421
Way Down on tiik Old Phedee
Songs about the Peedee appeared early in blackface minstrelsy.
Christy's Nigga Songster (New A'ork, n.d., pp. 164-5) has one with
a chorus ending :
Way down in tlie countoree.
Four or five miles from de ole Pec Dee.
(hunbo Chaff's The lltJiiopiau C,lcc Book (Boston, l(S4(;, p. 154)
includes another of which the following is a sample:
In .Souf C arolina I was horn.
I Inisk de wood an choj) de corn,
De roastin ear to de house I l)ring,
De nigger cotch mo an 1 sing:
Chorus :
Ring de hoop ! blow de horn !
Cotch dc nigger a steal in corn,
Way down in die low groun fiel,
3-4 mile from Pompey's heel.
There is another sonj^', of more recent provenience, traditional, and
closer to the A text below, in Lydia Parrish's Sla7'c Songs of the
Georgia Sea Islands (New \'ork, 1942, pp. 122-3).
A
From Mr. K. P. Lewis, Durham, c. 1915, as set down from tiie recitation
or singing of Dr. Kenij) P. Battle, Chapel Hill, in Xoveniher lyio.
Way down on de ok- Pcedee.
Way down on de ole IV-edee,
I'll take my boat
And way I will float
Way down on the old Peedee.
B
'Old Darkey Joe.' Contributed by Miss Jewell Robbins of Pekin, Mont-
gomery county (afterwards Mrs. C. P. Perdue), in 1922. With the air.
The name appended is probably that of the person who wrote out the
song for Aliss Robbins.
1 Away down sotith, on the old Peedee,
Away down in the cotton and the corn,
There lived old Joe ; and he lived so long
That nobody knows when he was born.
Chorus:
No use now to weep for darkey Joe,
Sleeping by the tall green corn,
It doesn't matter now for old darkey Joe ;
Nobody knows when he was born.
2 The wind blows soft on the old Peedee,
Away down in the cotton and the corn.
Sighing now for old darkey Joe ;
But nobody knows when he was born.
3 There's an old gray stone on the old Peedee,
Away down in the cotton and the corn.
Tell us all when old Joe died ;
But nobody knows when he was born.
W. A. Leach
--------------------------------
421
Way Down on the Old Pedee
'Old Darkey Joe.' Sung by Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery coun-
ty, in 1922. A song by the title of our first line, but otherwise totally different
text can be found in SSGSI 122-3.
F-392
Way down south, on the old Pee - dee,
Way down in the cot - ton and the com.
There lived old Joe; and he lived so long
That no - bod - y knows when he was born.
No use now to weep for dar-key Joe,
Sleep-ing by the tall green- corn,-
It does - n't mat - ter now for old dar-key Joe;
No - bod - y knows when he was born.
Scale : Hexachordal, plagal. Tonal Center : f. Structure : abcdefc^d (2,2,2,
2,2,2,2,2) = abcbi (4,4,4,4).