Songs on, or about slavery

22 Sep 97 - 11:17 AM (#12814)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: dick greenhaus

If you search the database for @slave*, you'll get some 15 hits; @transport* will get you another 16.

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22 Sep 97 - 12:11 PM (#12824)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Bruce

Actually it was as indentured servants, not slaves, that people were transported to Virginia, usually for seven years, and sometimes longer. There are several songs of which this was a part.

@slave finds Grazier's Daughter, but not BETSY in DT (Laws' M20). This is descended from two 17th century broadsides (ZN1899, and ZN46) in which Betsy was sold to Virginia.

Give ear unto a Maid, That lately was betray'd/ ZN966| The Trappan'd Maiden.. sent to Virginia/ Tune: [none indicated]/ Licensed and Enter'd according to Order/ P4 159 = CR 422 = OPB 237: W. O., A.M. and C. Bates [Ptd. RB7 511]

Not long ago hur came to London/ ZN1899| The Trappan'd Welsh-man, Sold to Virginia/ Tune: Monsieurs Misfortune/ This may be Printed, R. P./ P4 31: C. Dennisson

It was in sweet Senegal/ The Slaves Lament, 'Scots Musical Museum', #384.

ZN numbers are those in the Broadside Ballad Index.

Unfortunately I do not have C. H. Firth's 'An American Garland' where one will undoubtably find a few more.

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22 Sep 97 - 01:31 PM (#12839)
Subject: Lyr Add: CONGO RIVER^^^
From: Bert

The Spinners sing this version of The Congo River....

Was you ever on the Congo River
Blow, Boys, Blow
Well yes I've been on the Congo River
Blow, Me bully boys, blow

The Congo She's a mighty river
Blow, Boys, Blow
Where the fever makes a white man shiver
Blow, Me bully boys, blow

A Yankee ship came down the river
Blow, Boys, Blow
Her masts and yards they shone like silver
Blow, Me bully boys, blow

How do you know she's a Yankee slaver....
By the blood and guts that flow from her scupper.....

Who do you think's theskipper of her....
Stack-em up a Joe from hell's half acre.....

Who do you think's the chief mate of her....
A bandy boss-eyed baron from the Bowery...

What do you think we had for breakfast....
'twas the starboard side of an old sou'wester....

What do you think we had for dinner...
'twas lenten soup and a squeeze in the wringer...

What do you think we had for supper....
a kick in the pants and a brawl in the scupper...
What do you think we carried as cargo...
'twas black sheep breaking the embargo...

I'ts blow today and blow tomorrow...
It's blow for this hell ship of sorrow...

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23 Sep 97 - 04:14 PM (#12985)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: dick greenhaus

My favorite slavery-related song is still The Flying Cloud.

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26 Sep 97 - 11:05 AM (#13238)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Karsten ([e-mail])

Well, it's not a folk song, but Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones comes to mind: "Gold coast slave ship bound to cotton fields" etc.

Full lyrics under:

http://www.lyrics.ch/cgi-bin/get.pl?s=39344

Cheers

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26 Sep 97 - 04:16 PM (#13266)
Subject: Lyr Add: TIME FOR US TO GO^^
From: Bruce

Song said to be sung by Slavers, picked up in Philadelphia and published by C.G. Leland, 1879. Here from reprint in 'Roxburghe Ballads', VIII, p. 448. [I once had, but lost, the title of Leland's book]

Time for us to Go.

With sails let fall and sheeted home,
and clear of the ground were we,
We pass'd the bank, stood round the Light,
and sail'd away to sea;
The wind was fair, the coast was clear,
the brig was noways slow,
For she was built in Baltimore, and 'twas time for us to go.
[Chorus] Time for us to go; time for us to go,
For she was built in Baltimore, and 'twas time for us to go.

A quick run to the West we had,
and when we made the Bight [of Benin]
We kept the offing all day long,
and crossed the Bar at night:
Six hundred niggers in the hold
and seventy we did stow;
And when we'd clapp'd the hatches on,
'twas time for us to go!

We hadn't been three days at sea
before we saw a sail,
So we clapp'd on every stitch she'd stand,
altho' it blew a gale;
And we walk'd along full fourteen knots,
for the Barkie she did know,
As well as ever a soul on board,
'twas time for us to go!

We carry'd away the royal yards,
and the stun's'l boom was gone;
Says the Skipper: "They may go or stand;
I'm darn'd if I don't crook on.
So the weather braces we'll round in,
and the tr-s'l set also,
And we'll keep the brig three p'ints away:
for 'tis time for us to go!

Oh, yard-arm under did she plunge,
in the trough of the deep seas,
And her masts they thrashed about like whips,
as she bow'd before the breeze;
And every yard did buckle up,
like to a bending bow,
But her spars were tough as whalebone,
and 'twas time for us to go!

We dropp'd the Cruiser in the night,
and our cargo landed we,
And ashore we went, with our pockets full of dollars,
on the spree:
And when the liquor it is out,
and the locker it is low,
Then, to sea again, in the Ebony Trade,
'twill be time for us to go!
Time for us to go; time for us to go!
Then to sea again, in the Ebony Trade,
'twill be time for us to go!

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28 Sep 97 - 07:34 PM (#13401)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Moira Cameron

No one seems to have mentioned Amazing Grace. This song was originally written (so the story goes) by the captain of a slaving ship. Apparently during one voyage, he suddenly realized the immorality of his actions. The song is meant to be of his revelation.

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28 Sep 97 - 09:13 PM (#13410)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GaryD

Right, Moira!..PBS did a great special on the song..variations, history, impact, etc..John Newton, I think his name was, became a religious leader in England and an advocate for ending slavery. PBS showed his grave marker in A church Cemetary in England. The Documentary was narrated I believe, but Bill Moyers.

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29 Sep 97 - 01:08 PM (#13479)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Bruce

I can't see that "Amazing Grace" has anything to do with slavery.
John Newton left the sea (and slave trade) in 1755. He was ordained minister in April of 1764 and made curate of Olney. William Cowper moved there in October, 1767 and together (but mostly Newton) they wrote the songs in 'Olney Hymns', 1779.
I haven't seen this work, but understand that "Amazing Grace" first appeared there, and without music or tune direction.

Newton left Olney in 1779 to become rector at St. Mary Woolnoth, London, where he died Dec 3. 31, 1807.

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30 Sep 97 - 07:27 PM (#13634)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Tim Jaques [e-mail]

Perhaps he was thinking back upon his days as a slaver when he speaks of "a wretch like me".

Wasn't the original of Cotton-Eyed Joe a song that had slavery references? I've read a reference on the back of an LP (perhaps no reliable source) that the original was slow and sad, and it was uptemo-ized (to coin a word) later. Unfortunately, the LP does not give the original lyrics.

Sixteen Tons is a good song about another kind of slavery.

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30 Sep 97 - 09:55 PM (#13655)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GaryD

Agreed!.."I owe my soul to the company store".. depends what definition you have for enslavement.. Anything you are forced to do without freedom of choice is not a bad one! How many of us are forced to be in jobs they hate because of circumstances? I guess I'd like to explore those Labor movement songs, like Pete Seeger and friends were so involved with.

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30 Sep 97 - 11:23 PM (#13666)
Subject: Lyr Add: LONG SUMMER DAY^^
From: Barry

Long Summer Day was last collected in the southern prison system, on the work gang, it survived through the obvious common bond(age). Not many of these songs from the slaves have make it to be handed on. Most that have survived are from other traditions or cultures (see Steven Foster), from slavers, preachers or sailors that crossed paths, collided with or happened on by.

