiece of the book. The picture, oil paint on paper, about fifteen inches by ten, pasted on wood, is in the John Brown Museum in Providence, Rhode Island. The portrait is far from flattering; Stone was equally as far from being an accomplished artist. But one does get the impression of a woman with calm level blue eyes, rather blonde hair, a prominent nose and a pugilistic chin.

"At the time the first known to serve disguised as a man in the war, Deborah scored another first when she became the first professional woman lecturer, billed as "The American Heroine" and according to the March 2, 1802 bill at the Federal Theatre in Boston, "Equipt in complete uniform will go through the manual exercises". Her tour took her to Providence, New York State, various Massachusetts cities, and eased the financial burden at her home.

"Things brightened up for Deborah in 1813. Her son Earl married Mary Clark and built a beautiful mansion which still stands at 300 East Street in Sharon. There Deborah made her home in her final years.

"Sunday, April 29, 1827 Deborah Samson Gannett died in the upper left bedroom at 300 East Street. She was buried in the nearby Rock Ridge Cemetery, her gravestone located a short distance from the hill on which her grandson George Washington Gay erected a monument to her and the Civil War veterans many years later.

"To recount all the myths, misstatements and outright falsehoods about Deborah would take pages. Her true name was Samson, but due to Mann, even plaques and monuments show her name as Sampson, and careless writers and 'historians' have repeated Mann's spelling and foolishness over the years.

"Recently, proper research by such scholars as Professor Emil F. Guba and Plympton historian Charles H. Bricknell, has replaced the myths with facts; and historian John Lundvall of Mendon, Massachusetts has deduced why Deborah journeyed to Bellingham to enlist.

"One translation of the Samson coat of arms is: "Disgrace Is Worse Than Death." It is not known if Deborah was aware of this motto. But she surely lived up to it!"

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 12:58 AM

Charcloth:

We heard a song about Deborah Sampson sung by a lady named Sarah Lifton in 1980. She may have written it. We have it on a tape. If no one posts the lyrics soon, we'll try to transcribe them for you.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 01:58 AM

In the American Memory (LOC) collection, there's this article:

"Deborah Sampson, a Heroine of the American Revolution." [The New England magazine. / Volume 19, Issue 2, Oct 1895]
AUTHOR: Kate Gannett Wells
Page(s) 156-159

~Masato

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 03:01 AM

Visit these sites, too.

(1) SUFFRAGE SONGS and VERSES BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN

(2) Give the Ballot to the Mothers: Songs of Suffragists

(3) Hurrah for Woman Suffrage!: Songs from the American Woman Suffrage Movement (1848-1920)

~Masato

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 03:06 AM

Sorry, (1) is:
SUFFRAGE SONGS and VERSES BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN

~Masato

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:31 AM

And more:

(4) Suffrage Songs. Some songs with lyrics, music & audio.

(5) Music for the Nation: Themes in Popular Songs
George Cooper and Edwin Christie, "Daughters of Freedom! The Ballot be Yours" (with audio clip)

~Masato

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 10:05 AM

Those are some great links, Masato. Thank you!

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: jeffp
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 10:08 AM

Here are the three songs that kat linked to:

Keep Woman in Her Sphere
(Auld Lang Syne)
by D. Estabrook
This song is found in numerous suffrage songbooks, and was widely sung at rallies.

I have a neighbor, one of those
Not very hard to find
Who know it all without debate
And never change their mind
I asked him"What of woman's rights?"
He said in tones severe--
"My mind on that is all made up,
Keep woman in her sphere."
I saw a man in tattered garb
Forth from the grog-shop come
He squandered all his cash for drink
and starved his wife at home
I asked him "Should not woman vote"
He answered with a sneer--
"I've taught my wife to know her place,
Keep woman in her sphere."
I met an earnest, thoughtful man
Not many days ago
Who pondered deep all human law
The honest truth to know
I asked him"What of woman's cause?"
The answer came sincere --
"Her rights are just the same as mine,
Let woman choose her sphere."
The New America
(America)
Sung at the National-American Woman's Suffrage Convention, 1891, this
song reflects a common suffrage argument - that giving women the vote simply fullfilled the promise of 1776.

