"The Negro and his Songs: A Study of Typical Negro Songs in the South"
[This page contains: 1) Preface, 2) Contents, 3) Bibliography and 4) Index. The individual chapters are found attached to this page on the left-hand column]
LIBRARY OF WELLESLEY COLLEGE
THE NEGRO AND HIS SONGS
A STUDY OF TYPICAL NEGRO SONGS IN THE SOUTH
BY HOWARD W. ODUM, Ph.D.
KENAN PROFESSOR OP SOCIOLOGY AND DIRECTOR OF THESCHOOL OP PUBLIC WELFARE, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
AND GUY B. JOHNSON, A.M.
INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
CHAPEL HILL, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
Copyright, 1925, By
The University of North Carolina Press
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1925
PREFACE
This volume is presented simply as a part of the story of the Negro. Other volumes are planned to follow: another collection of songs brought more nearly up to date; a presentation of song and story centered around case studies; a series of efforts to portray objectively the story of race progress in the United States in the last half dozen decades. In each case the material will be presented simply for what it is and not for cosmic generalizations or ethnic interpretation. In the present volume the use of the term Negro refers only to the Negro singer and to that which he represents. The term folk song is used in this collection in a general way and for comparative reference. In neither case are the terms employed with an all-inclusive and technically comprehensive meaning. The Negroes in this book are real Negroes, but they do not represent all the Negro race; the songs are real songs, but many of them are not folk songs in the accurate sense of the word.
The volume will be found to abound in paradoxes and contradictions. The songs are not alike; the dialect is not consistent. There are lyrics of power and appeal, and there are verses crude and sordid. There are lines of elegance and inelegance. There are ballads of worth and disjointed, inconsequential lines of trash. There is sorrow and there is joy; pathos stands alongside humor. If, as W. T. Dawson says, the secret of true poetry is to see and to feel, then there is poetry in the Negro songs. If images and allegories are better than material things, then the Negro singer is good. But if one is to find poetry, like some Richard Jeffries, dwelling on the mystery and beauty of the flesh, on the sensitive elegance of nature and the soul, or like Wordsworth's man-to-man poet, there will be many who dissent from such a judgment of crude creative effort. For there abounds much coarseness. Well it is that this collection has no duty to evaluate overweening physical expression alongside spiritual aspiration, to judge whether buttercups are grazing grass or the substance of sun-spilt immortal gold! Other contrasts there are: stately measures and broken rhythm, forced triseme and ragged trochee, illogical asyndeton and mixed meters, and such other untamed technique as will undoubtedly do justice to the singer of the songs.
But here are the songs as they were found with something of their setting. Some of them have been published in The Journal of American Folklore, and some in The American Journal of Religious Psychology. Acknowledgment of previous publication in these journals is here rendered. Considerable material could not be included in this collection but will follow in the next. This material includes a group of songs collected in Tennessee by Anna Kranz Odum, to whom we are indebted for much help in the utilization of the material in this volume; new songs recently collected in North Carolina and other localities; and a miscellaneous collection of rhymes, games, improvisations, original compositions and riddles.
The songs in this volume were collected in Northern Mississippi, counties of Pontotoc and LaFayette, and in Northern Georgia, counties of Newton and Rockdale. A few other songs and fragments, chiefly from North Carolina and Tennessee, have been used here and there for comparative purposes.
Whatever of special merit the present volume may have besides the inherent value of the collection, is due to the work of Mr. Guy B. Johnson, who has taken the entire original collection, rearranged and reclassified many of the songs, eliminated much duplication, made comparative studies of other collections, and added generally to the effectiveness of the presentation. Special thanks are due Dr. L. R. Wilson, Director of the University of North Carolina Press, for his valuable suggestions in working out many important details, and to Dean J. F. Royster for his kindness in going over most of the original manuscript and making helpful suggestions.
Chapel Hill, N. C. H. W. 0.
February, 1925.
CONTENTS
Preface PAGE
I. Presenting the Singer and His Song 1
II. The Religious Songs of the Negro 14
III. Examples of Religious Songs 59
IV. Examples of Religious Songs, Concluded . . .111
V. The Social Songs of the Negro 148
VI. Examples of Social Songs 168
VII. Examples of Social Songs, Concluded .... 196
VIII. The Work Songs of the Negro 246
IX. Imagery, Style, and Poetic Effort 269
Bibliographical Notes 297
Index of Songs 30
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEGRO FOLK SONGS
BOOKS
Allen, W. F., and others, Slate Songs of the United States. New York, 1867. Words and music of 136 songs are given.
