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Before I'd Be a Slave/ Oh Freedom/ Befo' I'd Be A Slave
Traditional Old-Time Gospel;
ARTIST: Joan Baez version on youtube circa 1963. Other on-line versions
Listen to Oh Freedom by Baez [Version 3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfXdTWFwPLk
1920 Sheet music: http://books.google.com/books?id=Oa8iAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA436&dq=befo'+I'll+be+a+slave&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&cd=2
Sheet Music: http://books.google.com/books?id=aqcNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA25&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; circa 1898 Barton
RECORDING INFO: Before I'd Be a Slave/Oh Freedom
Rt - Sweet Freedom
Sm - Lilly Dale
Scott, John Anthony (ed.) / Ballad of America, Grosset & Dunlap, Bk (1967), p239
Carawan, Guy & Candie / Sing for Freedom, Sing Out, sof (1990), p 74
Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Folk Song USA, Signet, Sof (1966/1947), #108 (Freedom)
Winds of the People, Sing Out, Sof (1982), p 35
Fowke, Edith & Joe Glazer (eds.) / Songs of Work and Protest, Dover, Sof (1973/1960), p164
Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), p 62
Sandburg, Helga (ed.) / Sweet Music, Dial, Bk (1963), p161
Seeger, Pete; and Bob Reiser (eds.) / Carry It On!, Simon & Schuster, Sof (1985), p 42
Songs for America. American Ballads, Folk Songs, ..., Workers Library, Sof (1939), p31
Baez, Joan. Joan Baez in San Francisco, Fantasy 5015, LP (1964), trk# 4
Calicanto Singers. Days of Gold!, Calicanto, CD (1999), trk# B.21
DePaur Chorus. Bicentennial Celebration, Columbia M 33838, LP (1975), trk# B.02
Freedom Singers. Freedom Singers Sing of Freedom Now, Mercury MG 20924, LP (1964), trk# B.05
Hinton, Sam. Wandering Folk Song, Folkways FA 2401, LP (1967), trk# 11
Odetta. Odetta at Town Hall, Vanguard VRS-9103, LP (1962), trk# B.07a
Odetta. Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues, Tradition TLP 1010/TCD 1, CD (1996/1956), trk# 16a
Rucker, Sparky (James). Bound to Sing the Blues, Traditional SR-372, LP (1972), trk# B.04
Sandburg, Carl. Cowboy Songs and Negro Spirituals, Decca DL 9105, LP (196?/1940s), trk# B.04a
Seeger, Pete. We Shall Overcome, Columbia C2K 45312, CD (1989), trk# 1.19 [1963/06/08]
Trafidlo, Greg. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, Folk Era FE 1419, CD (1994), trk# 2.18b [1994]
Washington, Jackie. Jackie Washington at Club 47, Vanguard VRS 9172, LP (1965), trk# B.07b
OTHER NAMES: "Holy Bible! Holy Bible!;" "O Freedom"
SOURCES: "Old Plantation Hymns" By William Eleazar Barton
NOTES: The song also known as "Oh Freedom" was published by William E. Barton under the usual title, "Before I'd Be a Slave," with score, in New England Magazine, vol. 25, issue 5, Jan. 1899, p. 617, in the article "Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman." [See Version 1] "Old Plantation Hymns" by Barton was the title of an article published in the preceeding year.
Collected from "Uncle Joe Williams." "He always hired his time from his master and made money enough to pay for his labor, and had a good start towards buying his wife and children when freedom came. But this was the hymn he loved to sing, sitting before his door in the twilight."
This is what Barton wrote about the song:
But there is one hymn which I used often to hear which speaks the freedman's joy in his new manhood. I have heard it sung sometimes in the North by companies of educated jubilee singers, who introduce it with the lines,
"Holy Bible! Holy Bible! Holy Bible, Book Divine, Book Divine!" But I never heard these words sung as a verse of this or any native plantation hymn in the South. Their references to the Bible are few, and such as are given in the songs of this series, namely, allusions to wellknown narrative portions of Scripture. The "Holy Bible" stanza was probably the addition of some "reading preacher." It is quite as appropriate, however, as those which are sung to the song in the South; for the freedman, preferring death to slavery, and singing his solemn joy in a strong and stirring strain, comforts himself in the thought of the possibility of death, with the details of the first-class funeral, in which he is to play the chief role. Such a funeral as is described in this hymn is, next to heaven, the desire of the average colored man even in a state of grace. But apart from all this, which may provoke a smile, there is something that thrills one in the words:
"Before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be saved!"
The earliest version titled "Dar'll Be No Mo' Slavery" [this version] was collected several years earlier. Writing in 1894, the collector, Mrs. E. M. Backus, said:
"The following cradle-song is still to be heard in the cabins of the Negroes of this state; it has the sound of a wild triumphant death chant:-" High Point, North Carolina.
Although called a cradle-song because it was sung as such, I have given the song a name based on the first line of the last verse." Journal of American Folk-Lore, 1894, vol. 7, no. 27, p. 310, submitted by E. M. Backus.