Long summer day make a white man crazy, long summer day
Long summer day make a nigger run away, long summer day

Long summer day make a man run away, long summer day
Long summer day make a slave run away, long summer day

Pickin that cotton in the bottom field, long summer day
It's gathering up the cotton in the bottom field, long summer day

Master & the Misses sitting in the parlor, long summer day
Thinking on how to make a slve work harder, long summer day

Run away to see his Mary, long summer day
Run away to see his baby, long summer day.

Bruce, that 1st song (Virginny or Virginna Lags) dates to pre 1775, & it was as slaves they came (maybe not all) since the first in 1691.

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01 Oct 97 - 08:21 PM (#13761)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Martin Ryan

Bruce I'd love a tune to that ".. bound to go" set

Dick Agreed on the Flying Cloud

Everyone I suspect I have a record somwhere of Oscar Brown Jr. singing (a capella) "Bid em in,bid em in" about selling slaves. Powerful song.I've never sung it in public, although I have sung his "Worksong" in some rather strange settings!

Can someone supply the words to saave me excavating the cellar?

Regards

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01 Oct 97 - 08:30 PM (#13764)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Tim Jaques [e-mail]

A song similar in meaning to Sixteen Tons is The Pluck Me Store. My father remembers watching as a child in the 1920's when the coal miners rioted and burned one down along with all the records of who owed what to the coal company.

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01 Oct 97 - 11:49 PM (#13786)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Jerry Friedman, [e-mail]

Is "Blue-Tail Fly" really about slavery? That's what the DT says, but as far as I can tell it could also be about a (technically) free servant.

My favorite though non-folk song about slavery (which I plugged in the Fantasy Folk Circle string) is "Molasses to Rum to Slaves", from the musical 1776. The leading South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress, John Rutledge, attacks Northern participation in the slave trade and Northern hypocrisy (maybe stepping out of character a bit when he describes the misery of the slaves).

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02 Oct 97 - 11:30 AM (#13819)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Bruce

Martin, to the best of my knowledge there is no tune known for "time for us to go"

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02 Oct 97 - 02:34 PM (#13837)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Barry

The Blue Tail Fly appears in the "Ethiopian Glee Book printed in Boston 1848. Lomax says it may have originated from the old ring games and that the ballad was written by an Abolitionist & popular & well used by the minstrials prior to the civil war. Much of the minstrial repertoir wasn't genuine in fact most was pro-slavery. Dam Emmett, "Pickaninny" Coleman & "Jim Crow" Rice shows the Black to be indolent, ignorant, slyly thieving, disloyal, bestial, inanely joyful & boisterous- was calculated to show that their race was happy in it's present state & unworthy of better. Quoted from Lomax & Viking Book Of Folk Ballads. Barry

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05 Oct 97 - 06:22 PM (#13997)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: kiwi

I can't think of the lyrics off the top of my head (time to break out that mix tape again!) but "Slaves' Lament" comes to mind. It's sung by Dougie MacLean, and I believe that the words were written by Burns.

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05 Oct 97 - 08:07 PM (#14001)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE SLAVE'S LAMENT^^^
From: Shula

THE SLAVE'S LAMENT

by Robert Burns


It was in sweet Senegal
That my foes did me enthral
For the lands of Virginia, -ginia, O!
Torn from that lovely shore,
And must never see it more,
And alas! I am weary, weary, O!

All on that charming coast
Is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia, -ginia, O!
There streams for ever flow,
And the flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary, O!

The burden I must bear,
While the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia, -ginia, O!
And I think on friends most dear
With the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary, O!

Shula

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06 Oct 97 - 05:38 AM (#14032)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: dick greenhaus

Some of the most singable songs about slavery (although they're full of words that grate on modern sensibilities) are by Henry Clay Work. Look at Year of the Jubilo and Wake Nicodemus as examples. Work was an ardent abolitionist.

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06 Oct 97 - 06:13 PM (#14097)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Joe Offer

Hi, Dick - I did a search under [Henry Clay Work] and came up with lots of songs by Work. Most seem to have been added by RG in 4/96. Did you type them all by hand? They're wonderful. thanks for calling them to our attention.
-Joe Offer-

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22 Oct 97 - 12:27 PM (#15082)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: [e-mail]

Does anyone have a copy of "I'm Sold and Going to Georgia"? It 's on a 4LP set of Civil War Songs (American Heritage) sung by Tom Glazer. Obviously no longer available for purchase, I'm trying to find someone ready to sell the LP or willing to copy it for me. Many thanks [e-mail]

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21 Sep 99 - 10:28 PM (#116303)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: [e-mail]

In highschool chorus (1969) our teacher sang a song that was so beautiful. I remember a few lines and i use to sing it to my daughter when she was small. She loved it too!! i want to know all the words so I can sing it to my grandson.(her son) It started off "summer time and the living is easy---the fish are jumping -- and the cotton is high----your daddies rich and ya mamas good looking --so hush little baby doooon't you cry------------- someone please e-mail me and tell me the name of this song and how I can get the rest of the words. ---- I truly love this song!!!! thanks, Marsha

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21 Sep 99 - 11:22 PM (#116317)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: emily rain

marsha, that's "summertime" from porgy and bess by gershwin. i'd tell you the plot, but unfortunately i'm a plebian and have no idea.

the second verse:

one of these mornin's
you gonna rise up singin'
you'll spread your wings
and you'll take to the sky
but 'till that mornin'
aint nothin' can harm you
with daddy and mammy standin' by

i have the most heavenly recording by ella fitzgerald and louis armstrong, mmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

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22 Sep 99 - 12:57 AM (#116331)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Stewie

Of the more recent songs, 'Harriet Tubman' by Walter Robinson is excellent. It is on 'Carry It On' (Seeger, Sapp and Kahn)Flying Fish.

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22 Sep 99 - 06:57 AM (#116379)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GeorgeH

Hey, guys, please be careful about bluring the distinctions between workday drudgery and slavery (or even transportation and slavery). Sure there are parallells, but let's not over-state them.

G.

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22 Sep 99 - 09:50 AM (#116413)
Subject: Lyr Add: SUGAR TRADE^^
From: Susan-Marie

Two songs come to mind for me - "Follow the Drinking Gourd", about escaping from slavery, and a James Taylor/Jimmy Buffett (WARNING NON-FOLK CONTENT) song that talks about the complexities of effect and blame:

Back when this earth was a silver-blue jewel
Back when your grandfather's father was young
Men of these shores made and gave up their lives
Pulling up fish from the sea

While down in the African slavery trade
Stealing young men to cut sugar cane
Rum for New Bedford and codfish from Maine
They were building a wall that would always remain

Oh, the crown and the cross, the musket and the chain
The white man's religion, the family name
Two hundred years later, and who is to blame?
The captain or the cargo or the juice of the sugar cane?

This song is on JT's Dad Loves His Work album if you're interested in it.

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22 Sep 99 - 11:45 AM (#116450)
Subject: Lyr Add: SO HOE, BOYS, SO HOE^^
From: Art Thieme

I enthusiastically suggest Dena Epstein's fine book __Sinful Tunes And Spirituals---Black Folk Music To The Civil War__ (University Of Illinois Press--1977).

Here's part of a song...1841 (call and response while working):

Leader: I loves old Virginny.

Chorus: So hoe, boys, so hoe.

Now's pickin cotton time..

My master is a gentleman...

He came from the Old Dominion...

And mistress is a lady...

We live in Mississippi...

The land for makin' cotton...

They used to tell of cotton seed...

As dinner for a nigger man...

But boys and gals it's all a lie...

We live in a fat land...

Hog meat and hominy...

Good bread and Indian dumplings...

Music roots and rich molasses...

The negro up to picking cotton...

The old ox he broke his neck...

He belong to old Joe R...

He cut him up fro negro meat...

My master say he be a rascal...