Armstrong, M. F., Hampton and Its Students. New York, 1874. Fifty plantation songs.
Cox, J. H., Folk Songs of the South. Harvard University Press, 1924. Most of these songs are songs of the whites of the mountains, but they are particularly valuable in that they throw light on the origin of many Negro songs.
Fenner, T. P., Religious Folk Songs of the American Negro. Hampton Institute Press, 1924. (Arranged in 1909 by the Musical Directors of Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute from the original edition by Thomas P. Fenner. Reprinted in 1924.) This volume contains the words and music of 153 religious songs.
Fenner, T. P., and Rathbun, F. G., Cabin and Plantation Songs. New York, 1891. Old Negro plantation songs with music.
Harris, Joel Chandler, Uncle Remus, His Songs and Sayings. New York, 1880. Nine songs.
Harris, Joel Chandler, Uncle Remus and His Friends. New York, 1892. Sixteen songs.
Hobson, Anne, In Old Alabama. New York, 1903. Ten dialect stories and songs.
Kennedy, R. Emmet, Black Cameos. Albert & Charles Boni, New York, 1924. A collection of twenty-eight stories, mostly humorous, with songs interwoven. The words and music of seventeen songs are given.
Krehbiel, H. E., A fro- American Folk Songs. G. Schirmer, New York and London, 1914. A careful study of Negro folk songs from the point of view of the skilled musician. Songs and music from Africa and other sources are analyzed and compared with American Negro productions. The music of sixty or more songs and dance airs is given.
Marsh, J. B. T., The Story of the Jubilee Singers. Boston, 1880. An account of the Jubilee Singers, with their songs.
Peterson, C. G., Creole Songs from New Orleans. New Orleans, 1902.
Pike, G. D., The Jubilee Singers. Boston and New York, 1#73. Sixty-one religious songs.
Talley, Thomas, W., Negro Folk Rhymes. Macmillan, New York, 1922. This volume contains about 350 rhymes and songs and a study of the origin, development, and characteristics of Negro rhymes. Besides a general index of songs, a comparative index is included.
Work, John Wesley, Folk Song of the American Negro. Fisk University Press, Nashville, 1915. The words of fifty-five songs and music of nine, together with a study of the origin and growth of certain songs.
PERIODICALS
Backus, E. M., "Negro Stings from Georgia," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 10, pp. 116, 202, 216; vol. 11, pp. 22, 60. Six religious songs.
Backus, E. M., "Christmas Carols from Georgia ," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 12, p. 272. Two songs.
Barton, W. E., "Hymns of Negroes," New England Magazine, vol. 19, pp. 669 et seq., 706 et seq. A number of songs with some musical notation and discussion.
Bergen, Mrs. F. D., "On the Eastern Shore," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 2, pp. 296-298. Two fragments, with a brief discussion of the Negroes of the eastern shore of Maryland.
Brown, J. M., "Songs of the Slave," Lippincotts, vol. 2, pp. 617-623. Several songs with brief comments.
Cable, George W., "Creole Slave Songs," Century, vol. 31, pp. 807-828. Twelve songs with some fragments, music of seven.
Clarke, Mary Almsted, "Song Games of Negro Children in Virginia," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 3, pp. 288-290. Nine song games and rhymes.
Garnett, L. A., "Spirituals," Outlook, vol. 130, p. 589. Three religious songs. However, they appear to have been polished considerably by the writer.
Haskell, M. A., "Negro Spirituals," Century, vol. 36, pp. 577 et seq. About ten songs with music.
Higginson, T. W., "Hymns of Negroes," Atlantic Monthly, vol. 19, pp. 685 et seq. Thirty-six religious and two secular songs, with musical notation.
Lemmerman, K., "Improvised Negro Songs," New Republic, vol. 13, pp. 214-215. Six religious songs or improvised fragments.
Lomax, J. A., "Self-pity in Negro Folk Song," Nation, vol. 105, pp. 141-145. About twenty songs, some new, others quoted from Perrow and Odum, with discussion.
