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Bound to Go
Tradtional Old-Time, Spiritual;
ARTIST: 1. from Negro Spirituals; Thomas Wentworth Higginson from the Atlantic Monthly, June 1867
2. From Allen, Wise and Garrison, 1867, Slave Songs of the United States p. 22-23,
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Bluegrass Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; Negro Spirituals; Thomas Wentworth Higginson from the Atlantic Monthly, June 1867
RECORDING INFO: Bound to Go
Scott, John Anthony (ed.) / Ballad of America, Grosset & Dunlap, Bk (1967), p202
Allen, William Francis, et.al (eds.) / Slave Songs of the United States, Dover, Sof (1995/1867), # 30 [1860s]
OTHER NAMES: “March On, Bound to Go,”
SOURCES: Allen, Wise and Garrison, 1867, Slave Songs of the United States p. 22-23;
Negro Spirituals; Thomas Wentworth Higginson from the Atlantic Monthly, June 1867
NOTES: “Bound to Go” is found in Negro Spirituals by Thomas Wentworth Higginson from the Atlantic Monthly, June 1867 and also in Allen, Wise and Garrison, 1867, Slave Songs of the United States p. 22-23.
A fragment "Bound to Go" has been collected by Odum:
If my baby ask for me,
Tell her I'm bound to go.
Similarly Uncle Dave Macon song, "Over The Road I'm Bound To Go," comes from similar material.
Negro Spirituals; Thomas Wentworth Higginson from the Atlantic Monthly, June 1867:
THE war brought to some of us, besides its direct experiences, many a strange fulfilment of dreams of other days. For instance, the present writer has been a faithful student of the Scottish ballads, and had always envied Sir Walter the delight of tracing them out amid their own heather, and of writing them down piecemeal from the lips of aged crones. It was a strange enjoyment, therefore, to be suddenly brought into the midst of a kindred world of unwritten songs, as simple and indigenous as the Border Minstrelsy, more uniformly plaintive, almost always more quaint, and often as essentially poetic.
This interest was rather increased by the fact that I had for many years heard of this class of songs under the name of "Negro Spirituals," and had even heard some of them sung by friends from South Carolina. I could now gather on their own soil these strange plants, which I had before seen as in museums alone. True, the individual songs rarely coincided; there was a line here, a chorus there,-just enough to fix the class, but this was unmistakable. It was not strange that they differed, for the range seemed almost endless, and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida seemed to have nothing but the generic character in common, until all were mingled in the united stock of camp-melodies.
Often in the starlit evening I have returned from some lonely ride by the swift river, or on the plover-haunted barrens, and, entering the camp, have silently approached some glimmering Ore, round which the dusky figures moved in the rhythmical barbaric dance the negroes call a "shout," chanting, often harshly, but always in the most perfect time, some monotonous refrain. Writing down in the darkness, as I best could-perhaps with my hand in the safe covert of my pocket,-the words of the song, I have afterwards carried it to my tent, like some captured bird or insect, and then, after examination, put it by. Or, summoning one of the men at some period of leisure,- Corporal Robert Sutton, for instance, whose iron memory held all the details of a song as if it were a ford or a forest,-I have completed the new specimen by supplying the absent parts. The music I could only retain by ear, and though the more common strains were repeated often enough to fix their impression, there were others that occurred only once or twice.
The words will be here given, as nearly as possible, in the original dialect; and if the spelling seems sometimes inconsistent, or the misspelling insufficient, it is because I could get no nearer. I wished to avoid what seems to me the only error of Lowell's "Biglow Papers" in respect to dialect,- the occasional use of an extreme misspelling, which merely confuses the eye, without taking us any closer to the peculiarity of sound.
The favorite song in camp was the following,-sung with no accompaniment but the measured clapping of hands and the clatter of many feet. It was sung perhaps twice as often as any other. This was partly due to the fact that it properly consisted of a chorus alone, with which the verses of other songs might be combined at random.
I. HOLD YOUR LIGHT.
"Hold your light, Brudder Robert,-
Hold your light,
Hold your light on Canaan's shore.
"What make ole Satan for follow me so?
Satan ain't got notin' for do wid me.
Hold your light,
Hold your light,
Hold your light on Canaan's shore."
This would be sung for half an hour at a time, perhaps, each person present being named in turn. It seemed the simplest primitive type of "spiritual." The next in popularity was almost as elementary, and, like this, named successively each one of the circle. It was, however, much more resounding and convivial in its music.
II. BOUND TO GO- Higginson 1867
Jordan River, I 'm bound to go,
Bound to go, bound to go,-
Jordan River, I 'm bound to go,
And bid 'em fare ye well.
"My Brudder Robert, I'm bound to go,
Bound to go, &c.
"My Sister Lucy, I'm bound to go,
Bound to go," &c.
Sometimes it was "tink 'em " (think them) "fare ye well." The ye was so detached, that I thought at first it was "very" or "vary well."
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John Anthony Scott (The Ballad of America, Bantam, 1966, p. 202) says:
"Bound to Go," collected by C.P. Ware and W.F. Allen on St. Helena Island, is another example of a spiritual that served a practical purpose both as boat song and as marching song. Its rousing melody is that of an old sea shanty, "A Long Time Ago." The combination of this with the slave lyric produces a song of great spiritual as well as rhythmic impact.
BOUND TO GO- Allen, Wise and Garrison, 1867 A rowing song as well as a spiritual. St. Helena is the sound near Beaufort, S. C., (pronounced Bew-fort). From Allen, Wise and Garrison, 1867, Slave Songs of the United States p. 22-23,
1. I build my house upon de rock,
O yes, Lord!
No wind, no storm can blow 'em down-
O yes, Lord!
CHORUS: March on, march on, bound to go,
Been to de ferry, bound to go;
Left St. Helena, bound to go,
Brudder, Fare ye well.
2. I build my house on shiftin' sand,
De first wind come he blow him down.
Cho.
3. I am not like de foolish man,
He build his house upon de sand.
Cho.
4. One mornin' as I was walkin' along,
I saw de berries a-hangin' down.
Cho.
5. I pick de berries and I suck de juice,
He sweeter dan de honey comb.
Cho.
I tuk dem brudder, two by two,
I tuk dem sister, tree by tree.
(Alternate chorus and verses:)
I build my house upon de rock- O yes, Lord!
No wind nor storm shall blow dem down- O yes, Lord!
March on, member, bound to go;
March on, member, bound to go;
Bid 'em Fare you well.
I build my house upon a rock- O yes, Lord!
No wind nor storm shall blow dem down,
O yes, Lord!
March on, member, bound to go;
March on, member, bound to go;
March on, member, bound to go;
Bid 'em fare you well.
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