His negroes shall not shuck his corn...

No negro will pick his cotton...

Old Joe hire Indian...

I gwine home to Africa...

My overseer says so...

He scold only bad negroes...

Here goes the corn boys...

I don't love the peddlars...

They cheat me in my rabbit skins...

When I bought their tin ware...

The parson say his prayers in church...

Then deliver a fine sermon...

He cut the matter short my friends...

He say the blessed Lord send it...

Now's the time for plantin' bacco...

Come my negroes get you home...

Jim, Jack---Joe and Tom...

Go draw your plants and set 'em out...

Don't you stop a moment, boys...

'Twas on a blessed Sabbath day...

Here's a pretty preacher for you.

-----------------------Art Thieme

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22 Sep 99 - 01:04 PM (#116476)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Jack (Who is called Jack)

No more auction block.

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22 Sep 99 - 07:50 PM (#116629)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Lesley N.

No one's mentioned Darling Nelly Gray. I don't much care for the tune but it's a classic. My own favorite is "FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD" - because it was code for escaping to the north.

It's here (http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2072). And a page to "decode" it is here (http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/special/mlk/gourd2.html).

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23 Sep 99 - 02:14 AM (#116742)
Subject: Lyr Add: HARD TIMES IN OL' VIRGINIA^^
From: Barry Finn

Here's a song from slavery heard & reported around the early 1800's & then was taken shipboard to lead a more pleasant life as a shanty.

Ch: Ol Virginia, hard times in Ol Virginia (2x)

My ol misses is a rich ol lady
Hard times in ol Virginia
Seven servents around her table
Hard times in ol Virginia

Ch:

Go to the well gonna fetch some water
Hard times in ol Virginia
Get a bucket gonna go tomorrow
Hard times in ol Virginia

Ch:

My ol misses is a rich ol lady
Seven servents to care for the baby

Ch:

Get some corn lay it down by the fire (2x)

Ch:

My ol misses she promised me
When she die gonna set me free

Ch:

My ol misses she get so old
That the hair on her got bald

Ch:

My ol misses is a rich ol lady
Seven servents to roll the baby round sir

Barry

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23 Sep 99 - 10:15 AM (#116823)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: fox4zero

The only slave song that I know is Uncle Dave Macon's PATEROLLER [Patroller] SONG, also known as RUN NIGGER* RUN! Uncle Dave speaks an apologetic preface before he sings the song in the early 1920's original recording ...recently available on VETCO 105. I also remember a 1950's or 60's version sanitized to RUN JOHNNY RUN which had to do with illegal whiskey making. The original lyrics actually cheered the escaping slave on. *I hope that this is not too offensive

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23 Sep 99 - 10:46 PM (#117128)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Susan A-R

There's an add-on verse to Amazing Grace, and when last I requested information on who wrote it, I got about four different answers. It's a great verse though

Shall we be wafted to the skies
On flow'ry beds of ease
While others strive to win the prize
And sail on bloody seas.

I also am partial to the Henry Clay Work material. Have never gotten up the nerve to sing Kingdom Coming, but it is an interesting perspective. We do Wake Nicodemus, and it's lovely.

I also think of all of those spirituals that were underground railway songs: Steal Away, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, was Deep River also one?

And isn't there some song from the perspective of a black regiment, the something Arkensas, to the tune of the Battle Hymn? And what is the deal with We are Coming from the Cotton Fields?

Susan A-R

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24 Sep 99 - 11:12 AM (#117283)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Pete Peterson

I have been singing Kingdom Coming for about 35 years without changing the words. Sometimes at our historical gigs, we will read a typical advertisement for a runaway SLAVE and then say what made this song so funny at the time is that it was about a runaway MASSA. My friend Carl Baron replaces "darkies" with "slaves, they" so The massa run, ha ha And the slaves they say, ho ho it must be now that the kingdom comin' In the Year of Jubilo (Work really knew his Bible. I think the reference is Leviticus 35, 10)

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24 Sep 99 - 12:24 PM (#117312)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: DWDitty

Oscar Brown. Jr.'s "Bid 'em in" is about as brutal an account of slavery as I have ever heard. I'll dig out the lyrics this weekend and post them.

DW

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24 Sep 99 - 06:25 PM (#117456)
Subject: Lyr Add: ROLL THE COTTON DOWN
From: Matthew B.

There's actually a version of "Roll the Cotton Down" that seems to lament the end of slavery, and reminisce nostalgically about the good old days "before the war" and then suggests that the black man's lot has only gotten worse since then.

Here are some of the lyrics (just the ones that illustrate my point):

A way down south before the war
We had gay times on the Mississippi shore

When the work was over at the close of day
That's when you'd hear them banjos play

But those good times now has gone away
No more you'll hear them banjos play

The world since then has gotten strange
The black man's lot has sorely changed

Go figure. Maybe it was written by some white slave owner with delusions that slavery had been a good thing.

Your guess is as good as mine.

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25 Sep 99 - 12:12 AM (#117536)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Art Thieme

Whenever I see blue I try to click on it. You made me waste half a night. Thanks a lot! ;>)

Art

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26 Sep 99 - 06:05 PM (#117908)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: M. Ted (inactive)

No one has mentioned the collection, "Slave Songs of the United States" collected by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, from 1867--it was the place that first introduced songs like "Follow the Drinking Gourd","Run, Nigger, Run!" "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" Roll, Jordan, Roll"(and many others) to the wider world--

Dover has reprinted the original version, with a preface by Harold Courlander, and it is inexpensive and wonderful..

A slave song that I have always loved, both for it's story and for the song itself, is "This May Be the Last Time", which, it is said, was traditionally that last song sung by slaves who met when their masters got together, and alluded to the possibility that the group might never meet again, because of the possibility of being sold, or worse--

"Time for Us to Go" scans perfectly to the melody of "Log Jam on Gerry's Rocks"--

This is a very interesting thread--I guess because it touches on a sensitive point, and that is that our culture's music has been fundamentally shaped by a group people who have(and continue) been horribly abused and mistreated by the culture--

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12 Oct 01 - 08:26 PM (#570923)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Dani

Hoping to bring this with me to the Getaway, I was looking for more history on the lyrics Susan refers to above.

A Yahoo search brought me right round to the Mudcat, and this old thread!

I learned this verse from the singing of Sweet Honey in the Rock. They, and many others, attribute this verse to Sojourner Truth:

"We are colored Yankee soldiers

>Who've listed for the war

>We are fighting for the Union

>We are fighting for the Lord

>We can shoot a rebel farther

>Than a white man ever saw

>As we go marching on."

Dani

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12 Oct 01 - 08:43 PM (#570932)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Jerry Rasmussen

I always think of No More Cane On The Brazos as a slave song, although it could just as easily be a prison song.

And yeah, having a lousy job, or even being an indentured servant isn't the same as being a slave.

Oh freedom!

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12 Oct 01 - 09:31 PM (#570961)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Dani

Sorry about the anonymous post: I've disappeared, apparently.

Anyway, here's what that website has to say about him:

"Lindley Miller, a white captain of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment, is credited with composing this song. The literary artifices used in the lyrics lend credence to this notion, although the skillful use of Negro idiom suggests a certain amount of collaboration between white officer and black troopers."

Anyone know anymore?

Dani

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28 Nov 01 - 11:27 PM (#599910)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,massa dear, massa dear

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29 Nov 01 - 02:45 PM (#600401)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Keith A of Hertford

Re. Shallow Brown.
Stan Hugill gives the lines as
Love you well Juliana. and
Bound away for St.Georges.
Also, a line Shipped on board of a whaler.
I take it as a slave sold as a crewman.Did this occur?
Bound away,
Keith.