"Negro Hymn of Day of Judgment," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 9, p. 210. One religious song.
Odum, Anna K., "Negro Folk Songs from Tennessee," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 27, pp. 255-265. Twenty-one religious and four secular songs.
Odum, Howard W., "Religious Folk Songs of the Southern Negroes," Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, vol. 3, pp. 265-365. About one hundred songs.
Odum, Howard W., "Folk Song and Folk Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 24, pp. 255-294; 351-396. About 120 songs.
Perkins, A. E., "Spirituals from the Far South," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 35, pp. 223-249. Forty-seven songs.
Perrow, E. C, "Songs and Rhymes from the South," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 25, pp. 137-155; vol. 26, pp. 123-173; vol. 28, pp. 129-190. A general collection containing 118 Negro songs, mostly secular.
Redfearn, S. F., "Songs from Georgia," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 34, pp. 121-124. One secular and three religious songs.
Speers, M. W. F., "Negro Songs and Folk Lore," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 23, pp. 435-439. One religious and one secular song.
Steward, T. G., "Negro Imagery," New Republic, vol. 12, p. 248. One religious improvisation, with discussion.
Thanet, Octave, "Cradle Songs of Negroes in North Carolina," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 7, p. 310. Two lullabies.
Truitt, Florence, "Songs from Kentucky," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 36, pp. 376-379. Four white songs, one of which contains several verses often found in Negro songs.
Webb, W. P., "Notes on Folk Lore of Texas," Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 28, pp. 290-299. Five secular songs.
INDEX TO SONGS
RELIGIOUS SONGS---PAGE
After 'While 133
All My Sins Done Taken Away 60
Bear Yo' Burden 82
Blessed Hope 146
Blow, Gable, Blow 86
Brother, You'd Better Be a Prayin' 80
By and By I'm Goin' to See Them 144
Come, Sinner, Come 78
Cross Me Over 89
Dat Sabbath Hath No End 63
Death is in Dis Land 109
De Blood Done Sign My Name 122
De Udder Worl' is Not Lak Dis 123
Dere's No One Lak Jesus 93
Didn't It Rain ? 129
Do, Lord, Remember Me 92
Don't You See? . 96
Drinkin' of the Wine 136
Dry Bones Goin' Rise . . . . 102
Every Day 119
Fohty Days an' Nights 127
For My Lord 90
Free, Free, My Lord 68
Get in the Union 85
Give Me Jesus 93
Glad I Got Religion 70
Go, and I Go Wid You 135
God Knows It's Time 71
God's Goin' Wake up the Dead 75
Goin' Down to Jordan 124
Goin' to Outshine the Sun 109
Great Judgment Day 99
Gwine Lay Down My Life for My Lord ..... 91
Hangin' Over Hell 88
Heal Me, Jesus 139
Heaven 98
He Is Waiting 83
I Ain't Goin' to Study War No More 101
I Am de Light uv de Worl' 64
I Cannot Stay Here by Myself 115
I Don't Care for Riches . 108
I Goin' Put on My Golden Shoes 107
I Goin' Try the Air 106
I Got a Home 95
I Heard the Angels Singin' 140
I Know My Time Ain't Long 119
I Look for Jesus All My Days 79
If I Keep Prayin' On 98
If I Was a Mourner 73
I'm on My Journey Home 99
In the Morning 100
It Just Suits Me 121
Jesus Done Bless My Soul 65
Jesus Is Listenin' 81
Jesus Wore the Crown 108
Join de Heaven Wid de Angels 103
Keep Inchin' Along 89
King Jesus Is the Rock 92
Lord, Bless the Name 67
Lord, I Just Got Over 66
Love the Lord 94
My Lord's Comin' Again 74
My Mother Got a Letter 120
My Soul's Goin' to Heaven 101
My Trouble Is Hard 130
Oh, the Sunshine! 67
Oh, What a Hard Time! 87
Ole Ship of Zion 117
