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009 - Negro Spirituals · Army Life in a Black Regiment

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine of Army Life in a Black Regiment. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information aut to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by f N H. Army Life
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  Speaker 1: in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Chapter nine,
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  Speaker 1: Negro's Spirituals. The war brought to some of us, besides
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  Speaker 1: its direct experiences, many a strange fulfillment of dreams of
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  Speaker 1: other days. For instance, the present writer had been a
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  Speaker 1: faithful student of Scottish ballads, and had always envied Sir
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  Speaker 1: Walter the delight of tracing them out amid their own heather,
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  Speaker 1: and of writing them down piecemeal from the lips of
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  Speaker 1: aged groans. It was a strange enjoyment, therefore, to be
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  Speaker 1: suddenly brought into the midst of a kindred world of
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  Speaker 1: unwritten songs as simple and indigenous as the border minstrelsry,
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  Speaker 1: more uniformly plaintive, almost always more quaint, and often as
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  Speaker 1: essentially poetic. The interest was rather increased by the fact
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  Speaker 1: that I had for many years heard of this class
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  Speaker 1: of songs under the name of Negro Spirituals, and had
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  Speaker 1: even heard some of them sung by friends from South Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: I could now gather on their own soil, these strange
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  Speaker 1: plants which I had before seen as in museums alone. True,
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  Speaker 1: the individual songs rarely coincided, but there was a line here,
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  Speaker 1: a chorus there, just enough to fix the class. But
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  Speaker 1: this was unmistakable. It was not strange that they differed,
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  Speaker 1: for the range seemed almost endless, and South Carolina, Georgia,
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  Speaker 1: and Florida seemed to have nothing but the generic character
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  Speaker 1: in common, until all were mingled into a united stock
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  Speaker 1: of camp melodies. Often in the starlit evening, I returned
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  Speaker 1: from some lonely ride by the swift river or on
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  Speaker 1: the plover haunted barrens, and entering the camp, have silently
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  Speaker 1: approached some glimmering fire round which the dusky figures moved
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  Speaker 1: in the rhythmical barbaric dance. The Negroes call a shout, chanting,
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  Speaker 1: often harshly, but always in the most perfect time, with
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  Speaker 1: some monotonous refrain, writing down in the darkness as best
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  Speaker 1: I could, perhaps with my hand in the save covert
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  Speaker 1: of my pocket, the words of the song. I have
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  Speaker 1: afterwards carried it to my tent like some captured bird
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  Speaker 1: or insect, and then, after examination, put it by or
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  Speaker 1: summoning one of the men at some period of leisure.
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  Speaker 1: Corburet Rubble Sutton, for instance, whose iron memory held all
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  Speaker 1: the details of a song, as if it were a
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  Speaker 1: ford or a forest. I have completed the new specimen
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  Speaker 1: by supplying the absent parts the music. I could only
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  Speaker 1: retain my ear. And though the most common strains were
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  Speaker 1: often repeated enough to fix the impression, there were others
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  Speaker 1: that occurred only once or twice. The words will be
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  Speaker 1: here given as nearly as possible in the original dialect.
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  Speaker 1: And if the spelling seemed sometimes inconsistent, or the misspelling insufficient,
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  Speaker 1: it is because I could get no nearer. I wish
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  Speaker 1: to avoid what seems to me the only error of
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  Speaker 1: Loo's big low papers in respect to dialect, the occasional
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  Speaker 1: use of an extreme misspelling, which merely confuses the eye
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  Speaker 1: without taking us any closer to the peculiarity of the sound.
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  Speaker 1: The favorite song sung in camp was the following, sung
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  Speaker 1: with no accompaniment but the measured clapping of hands and
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  Speaker 1: the chatter of many feet. It was sung perhaps twice
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  Speaker 1: as often as any other. This was partly due to
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  Speaker 1: the fact that it properly consisted of a chorus alone,
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  Speaker 1: with which the verses of other songs might be combined
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  Speaker 1: at random. One Hold your light, Hold your light, Brodder Robert,
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  Speaker 1: hold your light, Hold your light on Canaan's shore. What
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  Speaker 1: make old Satan for? Follow me? So Satan ain't got
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  Speaker 1: nothin to do with me? Hold your light, Hold your light,
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  Speaker 1: Hold your light on Canaan's Shore. This would be sung
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  Speaker 1: for half an hour at a time, perhaps each person
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  Speaker 1: present being named in turn. It seemed the simplest, primitive
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  Speaker 1: type of spiritual The next in popularity was almost as elementary,
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  Speaker 1: and like this, named successively each one of the circle.