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29 Nov 01 - 03:52 PM (#600464)
Subject: Lyr Add: WE ARE FREE!
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

WE ARE FREE!

Free! We are free! With a wild and joyous cry,
We children in our gladness are shouting far and nigh!
Free! We are free! Oh, let the tidings fly,
We are free today!
Cho.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, etc.
We are free today.

Tune: John Brown's Body.
Quoted in Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, Dena J. Epstein, Univ. Illinois Press. Taken from Linda W. Slaughter, The Freedmen of the South, 1869.

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29 Nov 01 - 04:18 PM (#600488)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: wysiwyg

Harvestors, see Dicho's post above.

Many more like Dicho's entry are indexed in the African-American Spirituals Permathread.

~Susan

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29 Nov 01 - 11:01 PM (#600658)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Barry Finn

Hi Keith, some of the plantations had their own vessels to market their products & had their own slaves sail them. Some rented out their slaves durning slow times & after their rent (wage) was met alot of the slaves got some pay for their services & many were allowed to make money for themselves by trading/bartering & buying cheap goods at one port & selling for a proffit at another. Still other sailors were free men & some runaways passed themselves off as free men. As the 1860's approched & after the civil war the work available to black sailors dropped from, at times & at some places (Rhode Island) 25% black crews to next to nil within a matter of only a few years. From more info on this try a book titled "Black Jacks, African American Seamen in the age of Sail" by W. Jeffrey Bolster 1997. Barry

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01 Dec 01 - 04:48 AM (#601494)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Dead Horse

Selling slaves for use as seamen certainly did occur, as the slave owner got paid, didn't have to feed the critter, and he would be back next year....or so. Also check out Alabama John Cherokee. Apparently some dubious soul took a native indian (half-cast?) and sold him as a slave on a whaling ship.

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01 Dec 01 - 04:56 AM (#601497)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Dead Horse

Just found the other one I was looking for *THE AFRICAN TRADE* also in lyric search. (must look up how to add clicky)

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01 Dec 01 - 06:44 AM (#601515)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: John MacKenzie

Van Diemen's land, Drinking Gourd,(already mentioned), and a song I want the words of please called "Handsome Johnny" I think. It has lines like,

Hey look yonder, tell me who is that you see,
Marching to the Concord war,
Looks like handsome Johnny with a musket in his hand,
Marching to the Concord war.

Johnny Silvo used to do a really powerfull version of this.
Failte...Jock

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01 Dec 01 - 08:22 AM (#601558)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Adrienne

One more comment about Kingdom Coming by Henry Clay Work: "The year of jubilo" refers to the practice by the ancient Israelites of setting free all of their slaves once every 50 years, the jubilee year. I love Henry Clay Work--he wrote so many good ones!

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21 Dec 01 - 03:22 PM (#614324)
Subject: Lyr Add: MOTHER, IS MASSA GWINE TO SELL US?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

MOTHER, IS MASSA GWINE TO SELL US?

Mother, is massa gwine to sell us tomorrow?
Yes, yes, yes!
Mother, is massa gwine to sell us tomorrow?
Yes, yes, yes!
Mother, is massa gwine to sell us tomorrow?
Yes, yes, yes!
O watch and pray.

Gwine to sell us down in Georgia?
Yes, yes, yes!
Gwine to sell us down in Georgia?
Yes, yes, yes!
Gwine to sell us down in Georgia?
Yes, yes, yes!
O watch and pray!

Farewell, mother, I must lebe you.
yes, yes, yes! etc.

Mother, don't griebe arter me.
Yes, yes, yes! etc.

Mother, I'll meet you in heaven.

N. R. Dett, 1927, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro, p. 230, with music. "Lento patetico." Chorus sings Yes, yes, yes! and O watch and pray, the rest is solo.
@slavery @religion

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21 Dec 01 - 03:33 PM (#614333)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

The song Mother, Is Massa Gwine To Sell Us?, above, is listed in the Cleveland Index of Spirituals as: Is Massa Gwine Sell Us To-morrow?

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22 Dec 01 - 08:49 AM (#614704)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: masato sakurai

Two abolitionist songsters -- George W. Clark, The Liberty Minstrel (New York: Leavitt & Alden [et al.], 1844; with music) and William Wells Brown, The Anti-Slavery Harp: A Collection of Songs for Anti-slavery Meetings (Boston: Bela Marsh, 1848) -– are HERE in the Library of Congress. Click on the images to see the pages.
~Masato

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22 Dec 01 - 09:58 AM (#614733)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Lanfranc

All these posts, and no mention of Tom Paxton's "Beau John".

OK, I'm mentioning it now!

I suppose I might have to post the lyrics if no-one else remembers the song.

Also, for those with a suitable irony filter, might I commend Randy Newman's "Sail Away".

Alan

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31 Jan 02 - 05:23 AM (#639231)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: masato sakurai

There's a great collection: Vicki L. Eaklor, American Antislavery Songs: A Collection and Analysis (Greenwood, 1988). "This comprehensive collection of 492 songs constitutes a body of work surprisingly large in proportion and revealing in scope. Drawn from a wide selection of sources, it is the only collection of antislavery songs currently in print."
~Masato

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29 Mar 02 - 12:20 PM (#678875)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: wysiwyg

The Slave's Song

Hear it, see the dots and lyrics.

~Susan

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29 Mar 02 - 01:31 PM (#678920)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Jerry Rasmussen

If you want to get some idea of what Africans felt when they were taken as slaves, stand quietly in the dungeons at the "slave castles" on the Gold Coast and look up at the one lone window thirty feet in the air, about 1'x2' and then see the dark line on the walls where the excrement and urine rose to two or three feet before they flushed it out, and I don't think you'll confuse it with experiences as admittedly terrible as children working in a mill, or just having a God-awful job.

Jerry

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29 Mar 02 - 03:02 PM (#678963)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Irish sergeant

You all have mentioned some good songs true classics may I humbly add Kemo-kimo? Kindest regards, neil

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12 Oct 02 - 01:48 PM (#801823)
Subject: Lyr Add: SOLD OFF TO GEORGY
From: GUEST

Finding songs about slavery that were sung at the time is difficult. Most such songs were recorded after slavery ended and can only be attributed to that time. They have been remade through the folk process or are post-slavery. Here is one, a work song (rowing) with music, that was recorded pre-Civil War, published in 1859 in a work about plantation life of the 1830s.
Compare with "Mother, Is Massa Gwine to Sell Us?" which probably is a post-slavery revision of a secular song with religious material added (in this thread, 21 Dec 01, Dicho).
Dena Epstein (reference below) notes "sacred texts gradually replaced secular texts in boat songs as the century progressed. By the time Northerners arrived in the Sea Islands in 1862, most of the songs were sacred. Many of the northerners were unaware of a tradition of secular music among the blacks and sincerely believed that they sang only hymns, relegating all frivolous and worldly music to the minstrel theatre."   

SOLD OFF TO GEORGY

Farewell, fellow servants! O-ho! O-ho!
I'm gwine away to leabe you; O-ho! O-ho!
I'm gwine to leabe de ole county; O-ho! O-ho!
I'm sold off to Georgy! 0-ho! O-ho!

Farewell, ole plantation, O-ho! O-ho!
Farewell, de ole quarter, O-ho! O-ho!
Un daddy, un mammy, O-ho! O-ho!
Un marster, un missus! O-ho! O-ho!

My dear wife un one chile, O-ho! O-ho!
My poor heart is breaking; O-ho! O-ho!
No more shall I see you, O-ho! O-ho!
Oh! No more for-eber! O-ho! O-ho!

