472. Guinea Negro Song

472
Guinea Negro Song

Dr. Brown has tliis note to the recording: "Sung by Guinea
Negro who liad been taken to England first, then sold in Mont-
gomery County, and had to carry fence rails and sang this song
(Negro and wife)." Dr. White adds: "This can hardy be strictly
true, for the Negro would have been free on landing in England,
unless early in i8th Century or before."

A

From Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery county (later, Mrs. C. P.
Perdue), with phonograph recording, July 1922.

The Engeley man he 'teal me,
And give me pretty red coatee.
The 'Melican man he takee me
And make me fence rail toatee.

B

From the same informant — apparently another recording.

1 The Englie man he 'teal me,
A lack ta lou-li-lana,

A lack ta lou-la-lay.

And carry me to Bergimy.

2 The Aiuerican man he 'teal lue
And give me fine red coatee,
A-lack ta-lou-li-lay.

And make me fence rail toatee.

------------------------

472

Guinea Negro Song

 

'Guinea Negro Song.' Sung by Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery
county, July 1922. Cf. Talley 176.

 

 

 

F-435

 

The En - ge - ley he

 

teal

 

me,

 

And give me pret - ty red coat

 

The 'Me man he ta - kee me
And make me fence rail toa - tee.

Scale : Hexatonic (6) , plagal. Tonal Center : f. Structure : aba^c (2,2,2,2)
= aai (4,4).


'Guinea Negro Song.' Sung by Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery
county, 1922. This is a second recording which the singer mentions in the
letter quoted, which she wrote to this editor after she had moved to Hampton,
Va., having lost her husband, Mr. C. P. Perdue. On August 26, 1958, she
wrote with regard to Dr. Brown's statement about the sale of this Negro couple
and Dr. White's remark pertaining to it, as follows : "Dr. Brown is in error
when he says 'no slave was sold in the life-time of those two negroes.' These
two were smuggled in. The writer of 'The Seven Seas' tells of smuggling
in slaves and also Daniels tells of illegal slave traflic in his book The Prince
of Carpetbaggers. Littlefield dealt in slave smuggling. I am surprised that
Dr. Brown didn't know and write that. When I sang it first, I had forgotten
part of it, but, when I visited home. Mamma refreshed my memory and I
sang it again for Dr. Brown, singing it as the second version goes."

F-436

 


The Eng-lie man he 'teal me,
A lack ta lou - li - la - na.

 


A lack ta lou - la - lay,
And car-ry me to Ber - gi - my.—

Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: e-flat. Structure: abed (2,2,2,2).
There is some slight relationship between a and c as well as b and d.
Over-all form = ab (4,4).