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  Speaker 1: It was, however, much more resounding and convivial in its music.
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  Speaker 1: Two Bound to Go Jordan River, I'm bound to go,
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  Speaker 1: bound to go, Bound to go, Jordan River, I'm bound
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  Speaker 1: to go. And biddum fare ye well, my brother Robert,
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  Speaker 1: I'm bound to go, bound to go. My sister Lucy,
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  Speaker 1: I'm bound to go, bound to go. Sometimes it was
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  Speaker 1: Tinkham think them fare ye well. The ye was so
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  Speaker 1: detached that I thought at first it was very or
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  Speaker 1: very well. The other picturesque song, which seemed immensely popular,
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  Speaker 1: was at first very bewildering to me. I could make
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  Speaker 1: out the first words of the chorus and called it
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  Speaker 1: the Roman Dar, being reminded of some romantic song which
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  Speaker 1: I had formerly heard. That association quite fell in with
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  Speaker 1: the orientalism of the new tenth Life. Three room in there.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my mother is gone, My mother is gone, My
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  Speaker 1: mother is gone into heaven. My Lord, I can't stay behind.
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  Speaker 1: There's rumindah rumindah rumin dah in de heaven. My Lord,
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  Speaker 1: I can't stay behind, can't stay behind, my dear, I
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  Speaker 1: can't stay behind. Oh my father is gone. Oh, d
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  Speaker 1: angels are gone. Oh, eyes been on de road, Eyes
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  Speaker 1: been on de road, Eyes been on de road into heaven.
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  Speaker 1: My Lord, I can't stay behind. Oh rumindair rumin deare,
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  Speaker 1: rumin dere in de heaven, my life, Lord, I can't
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  Speaker 1: stay behind. By this time, every man within hearing, from
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  Speaker 1: oldest to youngest, would be wriggling and shuffling, as if
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  Speaker 1: through some magic piper's bewitchment, For even those who at
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  Speaker 1: first affected contemptuous indifference would be drawn into the vortex
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  Speaker 1: ere long. Next to these in popularity ranked a class
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  Speaker 1: of songs belonging emphatically to the church, militant and available
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  Speaker 1: for camp purposes, with very little strain upon their symbolism. This,
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  Speaker 1: for instance, had a true companion in arm's heartiness about it,
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  Speaker 1: not impaired by the feminine invocation at the end. Four,
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  Speaker 1: Hail Mary, one more valiant soldier here, one more valiant
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  Speaker 1: soldier here, one more valiant soldier here to help me
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  Speaker 1: bear de cross. Oh, Hail Mary, Hale, Hail Mary, Hale,
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  Speaker 1: Hail Mary, Hale, to help me bear de cross. I
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  Speaker 1: fancied that the original reading might have been so instead
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  Speaker 1: of soldier, with some other syllable inserted to fill out
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  Speaker 1: the meter, and that the hail Mary might denote a
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  Speaker 1: Roman Catholic origin, as I had several men from Saint
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  Speaker 1: Augustine who held in a dim way to that faith.
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  Speaker 1: It was a very ringing song, though not so grandly
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  Speaker 1: jubilant as the next, which was really impressive as the
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  Speaker 1: singers peeled it out when marching or rowing or embarking. Five,
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  Speaker 1: My army cross over, my army cross over, my army
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  Speaker 1: cross over O Pharaoh's army drownded, my army crossover will
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  Speaker 1: cross the mighty river my army cross over. We'll cross
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  Speaker 1: the river Jordan, My army cross over, We'll cross the
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  Speaker 1: danger water. My army crossover, will cross the mighty Mayo,
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  Speaker 1: my army cross over thrice o, Pharaoh's army drownded, my
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  Speaker 1: army cross over. I could get no explanation of the
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  Speaker 1: mighty mayo, except that one of the old men thought
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  Speaker 1: it meant the river of death. Perhaps it is an
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  Speaker 1: African word. In the Cameroon dialect, Mawa signifies to die.