Our country, now from thee
Claim we our liberty
In freedom's name
Guarding home's altar fires
Daughters of patriot sires
Their zeal our own inspires
Justice to claim
Women in every age
For this great heritage
Tribute have paid
Our birth-right claim we now
Longer refuse to bow
On freedom's altar now
Our hand is laid
Sons, will you longer see
Mothers on bended knee
For justice pray?
Rise now, in manhood's might
With earth's great souls unite
To speed the dawning light
Of freedom's day
Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?
(Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?)
by L. May Wheeler
Set to a popular parlour tune, this song addresses an argument made against woman's suffrage: that women already had everything they needed - male protection, a sphere of their own - and didn't need to vote as well.

Oh Dear, what can the matter be
Dear dear what can the matter be
Oh dear, what can the matter be
Women are wanting to vote
Women have husbands, they are protected
Women have sons by whom they're directed
Women have fathers, they're not neglected
Why are they wanting to vote?
Women have homes, there they should labor
Women have children whom they should favor
Women have time to learn of each neighbor
Why are they wanting to vote?
Women can dress, they love society
Women have cash with all its variety
Women can pray with sweetest piety
Why are they wanting to vote?
Women have reared all the sons of the brave
Women have shared n the burdens they gave
Women have labored this country to save
And that's why we're going to vote
Oh Dear, what can the matter be
Dear dear what can the matter be
Oh dear, what can the matter be
Why should men get every vote?

These songs and thirteen more are available on
Songs of the Suffragettes, 1958 Folkways Records #FH5281
c/o Smithsonian-Folkways Records http://www.si.edu/folkways/
414 Hungerford, Suite 444 Rockville, MD 20850 [phone]

For more information about traditional women's music, visit Gerri Gribi's website
A Musical Romp Through Women's History http://creativefolk.com

In order to copy from a pdf file, you must have the Adobe Acrobat software that you pay for (Distiller, Exchange, etc.), not just the freeware Reader. We have it at work to create pdf files, so there you are. I also corrected the address given on the original sheet from "Rockford" to "Rockville" Maryland. (I used to live there. As far as I know, there is no Rockford in Maryland.)

jeffp

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 03:48 PM

Here's a song about Deborah Sampson. It was written by Sara Lifton and we heard her sing it in early 1980.

DEBORAH SAMPSON

by Sara Lifton

1.Oh, my name is Deborah Sampson I was twenty two years old
And I traded home and family for battles and for gold
First I shed my skirts and bonnet, tied my hair, took up a gun
Then I put on coat and breeches, once a daughter now a son, now a son
Then I put on coat and breeches, once a daughter now a son

2. It was in the month of May in seventeen and eighty two
That I left behind New England my fortunes to pursue
But being not a gentleman with money to spend free
I had to join the regiment, the country for to see, for to see
I had to join the regiment, the country for to see

3. Well, my comrades thought me handsome and they called me blooming boy
And I joined them in the taverns manly pleasures to enjoy
I was known as Robert Shirtliff, my brother called the same
When a maid becomes a soldier what's the difference in a name, in a name
When a maid becomes a soldier what's the difference in a name

4. I fought bravely in the battles my identity concealed
Not even when twice wounded was my womanhood revealed
For I denied that I was injured and I shunned inquiring eyes
And alone the damage tended lest I forfeit my disguise, my disguise
And alone the damage tended lest I forfeit my disguise

5. It was in the town of Baltimore I knew my act complete
There I learned for Robert Shirtliff that a maiden's heard did beat
Well, she gave me shirts and silver and a fortune for to share
But I owned that I was counterfeit to end the vain affair, vain affair
But I owned that I was counterfeit to end the vain affair