James Hungerford, 1859, "The Old Plantation, and What Is Gathered There in an Autumn Month." Harper & Bros., NY. (Note: discusses Juba(h) dance and boat songs, two with music). Song and reference from Dena J. Epstein, 1977, "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals." Worksongs, p. 170-171.
Art Thieme, in this thread, posted another song from Epstein's excellent, authoritative reference; by far the best for music of the slavery period.

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27 Oct 02 - 07:36 AM (#812344)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,[e-mail]

how about the song JIMMY CRACK CORN I find it offensive

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28 Nov 02 - 12:18 PM (#836579)
Subject: Steal away by conwat twitty
From: GUEST,[e-mail]

The song steal away sung by Conway Twitty He had it on an album with other gospel songs.

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01 Dec 02 - 07:29 PM (#838528)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Stacer

This is a cool page. I really liked being able to read this. Thanks alot for making it.

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01 Dec 02 - 08:28 PM (#838565)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Q

Guest Barbara, see thread 24379 which has several versions of this Negro spiritual (also versions of Deep River). Steal Away
Steal Away was added to Fenner's "Cabin and Plantation Songs" (1874) by Dett, "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro," probably in 1925. Its age is unknown; it could be post-slavery.

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02 Dec 02 - 08:04 PM (#839252)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Neighmond

"Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade inthe water
you know my God's gonna trouble the water!"

More words but I forget them

Chaz

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02 Dec 02 - 08:45 PM (#839288)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Q

Neighmond is correct only if you accept that versions with "trouble the waters" are related. A song that refers to pharaoah and emphasizes "let my people go" was collected by Allen and published in 1867 ("Let God's Saints Come In"). Go to thread 6108 to see it: Wade in the Water

Some of the versions in this thread refer to baptism, and undergoing spiritual regeneration symbolized by baptism, and are not concerned with slavery.

There are no 19th century references to "Wade in the Water." References to Tubman's use of the song are not backed by evidence.

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09 Dec 02 - 02:35 PM (#843988)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Nikki N. Williams of Pensacola Fl. in Molino

hi i would like to know if anyone had "follow the drinking gourd" or"sweet low sweet charion"

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09 Dec 02 - 02:52 PM (#843996)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Q

Yes. Click in FAQ arrow (blank, top left) and see Mudcat site map and permathread index.
Scroll down to permathreads (blue background) and click on African American Spitituals, thread 38686. In the list (scroll down, find them listed and click on for the songs and discussions) are many spirituals.
Thread 17760, Follow the Drinking Gourd- Drinking Gourd
Thread 41800, Chariot spirituals- Chariot spirituals

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10 Dec 02 - 02:38 AM (#844345)
Subject: Lyr Add: SLAVE'S LAMENT (S. Haithwaite)
From: Red and White Rabbit

Heres one based on the story of Zamba Zambola an african slave who wrote the book The life and adventures of an african slave in 1847. Captain Winton lost 5 - 6 thousand dollars on this voyage


Slaves Lament
S.Haithwaite 2001

chorus
Sail away, sail away
sail away may fair winds take you
To where every slave is free
Sail away to the promised land far across the sea

Six hundred slaves filled the hold
Of the shp that left the Cape
Had to listen as the sailors women raped
The heat the stench the sickness
o one heeded any screams
Sleep was still a nightmare
Only death brought pleasant dreams

We were sailing for Barbados
For Slaves we would be sold
15 days we travelled in that stinking hold
Manackled and shackled and laid out side by side
No where to run and no where left to hide


The fifteenth day we hit a storm
The ship it pitched and tossed
No one came to help us
We thought we were lost
As the ship it rolled against the strom
Slave was thrown upon a slve
Lmbs mangled by the shackles
How many would be saved

The captain was so angry
when he checked down in the hold
Not so many slaves now could be sold
Those dead and those with broken limbs
Were tossed into the sea
The ocean waves would take them
to the land where slaves are free

To you we all were savages
so you could make us slaves
You believed only your God
Could sinners save
So we turned to Christianity
and we prayed we would be strong
And that one day God would show you
you were wrong

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11 Dec 02 - 01:16 AM (#845123)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Deckman

Come along, little children come along,
Come while the moon is burning bright,
Get on board, little children, get on board,
'gonna raise a ruckus tonight."

I was taught this song by the late (great) Keve Bray, of the Seattle area. Keve taught it to me in the late 1950's. If there are any catters out there who knew Keve, I'd appreciate it if you would private mail me. Thanks, Bob(deckman)Nelson

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24 Jan 03 - 10:30 AM (#873796)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,[e-mail]

This is a great page. I have been trying to find the origin of the song that has the following words: "jump down turn around pick a bale of cotton, jump down turn aroung pick a bale of hay." Does anyone have any information on this and its origins?

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24 Jan 03 - 11:14 AM (#873826)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: masato sakurai

It's PICK A BALE OF COTTON (in the DT). Some info is at The Traditional Ballad Index: Pick a Bale of Cotton.

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24 Jan 03 - 02:01 PM (#873963)
Subject: Lyr Add: JUMP JIM CROW
From: GUEST,Q

The words, "Pick a Bale of Cotton" are not known before the Depression Days of the 1930s, but the tune, of course, is old and well-worn. "Jump down and turn around" is either an old Negro dance step or originated with the blackface minstrels. It is in versions of "Jump Jim Crow" of blackface origin, this one a Negro revision, from Talley, "Negro Folk Rhymes," No. 20:

JUMP JIM CROW

Git fust upon your heel,
An' den upon yo' toe,
And eb'ry time you turn 'round,
You jump Jim Crow.

Now fall upon your knees,
Jump and bow low,
An' eb'ry time you turn 'round,
You jump Jim Crow.

Put yo' han's upon your hips,
Bow low to yo' beau;
An' eb'ry time you turn 'round,
You jump Jim Crow.
Moreover, boasting of prowess is as old as Man, so the words are not amiss and may well be much older than the records.
These couplets come from Newman L. White, American Negro Folk-Songs, collected about 1915.

Me 'n' my baby and my baby's fren'
Can pick mo' cotton dan a cotton gin.

Me and my partner, partner Jack,
Can pick more cotton than a press can pack.

Complaints common as well:

Nigger in de cotton patch pickin' out cotton,
Cotton in de boll an' de boll half rotten.

The times are hard and money is scarce,
Soon as I sell my cotton and corn I am bound to leave this place.

I'd rather be in the cottonfield, working hard,
Than be a buck-private in the National Guard.

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25 Jan 03 - 01:51 PM (#874747)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Irish sergeant

Another I forgot to mention in my earlier post was "Jacob's Ladder".
I have to agree about the "Flying Cloud". It's a great song. The comparison to the ancient Isrealites continues to this day in the Rastifarian religion (Movement?)and can be found in some reggae songs as anyone who has listened to Bob Marley and the Wailers can attest to. Have a great weekens and sorry I've been absent for so long. (BUsy, Busy Oh those weary bones!) Neil

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25 Jan 03 - 05:48 PM (#874843)
Subject: National Freedom Day
From: Abby Sale

Feb 1 is National Freedom Day. (re the 1st state's ratefying the no-slavery amendment.) It's not a holiday but is a Presidentially proclaimed day. A good day to sing these songs. I'll be doing a good version of "Shallow Brown."

Another less common aspect of slavery to add to the list is "Botany Bay."

Well it's day and night the irons clang and like poor galley slaves
Oh we toil and toil and when we die must fill dishonored graves;

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11 Feb 03 - 08:01 PM (#888102)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE SLAVE'S SONG (from Max Hunter coll.)
From: GUEST,Q

Lyr. Add: THE SLAVES SONG

I'm as free as the waters that rose at my feet,
Or the sickle that glides swiftly by.
No master do I fear or dread the auctioneer,
The driver, the lash, I defy.

