412
Ella Rhee
This is no doubt from the nigger-minstrel stage, though I have
not been able to trace its history. It is in Dean's Flying Cloud,
p. 96, is listed in Miss Pound's syllabus, and there are records
of it from Missouri and California in the Archive of American
Folk Song.
'Ella Rhee.' Secured by Julian P. Boyd in 1927 from Graham Wayne,
a pupil in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county.
1 Sweet Ella Rhee. so dear to me,
Is lost forevermore.
Our home was down in Tennessee
Before this cruel war.
Chorus:
Then carry me back to Tennessee,
Back where I long to be.
Among the fields of yellow corn.
To my darling Ella Rhee.
2 Oh. why did I from day to day
Keep wishing to be free
And from my massa run away
And leave my Ella Rhee ?
3 They said that I would soon he free
And happy all the day ;
But if I thought they'd take me hack
I'd never atrain nni awav.
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412 Ella Rhee
There is no record for this song, but since the editor (III 494) states, "I
have not been able to trace its history," the following might throw some light
on the problem. According to MSON 43-5 'Ella Rhee' was written by
Sep. Winner. Entered according to Act of Congress A.D. 1865 by Sep.
Winner in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania. In addition, OPS iv 388 states : "He also wrote 'Listen to the
Mockingbird' under the pseudonym Alice Hawthorn." Cf. also H. M.
Wharton's War Songs and Poems of the Confederacy Philadelphia, 1904, 213-
14.