6. When we got to Philadelphia it was there I nearly died
I lay stricken with a fever and the doctor by my side
As he pulled aside my garments, the spark of life to fan
His fingers learned the truth that I was really not a man, not a man
His fingers learned the truth that I was really not a man

7. Well, his wife and family nursed me 'til my health and strength returned
But never once did he reveal the secret he had learned
But at length he wrote a letter and my history betrayed
And it caused the ranking officer to end my masquerade, masquerade
And it caused the ranking officer to end my masquerade

8. When I left my country's service in the guise I had created
'Twas then I learned the Baptists had me excommunicated
So I signed on as a farm hand, my amusement to extend
But I married Mr. Gannett and 'twas lost, the game did end, game did end
But I married Mr. Gannett and 'twas lost, the game did end

9. Well, if e'er you feel the sweet desire your fair sex to deny
Take heed of young girls' glances and stand ready with a lie
With a swagger stride for honor and with manly measure tread
And take care to bathe by moonlight and to guard your maidenhead, your maidenhead
And take care to bathe by moonlight and to guard your maidenhead

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: mousethief
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:12 PM

If you want something very after-the-fact and just a smidge irreverent, the "Schoolhouse Rock" treatment ("Suffering until Sufferage") was very hip in the mid-70's, and has a catchy beat.

***

Sufferin' Until Sufferage

Now you have heard of Women's Rights,
And how we've tried to reach new heights.
If we're "all created equal"... that's us too!

(Yeah!)

But you will proba...bly not recall
That it's not been too...too long at all.
Since we even had the right to cast a vote.

(Well!)

Well, sure, some men bowed down and called us "Mrs." (Yeah!)
Let us hand the was out and wash the dishes, (Huh!)
But when the time rolled around to elect a president...

What did they say, Sister, (What did they say?)

They said, uh, "See ya later, alligator,
And don't forget my...my mashed potatoes
'Cause I'm going downtown to cast my vote for president."

Oh, we were suffering until suffrage,
Not a woman here could vote, no matter what age,
Then the nineteenth amendment struck down the restrictive rule.
(Oh yeah!)

And now we pull down on the lever,
Cast our ballots and we endeavor
To improve our country, state, county, town, and school.

(Tell 'em 'bout it!)

Those pilgrim women who... who braved the boat
Could cook the turkey, but they... they could not vote.
Even Betsy Ross who sewed the flag was left behind that first election day.

(What a shame, Sisters!)

Then Susan B. Anthony (Yeah!) and Julia Howe,
(Lucretia!) Lucretia Mott, (and others!) they showed us how;
They carried signs and marched in lines
Until at long last the law was passed.

Oh, we were suffering until suffrage,
Not a woman here could vote, no matter what age,
Then the nineteenth amendment struck down that restrictive rule
(Oh yeah!)

And now we pull down on the lever,
Cast our ballots and we endeavor
To improve our country, state, county, town, and school.
(Right on! Right on!)

Yes, the nineteenth amendment struck down that restrictive rule.
(Right on! Right on!)
Yes, the nineteenth amendment struck down that restrictive rule
Yeah
Yeah Yeah
Right on!
We got it now!

Since 1920
Sisters, unite!
Vote on!

(for wav go here: blicky)

***

Alex

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: Charcloth
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 04:14 PM

Cool stuff I have been limited by time so have only briefly looked at the material & skimmed through it. Bev & Jerry do you know how I can get a copy of the song? In my opinion this is the kind of stuff that makes history fascinating

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 05:47 PM

Charcloth:

We have the song on tape so if you want to PM us, we'll send you a copy. Also, we're trying to get an address for Sara Lifton and will let you know if we have any luck. Her last known location was in Culver City (near Los Angeles) but that was years ago.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 10:40 PM

There are two "S. Liftons" listed in Culver City, CA, in the Yahoo People Search here, if that is of any help.

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 10:34 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 02:11 AM

Dianne Duggaw writes:

"[T]he Female Warrior motif persisits marginally in the twentieth century. If scattred pockets of singers in Britain and America continue to recall some of these now very old songs, new Female Warrior ballads are not being composed."