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  Speaker 1: The next also has a military ring about it, and
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  Speaker 1: the first line is well matched by the music. The
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  Speaker 1: rest is a conglomerate, and one or two lines show
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  Speaker 1: a more northern origin. Done is a Virginia sybyleth, quite
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  Speaker 1: distinct from the bean which replaces it in South Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: Yet one of their best choruses, without any fixed words,
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  Speaker 1: was de bell done ringing, for which in proper South
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  Speaker 1: Carolina dialect would be substituted de bell binna ringing. This
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  Speaker 1: refrain may have gone south with our army six Ride
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  Speaker 1: in kind Savior, Ride in kind Savior. No man can
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  Speaker 1: hinder me. Oh Jesus is a mighty man. No man.
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  Speaker 1: We're marching through Virginia fields. No man. Oh Satan is
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  Speaker 1: busy man. No man, and he has his sword and shield.
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  Speaker 1: No man, oh old secesh done, come and gone. No
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  Speaker 1: man can hinder me. Sometimes they substituted binder me, which
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  Speaker 1: was more spicy to the ear and more in keeping
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  Speaker 1: with the usual head over heels arrangement of their pronouns.
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  Speaker 1: Almost all of their songs were thoroughly religious in their tone. However,
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  Speaker 1: quaint then the expression and we're in a minor key.
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  Speaker 1: Both as to words and music, the attitude is always
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  Speaker 1: the same, and as a commentary on life of the
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  Speaker 1: race is infinitely pathetic. Nothing but patience for this life,
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  Speaker 1: nothing but triumph in the next. Sometimes the present predominates,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the future, but the combination is always implied. In
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  Speaker 1: the following, for instance, we hear simply the patience seven,
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  Speaker 1: this world almost Donekeep your lamp trimming and a burning,
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  Speaker 1: Keep your lamp trimming and a burning. Keep your lamp
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  Speaker 1: trimming and a burning for this world most done. So
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  Speaker 1: keep your lamp, this world most done. But in the
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  Speaker 1: next the final reward of patience is proclaimed as plaintively. Eight,
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  Speaker 1: I want to go home. There's no rain to wet you.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yes, I want to go home. There's no sun
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  Speaker 1: to burn you. Oh yes, I want to go home.
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  Speaker 1: Oh push along, believers, Oh yes, there's no hard trials.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yes, there's no whips a cracking. Oh yes, my
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  Speaker 1: brother on de way side, Oh yes, Oh push along
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  Speaker 1: my brother. Oh yes, where there's no stormy weather. Oh yes,
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  Speaker 1: there's no tribulation. Oh yes. And the next was a
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  Speaker 1: boat song and timed well with the tug of the
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  Speaker 1: oar nine the coming day, I want to go to Canaan.
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  Speaker 1: I want to go to Canaan. I want to go
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  Speaker 1: to Canaan to meet him at decomin day. Oh remember,
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  Speaker 1: let me go to Canaan thrice to meet him. Oh brudder,
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  Speaker 1: let me go to Canaan thrice to meet him. Oh
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  Speaker 1: brudder you, oh remember to meet him at decomin day.
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  Speaker 1: The following begins with the startling affirmation, yet the last
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  Speaker 1: line quite outdoes the first. This too, was a capital
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  Speaker 1: boat song. Ten one more river, O Jordan bank was
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  Speaker 1: a great old bank. Dere ain't but one more river
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  Speaker 1: to cross. We have some valiant soldier here, dare ain't. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: Jordan's stream will never run dry, dare ain't. There's a
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  Speaker 1: hill on my left, and he catch on my right,
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  Speaker 1: dare ain't but one more river to cross. I could
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  Speaker 1: get no explanation for this last riddle except mean, if
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  Speaker 1: you go on de left, go to Struction, and if
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  Speaker 1: you go on de right, go to God. For sure.
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  Speaker 1: In other more spiritual conflict is implied, as in this
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  Speaker 1: next eleven, Oh, dying Lamb, I wants to go where
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  Speaker 1: Moses trod o D dying Lamb, for Moses gone to
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  Speaker 1: de promised land O D dying Lamb. To drink from
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  Speaker 1: springs that never run dry. Oh, cry, oh my lord,
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  Speaker 1: oh before I'll stay in hell one day. Oh I'm
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  Speaker 1: in hopes to pray my sins away. Oh cry, oh
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  Speaker 1: my lord, oh brudder, Moses promised for be dar too.
