Lyr Add: Hang Up the Shovel and the Hoe

Subject: Lyr Add: HANG UP THE SHOVEL AND THE HOE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 01:41 AM

I found this remarkable "song" while searching for something else. It comes from a novel, therefore it may be a "fictional" song—perhaps it never had a tune and no one ever actually sang it. However, I suspect it reflects the feelings of actual slaves much better than the sentimental "darky" songs that were written by whites.

HANG UP THE SHOVEL AND THE HOE
from "Clotel; or The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States" (1853)
by William Wells Brown (1814-1884)

1. Come, all my brethren, let us take a rest,
While the moon shines so brightly and clear;
Old master is dead, and left us at last,
And has gone at the Bar to appear.
Old master has died, and lying in his grave,
And our blood will awhile cease to flow;
He will no more trample on the neck of the slave;
For he's gone where the slaveholders go.

CHORUS: Hang up the shovel and the hoe.
Take down the fiddle and the bow.
Old master has gone to the slaveholder's rest;
He has gone where they all ought to go.

2. I heard the old doctor say the other night,
As he passed by the dining-room door,
"Perhaps the old man may live through the night,
But I think he will die about four."
Young mistress sent me, at the peril of my life,
For the parson to come down and pray,
For says she, "Your old master is now about to die,"
And says I, "God speed him on his way." CHORUS

3. At four o'clock at morn the family was called
Around the old man's dying bed;
And oh! but I laughed to myself when I heard
That the old man's spirit had fled.
Mr. Carlton cried, and so did I pretend;
Young mistress very nearly went mad;
And the old parson's groans did the heavens fairly rend;
But I tell you I felt mighty glad. CHORUS

4. We'll no more be roused by the blowing of his horn,
Our backs no longer he will score;
He no more will feed us on cotton-seeds and corn;
For his reign of oppression now is o'er.
He no more will hang our children on the tree,
To be ate by the carrion crow;
He no more will send our wives to Tennessee;
For he's gone where the slaveholders go.

FINAL CHORUS: Hang up the shovel and the hoe,
Take down the fiddle and the bow,
We'll dance and sing, and make the forest ring,
With the fiddle and the old banjo.

[You can see the full text of the novel at Documenting the American South, a project of The University of North Carolina Library. The author was himself an escaped slave. The novel was published in England. It is considered to be the first novel written by an African-American.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hang Up the Shovel and the Hoe
From: Paul Burke
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 03:32 AM

Looks like an Abolitionist rewriting of Old Uncle Ned, which my parents used to sing in all innocence back in the 50s/60s. A Salford "Darky" accent has to be heard to be believed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hang Up the Shovel and the Hoe
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 08:29 AM

I agree, there are some striking similarities. However, it doesn't look as if the two songs would fit the same tune, at least not without some major adjustments.

It's interesting that Brown, an ex-slave, wrote his version in perfect English, without dialect (although in the novel, the song is sung by slaves), while Foster, a white man, made his song full of dialect: "de shubble and de hoe."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hang Up the Shovel and the Hoe
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 11:19 AM

William Wells Brown (1814-1884) also compiled "The Anti-Slavery Harp: A Collection of Songs for Anti-Slavery Meetings," pub. Boston, by B. Marsh, 1849.
Brown is called "the first black novelist" by Dena J. Epstein, 1977, "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, Black Folk Music to the Civil War," Univ. Illinois Press, pp. 181-182.

Brown's father was a white slave-holder, George Higgins. He escaped in 1834, and by 1843 lectured on an anti-slavery circuit.
While still a slave, he was hired to Elijah P. Lovejoy, editor of the St. Louis Times, who Brown described as a good master and teacher. Otherwise, Brown was largely self-educated.

Brown probably wrote the song for his anti-slavery lectures, modeling it on "Uncle Ned" by Foster. "Clotel" was a novel and the episodes are fictional, however much they may be modeled on real life.