She adds in notes that she knows of three exceptions, all of them conspicuously retrospective. One of them is this song:

"Deborah Sampson, a ballad relating the story of the American Revolutionary war heroine, was written in the late 1970s by Sarah Lifton of Culiver City, California. While the song recounts events in the life of this actual Female Warrior, Lifton's Deborah Sampson does not really employ the familiar convention of narrative, theme, tone, and language that we have been tracking in the Female Warrior ballads of the early modern era. Lifton told me [i.e., Duggaw] (letter dated August 1987) that she wrote this 'counterfeit folk song' after coming across a mention of Sampson in an elementary school social studies text." (Dianne Duggaw, Warrior Women and Popular Balladry 1650-1850, Cambridge UP, 1989, p.89)

~Masato

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Oct 01 - 02:13 AM

Culver City, I should say.

Subject: Lyr ADD: Rights of Woman
From: masato sakurai
Date: 08 Oct 01 - 10:53 PM

This may have been the earliest women's rights song in America.

"During the controversial year 1795 a surprising revolutionary social concept of major dimension was enunciated when the Philadelphia Minerva (October 17, 1795) published a song, 'Rights of Woman,' to the tune of 'God Save the King.' Motivated and inspired by the first great feminist document, Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman--published in England in 1792, right on the heels of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man--this astonishing Declaration of Women's Independence, written by an anonymous 'Lady,' is as radical a statement for its time as anything ever written by Paine. Whoever the visionary lady was, she must be regarded as the Founding Mother of American women's liberation."

RIGHTS OF WOMEN
by A LADY.
Tune, "God Save America."[i.e., "God Save the King"]

God save each Female's right,
Show to her ravish'd sight
Woman is free;
Let Freedom's voice prevail,
And draw aside the vail,
Supreme Effulgence hail,
Sweet Liberty.

Man boasts the noble cause,
Nor yields supine to laws
Tyrants ordain;
Let woman have a share,
Nor yield to slavish fear,
Her equal rights declare,
And well maintain.

Come forth with sense array'd,
Nor ever be dismay'd
To meet the foe,--
Who with assuming hands
Inflict the iron bands,
To obey his rash commands,
And vainly bow.

O Let the sacred fire
Of Freedom's voice inspire
A Female too--;
Man makes the cause his own,
And Fame his acts renown,--
Woman thy fears disown,
Assert thy due.

Think of the cruel chain,
Endure no more the pain
Of slavery;--
Why should a tyrant bind
A cultivated mind
By Reason well refin'd
Ordained Free.

Why should a Woman lie
In base obscurity,
Her talents hid,
Has providence assign'd
Her soul to be confin'd;
Is not her gentle mind
By virture led?

~~~~

Let snarling cynics frown,
Their maximxs I disown,
Their ways detest;--
By man, your tyrant lord,
Females no more be aw'd.
Let Freedom's sacred word,
Inspire your breast.

Woman aloud rejoice,
Exalt thy feeble voice
In chearful strain;
See Wolstonecraft, a friend,
Your injur'd rights defend,
Wisdom her steps attend,
The cause maintain.

SOURCE: Vera Brodsky Lawrence, Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents (Macmillan, 1975, p. 130)

~Masato

Subject: RE: trad songs on women's rights movent
From: Haruo
Date: 08 Oct 01 - 11:37 PM

This last song is reminiscent of thoughts on the subject Abigail Adams addressed to her husband, John, later President, during the period leading up to the Declaration of Independence (ca. 1775), e.g.:

If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.

It is really mortifying, sir, when a woman possessed of a common share of understanding considers the difference of education between the male and female sex, even in those families where education is attended to...Nay why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one day intend for companions and associates. Pardon me, sir, if I cannot help sometimes suspecting that this neglect arises in some measure from an ungenerous jealousy of rivals near the throne.

Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex.

Liland