Chorus:
O master, I pray thee,
Don't come after me,
For I can never be your slave anymore.
I am free from toil and law,
Free beneath the lion's claw,
And he growls if you come near the shore.

And don't you remember the promise you made
To my mother, who's long gone to rest
That I should not be sold, for silver nor for gold
As the sun rose from the east to the west.

And don't you remember as soon as she was dead
And the grass had not grown o'er her grave
I was advertised for sale and I might've been in jail
Had I not crossed the bold dashing waves.

And don't you remember the ole towering oak
Where you paid me my last forty-four;
How you bowed your haughty head o'er the blood that I shed,
But remember, I'll bleed there no more.

Sung by Mrs. Lola Stanley, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1958. With sheet music, audio and midi. The Max Hunter Folk Collection: Slaves Song
No date or information. Probably late 19th-early 20th century, with an abolitionist author. This song was pointed out by WYSIWYG, 29 Mar 02, in this thread.

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12 Feb 03 - 07:35 PM (#889008)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Sandy Creek

I recently found an old copy of "Tales of Uncle Remus"...perhaps everyone should read this. Joel Chandler Harris was a very brave man to write this...the stories relate a lot of wisdom as well as humor.

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13 Feb 03 - 01:30 AM (#889227)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: nutty

Have you tried looking for sheet music .....
There's a host of songs here in the Library of Congress ...... just browse the subjects or put 'slaves' or 'slavery' in the keyword box

African-American Sheet Music 1850-1920

Searching by subject 'slaves' or 'slavery' here on the Levy site will give you over 400 songs

Lester S. Levy Sheet Music

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13 Feb 03 - 02:50 PM (#889674)
Subject: Lyr Add: SLAVE'S LAMENT (S. Haithwaite)
From: Red and White Rabbit

another for you

Slaves Lament
S.Haithwaite

Six hundred slaves filled the hold
Of the ship that left the Cape
Had to listen whilst the sailors women raped
Manackled and shakled and laid out side by side
No where to run and nowhre left to hide

chorus

Sail away
sail away
Sail away
may fair winds take you
to where every slave is free
Sail away to the promised land
Far across the sea

We were sailing for Barbados
And there we would be sold
Fifteen Days we travelled in that stinking hold
The heat the stech the sickness
No one heeded any screams
Sleep was still a nightmare
Only death brought pleasant dreams

On the fifteenth day we hit a storm
the ship it pitched and tossed
No one came to help us we thought we were lost
As the ship it rolled against the storm
slave was thrown upon a slave
Limbs mangled by the shackles Howmany would be saved?

The captain was so angry when he checked down in the hold
Not so many slaves now cold be sold
Those dead and those with broken limbs were tossed into the sea
The ocean waves would tkae them
To the land where slaves were free

To you we all were savages
So you could make us slaves
You believed only your God could sinners save
So we turned to Christianity and prayed we would be strong
And that one day God would show you you were wrong

---

13 Feb 03 - 06:03 PM (#889824)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Frankham

Anyone mention Amazing Grace? That song is about slavery albeit indirectly considering the life of it's composer. I often wondered about the "Saved a wretch like me" part. Didn't think it was just a general allusion to fundamentalism and the iniquity of mankind.

Frank Hamilton

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13 Feb 03 - 08:12 PM (#889943)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: SINSULL

"All The Pretty Little Horses" A black wet nurse has to leave her own baby unattended to look after her white ward.

"Massa's In The Cold Cold Ground" Stephen Foster

Not sure of the title but:
"Oh Freedom, sweet Freedom
Freedom is for me.
And before I'd be a slave
I'd be buried in my grave
And go home to the father
And be free."

A young slave, whose mother was promised that her son would be freed, is put up for auction upon her death. But runs away preferring death to slavery. I think I have a recording of this by Ed Trickett but I will have to dig.

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14 Feb 03 - 08:49 PM (#890713)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: reggie miles

There's a haunting Huddie Ledbetter song called "I Ain't Goin' Down To The Well No More". I'm not sure if this about being indentured but it sounds like it. One of the lines says,

If I ever gets able,
if I ever gets able, able,
to pay the debt I owe.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
I ain't goin' down,
I ain't goin' down.
Baby to the well no more.
No, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

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15 Feb 03 - 03:33 PM (#891110)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Jacqued

Try the African Trade by Tom Lewis on his CD Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Singer.   Makes you think.

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03 Mar 03 - 09:13 PM (#902835)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Christi

The slaves had it hard

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28 Apr 03 - 05:49 PM (#942217)
Subject: Lyr Add: AMERICA - Anti-slavery version
From: Burke

I've stumbled across a hymn book from 1851, that contains about a dozen anti-slavery hymns.
Sacred melodies for conference and prayer meetings,
The Anti-Slavery section is p.231-241; hymn no. 251-263. Tunes are listed for all. Temperance songs follow immediately, but there are half as many, p. 242-248, songs 264-269

Here's one with an obvious tune on page 236

257 6s. & 4s Air--America

My country! 'tis of thee,
Strong hold of slavery,
Of thee I sing:
Land where my fathers died,
Where men man's rights deride,
From every mountain side,
Thy deeds shall ring.

My native country! thee,
Where all men are born free,
If white their skin:
I love thy hills and dales,
Thy mounts and pleasant vales,
But hate thy negro sales,
As foulest sin.

Let wailing swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees,
The black man's wrong;
Let every tongue awake,
Let bond and free partake,
Let rocks their silence break
The sound prolong.

Our Father's God! to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing;
Soon may our land be bright,
With holy freedom's right,
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King.

@slavery @religion @patriotic
No author listed
in: Sacred melodies for conference and prayer meetings, and for social and private devotion. 10th ed. rev. and amended. 256 p. 12 cm.
Dover, [New Hampshire] : Free-Will Baptist Print. Establishment, 1851.
From digital collection: Making of America Books

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29 Apr 03 - 11:28 AM (#942786)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: ToulouseCruise

one that I really enjoy is called Railroad Worksong, an old traditional one recently re-done by the Notting Hillbillies (little side project of Mark Knopfler's). Definitely worth a look....

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29 Apr 03 - 11:42 AM (#942798)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: RoyH (Burl)

A wonderful thread, glad to see it refreshed. Check out 'Wake Nicodemus' by Henry Clay Work.

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02 May 03 - 05:36 AM (#944743)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Q

African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 (from Brown University) is available at: African American Sheet Music
Many songs about slavery are reproduced here. The list is very long, but it will repay you with many slavery songs. All of the songs are by Black Americans. Looking under S will find:
De slavery chains am broke at last
The slave mother
The slave ship (version in DT)
Slave Song
Slavery days
Slavery's passed away
Song of the fugitive slave

Looking under the A's I see Aunt Harriet Becha Stowe. Many, of course, can't be identified by th title alone.

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02 May 03 - 07:13 PM (#945185)
Subject: Lyr Add: WHAT MEAN YE, THAT YE BRUISE AND BIND
From: Burke

253 AIR-" Ortonville.

1 What mean ye, that ye bruise and bind
My people, saith the Lord,
And starve your craving brethren's mind
Who ask to read my word?

2 What mean ye that ye make them toil,
Through long and weary years;
And shed like rain upon your soil,
Their blood and bitter tears?

3 What mean ye, when God's bounteous hand
To you so much has given,
That from the slave who tills your land,
You keep both earth and heaven?

4 What mean ye that ye dare to rend
The tender mother's heart;
Brother from sister, friend from friend,
How dare you make them part?

5 When at the judgment God shall call,
Where is thy brother? say
What mean ye, to the Judge of all,
To answer on that day?

