Hangmen- Dickson (NC) 1938 Brown J
[From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore, II, 1952 and Volume IV, music. Listed as 30. The Maid Freed from the Gallows (Child 95).
Their notes follow. The MS in Abrams collection is from Lottie L. Dickson dated 1938; titled "The Maid on the Gallows" as learned from her mother. I assume this is the same version, even though the name of the informant is slightly different.
R. Matteson 2015]
For preceding records of this ballad and its relation to theories of communal origin, see BSM 66, adding to the references there given New Hampshire (NGMS 117-18), Kentucky (BTFLS in 95), Tennessee (SFLQ XI 129-30), North Carolina (FSRA 35-6), Florida (FSF 295-9), Arkansas (OFS I 146-8), Missouri (OFS I 143-4, 145), Ohio (BSO 62-4), Indiana (BSI 125-7), and Michigan (BSSM 146-8 — this last being the "golden ball" form, rare in this country). In only half of the North Carolina texts is it a woman that waits to be freed from the gallows ; in versions B C E K L it is a man, and in D the sex is indeterminate. D is the only one of our texts in which the song has been turned into a play.
J. [Hangmen.] 'Maid Freed from the Gallows.' Contributed by Miss Bonnie Ethel Dickson. The manuscript shows neither place nor date. The series is father, mother, brother, sister, true love.
Hangmen, hangmen, lighten your rope,
Lighten it for a while,
I think I see my father a-coming,
Riding a many of a mile
Oh! father, have you come to pay my gold,
Or have you come to pay my fee,
Or have you come to see me hung on yonders gallows tree?
I haven't come to pay your gold
I haven't come to pay your fee
But I have come to see you hang,
On yonders gallows tree
[Continues with mother, brother sister ends with true love:]
Hangmen, hangmen, lighten your rope,
Lighten it for a while,
I think I see my true love a-coming,
Riding a many of a mile
True love, have you come to pay my gold,
Or have you come to pay my fee,
Or have you come to see me hung on yonders gallows tree?
I have come to pay your gold
I have come to pay your fee
I haven't come to see you hang,
On yonders gallows tree