Paul and Silas 126
Po' Sinner Man 88
Same Train 112
Sinner Die 75
Steal Away 139
Talk About Me . . , 84
The Angel Ban d 104
The Big Fish 141
The Blind Man Stood by the Way and Cried . . . 136
The Downward Road Is Crowded 73
The Gospel Train 113
The Ole Time Religion 142
The Pilgrim's Song 137
They Nail Him to the Cross 125
This Ole World's a Hell to Me 116
This Old World's a Rollin' 118
True Religion 83
Walkin' in the Light 137
'Way in de Middle of de Air 105
Whar' Shall I Be? 134
What You Goin' Do? ....... 77
Wheel in Middle of Wheel 81
When de Train Come Along Ill
Witness for My Lord 132
Working on the Building 72
You Better Git Yo' Ticket 112
You Can't Stay Away 117
You Got a Robe 97
SOCIAL SONGS
An Opossum Hunt (Talley) 241
Baby, Let Me Bring My Clothes Back Home . . . 187
Baby, Let the Deal Go Down 230
Baby, What Have I Done? 185
Baby, You Sho Lookin' Warm 175
Bad Lan' Stone 212
Brady 208
Brer Rabbit 215
Can't Be Yo' Turtle Any Mo' 183
Carve Tm to de Heart 240
Casey Jones 207
Cocaine Habit 218
Cross-eyed Sally 241
Diamon' Joe 184
Don't Never Git One Woman on Your Mind .... 223
Eddy Jones 205
Ev'ybody Bin Down on Me 215
False Alarm 232
Farewell 195
Frank and Jesse James 209
Frightened Away From a Chicken Roost (Talley) . . 237
Frisco Rag Time 171
Get That Money 231
Give Me a Little Buttermilk 225
Got Nowhere to Lay My Weary Head 175
Greasy Greens 226
Honey, Take a One on Me 193
Honey, Take a Whiff on Me 193
Hop Right 190
I Ain't Bother Yet .*.... . 179
I Couldn't Git In 189
I Got Mine 232
I Love That Man, O God, I Do 193
If I Die in Arkansas 174
If You Want to Go a Courtin' 192
If You Want to Marry 192
I'm a Natu'al-Bohn Eastman 211
I'm Goin' Back 217
I'm Going 'Way 178
I'm on My Last Go-round 180
It's Lookin' fer Railroad Bill 200
It's That Bad Railroad Bill 199
Joe Turner 206
Joseph Mica 208
Julia Waters 219
K. C 221
Kelly's Love 194
L. and N 222
Learn Me to Let All Women Alone 181
Lilly 228
Long an' Tall an' Chocolate to the Bone 187
Looked Down de Road . 173
Looking for a Fight (Talley) 213
Lookin' for That Bully of This Town 203
Lost John 227
Make Me a Palat on de Flo' 183
Mule Song 154
No More Good Time 184
Nobody's Bizness but Mine 216
O Babe! 178
O My Babe, Won't You Come Home 182
Odd Fellows Hall 231
On a Hog 170
One Mo' Rounder Gone 210
Pans o' Biscuit 235
Po' Boy Long Way From Home 169
Poor John 155
-Railroad Bill 198
Right on, Desperado Bill 202
Rollin' Mill 218
She Roll Dem Two White Eyes 238
Simon Slick's Mule (Talley) 238
Stagolee 196
Stagolee Done Kill Dat Bully Now 197
Started to Leave 188
Sweet Forget-me-not 195
Sweet Tennessee 179
'Tain't Nobody's Bizness but My Own 177
Take Yo' Time 176
The Negro Bum 210
Things Ain't Same, Babe, Since I Went 'Way . . . 186
This Mornin', This Evenin' so Soon 214
Thought I Heard That K. C. Whistle Blow .... 220
What's Stirrin', Babe? 190
When de Band Begins to Play 235
When I Was a "Roustabout" (Talley) 182
Whoa Mule! 153
Wild Negro Bill (Talley) 213
You May Leave, but This Will Bring You Back . . . 213
You Shall Be Free 233
WORK SONGS
A Hint to the Wise 257
Ain't It Hard to Be a Nigger? 254
Baby Mine 261
Baby's in Memphis 248
Early in de Mornin' - 260
Gang Songs 263
Grade Song 252
Heave-a-hora 265
Ho-ho 261
I Thought I Had a Friend 250
If You Don't Like the Way I Work 256
It's Movin' Day 250
Jay Gooze 248
Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdy 257
Pick-and-shovel Song 255
Raise the Iron 262
Satisfied 249
The Day I Lef' My Home 259
Under the Rail 260
Well, She Ask Me in de Parlor 258
Workmen's Jingles 251