The 'Before I'll be a slave' verse has not yet been found in Civil War song collections, but its occurrence in the 1880s strongly suggests that its origin is there.
The song under the title "Oh Freedom" became an anthem for the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. It was recorded by Odetta in 1956. On the morning of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., Joan Baez opened the day's events by singing this classic song of liberty and the inalienable right to freedom. [See version 3].
Bio--Joan Baez was born on January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York, the second of three daughters to Dr. Albert Baez, a physicist, and Joan Bridge Baez. Her mother was English-Scotish, the daughter of an Episcopalian Minister and a professor of drama who had migrated to the United States, and her father was of Mexican parentage, the son of a minister. Her father's activities as a physicist, researcher and UNESCO consultant took him to many parts of the country, and Joan's childhood was spent first in the small town of Clarence Center, New York, and then in Redlands, California.
She developed both her social consciousness and her love for music at a relatively tender age. Picking up the ukulele, Baez made her performing debut at a high school talent show when she was 14, performing "Honey Love." There she began singing both for the high school choir and for herself, and learned to accompany herself on the guitar. When her father took a job at M.I.T. a few years later,the family moved to Boston, where for a short time she studied drama at Boston University. She enrolled at the university and soon began singing at the Boston coffee houses, colleges and later concert halls along the East Coast to increasingly large crowds. Then came her 1959 Newport Folk Festival debut. Baez signed with the then relatively small folk label, Vanguard, which first released her performances at the Newport Folk Festival, and then released her first album, Joan Baez, in 1960 and the rest, as they say, is history...
Her admirers transcend musical strata and national boundaries.
Her growth as a musician and as a human being have proceeded hand in hand. Enrolling herself in the Civil Rights cause and the peace movement, a spokesman for non-violent resistance to and protest against immoral authority, she has refused to pay taxes that go to escalate the war in Vietnam, and has sung at almost every historic demonstration, and fosters a school for non-violent protest in California.
OH, FREEDOM/BEFORE I'D BE A SLAVE- Arranged Baez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfXdTWFwPLk
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom over me.
And before I'll be a slave I'll be buried in a my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
No more mourning,
No more mourning,
No more mourning over me.
And before I'll be a slave
I'll be buried in a my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
No more Jim crow,
No more Jim Crow,
No more Jim Crow over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in a my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in a my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
TAG: And go home to my Lord and be free
“Oh Freedom” by Lucy Kinchen Chorale
Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
No more mourning, no more mourning, no more mourning over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
No more crying, no more crying, no more crying over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
There'll be singin', there'll be singin', there'll be singin' over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
Oh Freedom (early version)
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom over me, over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more mo'nin,
No more mo'nin,
No more mo'nin over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more slavery,
No more slavery,
No more slavery over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more weeping,
No more weeping,
No more weeping over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
There'll be singing,
There'll be singing,
There'll be singing over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
Oh Freedom (1960's version)
No segregation,
No segregation,
No segregation over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more shooting,
No more shooting,
No more shooting over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No burning churches,
No burning churches,
No burning churches over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more Jim Crow,
No more Jim Crow,
No more Jim Crow over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more Pritchett,
No more Pritchett,
No more Pritchett over me.
And before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
HOLY BIBLE- popular version the the north in the 1880s
Holy Bible, Holy Bible
Holy Bible, book divine, book divine
Before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Father
And be saved
O what weeping, Oh what weeping
O what weeping over me, over me
Before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Father
And be saved
Weeping Mary, weeping Mary
Weeping Mary, weep no more, weep no more
Before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Father
And be saved
Doubting Thomas, doubting Thomas
Doubting Thomas, doubt no more, doubt no more
Before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Father
And be saved
Great Jehovah, great Jehovah
Great Jehovah, over all, over all
Before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Father
And be saved
OUT OF THE DITCH- A TRUE STORY OF AN EX-SLAVE BY J. VANCE LEWIS
HOUSTON, TEXAS Rein & Sons Co., Printers 1910
The Negroes as a whole, though, were overjoyed and from everywhere on the plantation there arose slave songs. Now we heard the words, "Oh, shout, you children, shout, you are free; God knows we are happy, for the Lord has gin us liberty." And from a crowd of young fellows already misinterpreting their freedom, the following chorus--
"Before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Father and be saved."
Then a bold miscreant would sing, in a rich baritone voice the words of the verses--
(1) "Weeping Mary, Weeping Mary, Weeping Mary,
Weep no more, Weep no more, Weep no more."
CHORUS: "Before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Father and be saved."
(2) "Doubting Thomas, Doubting Thomas, Doubting Thomas,
Doubt no more, Doubt no more, Doubt no more."
CHORUS: "Before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Father and be saved."
(3) "Great Jehovah, Great Jehovah, Great Jehovah,
Over all, Over all, Over all."
CHORUS: "Before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Father and be saved."
(4) "Holy Bible, Holy Bible, Holy Bible,
Book Divine, Book Divine, Book Divine."
CHORUS: "Before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Father and be saved."
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