@slavery @religion
No author listed
in: Sacred melodies for conference and prayer meetings, and for social and private devotion. 10th ed. rev. and amended. 256 p. 12 cm.
Dover, [New Hampshire] : Free-Will Baptist Print. Establishment, 1851.
From digital collection: Making of America Books

Any Common Meter tune
Recommended tune "Ortonville" by Thomas Hastings, requires repeating the last line a 2nd time. Music in Cyberhymnal

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02 May 03 - 07:22 PM (#945188)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Q

Error on my part. The African-American sheet music list includes compositions by whites about Blacks as well as songs by African-Americans. Stephen Foster and other white composers are included.

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15 Sep 03 - 02:40 PM (#1019371)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,[e-mail]

We're trying to locate information on civil war slave songs for an upcoming production at the Denver Center Theatre Company. Does anyone have music/tune info for:
JUBILO AND SILVER
Sherman's buzzin' along to th' sea,
Jubili, Jubilo!
Sherman's buzzin' along to th' sea
Like Moses ridin' on a bumblebee,
Settin' th' prisoned and th' humble free!
It's th' year of Jubilo!

and

Oh Lordy Je-sus
It's a long time comin'
It's a long time co-o-min'
That Jubilee time.
it's a long time, Lord.
Yes, it's a long time.

THANKS for any help, advice or guidance.
Barbara

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15 Sep 03 - 02:45 PM (#1019376)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: wysiwyg

You may find some research helps here: AFRICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUALS PERMATHREAD

~Susan

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15 Sep 03 - 02:49 PM (#1019378)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: wysiwyg

Requestor emailed to look for replies here (not via email).

~S~

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04 Nov 03 - 03:59 PM (#1047912)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: sian, west wales

I've just noticed that a local used book shop has a copy of "Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands" for £20. I don't know if it's a good price, or even if it's a good book, but someone here might be interested. It's in good nick.

sian

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04 Nov 03 - 09:06 PM (#1048146)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

A paperback is available for $US 25. The older bound copy seems to run about $US60 in vg condition.

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04 Nov 03 - 10:22 PM (#1048170)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Barry Finn

It's (Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands) well worth buying & there's a pretty good collection with music. I found a copy in a public Library just outside of Boston maybe in the late 70's & since always kept an eye open for an available copy. Two years ago I found a copy on E-Bay & got it for a rock bottom price. A good number of the songs you can find on recordings by the Georgia Sea Island Singers. They don't cover many of those songs when at festivals or concert because they're passing on as much as they can to the younger singers of the group so they concentrate on the songs better known by the younger singers. Some of these songs are also sung by Frankie Quimby & her husband. The author & collector Lydia Parrish lived on the St Simon's Island & had a building built so the "negro's" could perform there for pay for "whitey" oover from the mainland (Lydia's friends I believe). Not matter what she thought of them or how she dealt with them she put together a very good collection. She figured that she was the main reason for the survival of these songs & by accounts from other collectors was very territorial about them.
Barry

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05 Nov 03 - 12:34 AM (#1048210)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: LadyJean

Jump Jim Crow was born in Pittsburgh, when a vaudeville performer saw an African American deck hand dancing, imitating a crow's flight, and singing, "turn about and wheel about and do just so, and everytime I turn around I jump Jim Crow". Apparently, (I read this in Lomax.) the dance had African origins.
The vaudeville performer borrowed the deckhand's clothes, blacked his face with burnt cork, and the rest is history.
Not, I'm afraid, one of our city's proudest moments.
Now, I would mention Stephen Foster's songs, most especially Angelina Baker, "Angelina likes the boys, as far as she can see 'em. She used to run old master round, to ask him for to free 'em."
Jean Redpath recorded "The Slave's Lament", by Robert Burns. Of course it's beautifully done.

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05 Nov 03 - 02:09 AM (#1048229)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Harmoni

How about RAGGA LEVY or LAZARUS?

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05 Nov 03 - 03:39 AM (#1048238)
Subject: Lyr Add: BLACK BETTY (from Huddie Ledbetter)
From: Frivolous Sal

The one that has always made me shudder is "Black Betty"
(about the whip) I remember the line "dipped in gravy" on an old Lomax recording we have.
I googled it, and found it cleaned up and released as a song about a woman. Thus:
Black Betty
By: Ram Jam
(Huddie Ledbetter)
1977

Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty had a child (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone wild (Bam-ba-Lam)
She said, "I'm worryin' outta mind" (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone blind (Bam-ba-Lam)
I said Oh, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)

Oh, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
She really gets me high (Bam-ba-Lam)
You know that's no lie (Bam-ba-Lam)
She's so rock steady (Bam-ba-Lam)
And she's always ready (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)

Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
She's from Birmingham (Bam-ba-Lam)
Way down in Alabam' (Bam-ba-Lam)
Well, she's shakin' that thing (Bam-ba-Lam)
Boy, she makes me sing (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty BAM-BA-LAM

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25 Nov 04 - 02:49 PM (#1339019)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,Dennis Howell

I am looking for songs that the whites may have song about slavery and possibly one that talks about whites being sensitive to the slaves need for freedom. Can anybody help?

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26 Feb 07 - 03:06 PM (#1980079)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE SLAVE AUCTIONEER
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire occupied much of eastern Europe. Young European women (and men) were captured and enslaved, and sold on the auction block. Some were brought in from Mediterranean captures, and sold if no suitable ransom had been offered.

Samuel Baker, a young and wealthy Englishman, was taken by a young woman on the auction block (I believe in present-day Hungary- sometime since I read the book) and bought her for fifty pounds. He was unwilling to take her home to face his family, and set out with her, travelling as his wife Florence, on an exploration of the upper Nile River. On that and subsequent expeditions, he and his companion made a number of discoveries about the upper Nile system.

Years later, the union may have been joined privately at St. Paul's, but the family still refuses to release his papers and much remains a mystery.
Richard Hall, 1980, "Lovers on the Nile," an Idyll of African Exploration, tells this unusual true story.

This poem, "The Slave Auctioneer," belongs to that period. Although I think that satire was the intent of the unknown author, it reminded of the Baker story.

Lyr. Add: THE SLAVE AUCTIONEER

Come, ladies and gentlemen, here you shall see
A cargo of slaves, that's just landed from sea;
They'll please you full well, if I do not mistake,
Or I of my voyage no profit shall make,
My hammer shall set them a-going, a-going.

I've a noble collection as ever was seen,
And some, that in all parts of Europe have been,
I've French, and I've English, Italian and Dutch,
To collect them together has troubled me much;
My hammer shall set them a-going, a-going.

I've beaux for the ladies, and belles for the men,
Such beauties you'll never fix eyes on again,
They're youthful and charming, to please every mind,
And then to their owners, I hope, they'll prove kind;
My hammer shall set them a-going, a-going.

The catalogue tells you their name and their station,
By whom they were ta'en, likewise from what nation,
Bid with spirit, ye buyers, nought venture, nought win,
For this moment, my friends, I the sale will begin;
My hammer shall set them a-going, a-going.

p. 335, vol. III, "The Universal Songster or, Museum of Mirth." London, Jones and Company, 1828.

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15 Jun 07 - 06:25 PM (#2078217)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: SINSULL

refresh

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16 Jun 07 - 03:41 AM (#2078458)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Lizzie Cornish

Thank You! :0)

Sorry for those that didn't realise, I started a thread about this very subject without realising this was already here..hence the thanks to Sinsull for refreshing this one.

Lizzie :0)

Links to the Amazing Grace film and the Amazing Change Campaign

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21 Mar 11 - 07:46 AM (#3118146)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,will

i am wanting some information on the song Shallow Brown.What is this song about?

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21 Mar 11 - 08:55 AM (#3118192)
Subject: Lyr Add: OLD UNCLE NED (from Burl Ives)
From: JohnH

Burl Ives used to sing this in the '50s


OLD UNCLE NED
As recorded by Burl Ives on Decca 24619 A, (1944)

"There was an old Brother and his name was Uncle Ned
And he died long ago, long ago,
And he had no wool on the top of his head
In the place where the wool ought to grow.

CHORUS: Then lay down the shovel and the hoe,
Hang up the fiddle and the bow,
For there's no more work for poor old Ned,
He's gone where the good brothers go.

His fingers were as long as the cane in the brake
And he had no eyes for to see,
And he had no teeth for to eat the hoe-cake,
So he had to let the hoe-cake be.

One cold frosty morning Old Ned died
Massa's tears they fell like the rain
For he knew when Ned was laid in his grave
That he'd never see his like again.


This is similar to a song I found once in the Glasgow Collection which had stronger slavery-related words, and there's another (No. 35) in The Common Muse about a naval vessel attacking a slave ship in 1850s.

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31 Aug 11 - 07:31 AM (#3215799)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Dave Hanson

'No More Auction Block,' recorded by Paul Robeson and later by Bob Dylan, both fine versions of a very moving spiritual.

Dave H

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31 Aug 11 - 02:06 PM (#3216023)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST,mg

I have heard one about the redleg? Irish slaves taken to the Caribean where they did not fare very well..except unfortunatley they were used as breeders.

And I have one that BB calls the "Chocolate boys" about boys of Sudan I believe enslaved to work on chocolate plantations. mg

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31 Aug 11 - 08:53 PM (#3216244)
Subject: Lyr Add: STOLE AND SOLD FROM AFRICA +ROBERT CARTER
From: Fl!p Breskin

STOLE AND SOLD FROM AFRICA
Learned from Carol Elizabeth Jones who learned it from Addie Graham
Numbers are scale degrees to show the melody

56       5       4    321 123 2 2 1
We're stole and sold from Africa
5 6   b7   6   65 54 45 6 5
Transported to A -merica
567 8 5   b765   5       1    5         6   5
Like hogs and sheep we march adrove
56   5      4   321 123 2      2    1
To bear the heat en - dure the cold

We're almost naked as you see
Almost barefooted as we be
Suffer the lash endure the pain
Exposed to cold both wind and rain

We're almost naked as you see
Almost barefooted as we be
Exposed to hardships we are bound
At night like roots lie on the ground

See how they take us from our wives
Small children from their mother's sides
They take us to some foreign land
Make slaves to wait on gentlemen

Oh Lord have mercy and look down
Upon the race of the African kind
Upon our knees pour out our grief
And pray to God for some relief

http://www.aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/Berea43&CISOPTR=2068&filename=2069.mp3

also, modern, from Rob Lopresti
http://home.nas.com/lopresti/songs2.html

ROBERT CARTER III

My name is Robert Carter. I was born in old Virginia
My granddad was the richest man the colonies had known
I scorned to let my daughter wed a Washington because I said
His family's far too rough and raw to ally with my own
But when I ran for office I placed seventh out of seven
The people called me vain. By God, I had a right to be
And looking back I have no doubt of what I feel most pride about:
I had five hundred slaves and I set those people free

I used to be a Baptist once and at the worship service
I would kneel beside my brothers, free and slave, Black and White
Other owners knelt like me and held on to their property
But I could not deny the plea of what I knew was right
So I wrote out a deed of gift as fat as any hymnbook
With tables, charts, and schedules for my charges' liberty
To free them all with jobs and land took many years, but understand
I had five hundred slaves and I set those people free

My neighbor Thomas Jefferson wrote in his declaration
Among the king's offenses was the transport of the slave
And yet he scarcely freed a one. It was the same with Washington
Who put them in his will at least and freed them from his grave
Now if you read their private words they knew the thing was wicked
But still, the sad excuses weep through each biography
They wanted so to end it but they couldn't find a method
Well, I had five hundred slaves and I set those people free

My sons, they all despised me so for trimming their inheritance
My neighbors called it dangerous and feared a bloody raid
Yet there were those who followed me and gave their brothers liberty
But not my country's leaders, all too greedy or afraid
So why do you neglect me when you praise my generation?
Oh, give one vain and stuffy man his page in history.
There was Jefferson, the writer, and Washington, the fighter
But Carter had five hundred slaves and set those people free
Oh, let that be my epitaph. It's good enough for me.

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01 Sep 11 - 03:35 PM (#3216636)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: PHJim

Bid 'Em In - Oscar Brown Jr.

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01 Sep 11 - 03:41 PM (#3216641)
Subject: Lyr Add: BID 'EM IN (Oscar Brown Jr)
From: PHJim

Bid 'Em In - Oscar Brown Jr.

Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!
That sun is hot and plenty bright.
Let's get down to business and get home tonight.
Bid 'em in!

Auctioning slaves is a real high art.
Bring that young gal, Roy. She's good for a start.
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!

Now here's a real good buy only about 15.
Her great grandmammy was a Dahomey queen.
Just look at her face, she sure ain't homely.
Like Sheba in the Bible, she's black but comely.
Bid 'em in!

Gonna start her at three. Can I hear three?
Step up gents. Take a good look see.
Cause I know you'll want her once you've seen her.
She's young and ripe. Make a darn good breeder.
Bid 'em in!

She's good in the fields. She can sew and cook.
Strip her down Roy, let the gentlemen look.
She's full up front and ample behind.
Examine her teeth if you've got a mind.
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!

Here's a bid of three from a man who's thrifty.
Three twenty five! Can I hear three fifty?
Your money ain't earning you much in the banks.
Turn her around Roy, let 'em look at her flanks.
Bid 'em in!

Three fifty's bid. I'm looking for four.
At four hundred dollars she's a bargain sure.
Four is the bid. Four fifty. Five!
Five hundred dollars. Now look alive!
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in!

Don't mind them tears, that's one of her tricks.
Five fifty's bid and who'll say six?
She's healthy and strong and well equipped.
Make a fine lady's maid when she's properly whipped.
Bid 'em in!

Six! Six fifty! Don't be slow.
Seven is the bid. Gonna let her go.
At seven she's going!
Going!
Gone!
Pull her down Roy, bring the next one on.
Bid 'em in! Get 'em in! Bid 'em in!

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04 Sep 11 - 12:45 PM (#3218070)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST

Looking through my sheet music collection I found a number of quite early items from British publishers, including two c.1790 to 1805: 'Forc'd from home and all its pleasures' (Cowper's poem 'The Negro's Complaint' set by an unknown composer) and 'The White Man' by a Miss Abrams. A bit later, but before 1816 is a glee for three voices 'The Negroes' by J Mazzinghi (again based on the Cowper poem).

More remarkably, there are two items from the 1840s sung by the Ethiopian Serenaders. The Serenaders were extremely popular in Britain, where they fixed both the form and he style of the local minstrel troupes that followed them, also fixing in the public mind the caricature image of the African American slave as a feckless comic character. 'Sambo', or 'Dey Bring Me from my Country (long time ago') presents quite a different image. Not exactly abolitionist in sentiment, but certainly not unsympathetic and sailing rather closer to the truth than the later, equally poisonous image of the 'happy slave'.

Another one from the same stable is 'Phoebe Morel: I had a dream, a happy dream (I thought that I was free)' based on the supposedly true story of a mixed race girl, taken into slavery after the death of her white, slave-owning father.

These songs were certainly sung in England. Were they sung by the Serenaders in their own country and, if so, how were they received?

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04 Sep 11 - 12:47 PM (#3218073)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: GUEST

I'm not a guest! that last items was from Billy Weeks, who will now refix his cookie!

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04 Sep 11 - 12:52 PM (#3218075)
Subject: RE: ? Songs on, or about slavery?
From: Billy Weeks

That's better!

BW

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