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  Speaker 1: Oh to drink from streams that never run dry, O
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  Speaker 1: d Dying Lamb. In the next the conflict is at
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  Speaker 1: its height, and the lurid imagery of the apocalypse is
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  Speaker 1: brought to bear. This book with the Books of Moses
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  Speaker 1: constituted their bible. All that lay between, even the narratives
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  Speaker 1: of the life of Jesus, they hardly cared to read
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  Speaker 1: or to hear. Twelve down in the valley, We'll run
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  Speaker 1: and never tire. We'll run and never tire. We'll run
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  Speaker 1: and never tire. Jesus sets poor sinners free way down
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  Speaker 1: in the valley. Who will rise and go with me?
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  Speaker 1: You've hearned talk of Jesus who set poor sinners free,
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  Speaker 1: delightning and deflashing, delightning and deflashing, delightning and deflashing. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: set poor sinners free. I can't stand the fire. Thrice.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus set Paul sinners free. De green trees are flaming. Thrice.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus set poor sinners free way down in the valley.
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  Speaker 1: Who will rise and go with me? You've hearned talk
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus who set poor sinners free. De Valley and
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  Speaker 1: the Lonesome Valley were for me words in their religious experience.
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  Speaker 1: To descend into that region implied the same process with
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  Speaker 1: the anxious seat of the camp meeting. When a young
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  Speaker 1: girl was supposed to enter it, she bound a handkerchief
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  Speaker 1: by a peculiar knot over a head and made it
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  Speaker 1: a point of honor not to change a single garment
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  Speaker 1: till the day of her baptism, so that she was
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  Speaker 1: sure of being in physical readiness for the cleansing right,
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  Speaker 1: whatever her spiritual mood might be more than once in
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  Speaker 1: noticing a damsel. Thus mystically kerchiefed, I have asked some
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  Speaker 1: dusky attendant its meaning, and have received the unfailing answer,
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  Speaker 1: framed with their usual indifference to the genders of pronouns
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  Speaker 1: he in the lonesome valley, Sir. The next gives the
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  Speaker 1: same dramatic conflict, while its detached and impersonal refrain give
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  Speaker 1: it strikingly the character of the Scotch and Scandinavian ballads.
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  Speaker 1: Thirteen Cry Holy, Cry, Holy Holy. Look at depeopled that
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  Speaker 1: is born of God. And I run down de valley
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  Speaker 1: and I run down to pray, says, look at de
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  Speaker 1: people that is born of God. When I get dar,
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  Speaker 1: cap'n satan was dar, says, look at, says young man.
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  Speaker 1: Young man dares no use for pray, says, look at,
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  Speaker 1: for Jesus is dead and God gone away, says look at,
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  Speaker 1: and I made him out a liar, and I went
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  Speaker 1: my way, says look at, sing Holy Holy. Oh. Mary
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  Speaker 1: was a woman and he had a one son, says
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  Speaker 1: look at, and he Jews and he Romans had him hung,
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  Speaker 1: says look at, Cry holy Holy. And I tell you, sinner,
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  Speaker 1: you had better had pray, says look at, for hell
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  Speaker 1: is a dark and dismal place. Says look at, and
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  Speaker 1: I tell you sinner, and I wouldn't go Dar says
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  Speaker 1: look at, cry holy Holy. Here is an infinitely quaint
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  Speaker 1: description of the length of the heavenly road. Fourteen over
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  Speaker 1: the crossing vend does my old mother been a wagon
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  Speaker 1: at de hill so long? It's about time? Shall cross over?
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  Speaker 1: Get home, bhind bee, keep praying. I do believe we're
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  Speaker 1: a long time waggon o'er de crossing. Keep praying. I
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  Speaker 1: do believe we'll get home to heaven. Bine b hear dap,
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  Speaker 1: mournful thunder roll from door to door, calling home God's
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  Speaker 1: children get home, by and by, little chillen. I do
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  Speaker 1: believe we're a long time little chillen. I do believe
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  Speaker 1: we'll get home. See dat fork, lightning flash from tree
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  Speaker 1: to tree, calling home God's chillen get home, bimby, true believer,
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  Speaker 1: I do believe we're a long time, Oh brothers, I
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  Speaker 1: do believe we'll get home to heaven, Bimbi. One of
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  Speaker 1: the most singular pictures of future joys and with fine
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  Speaker 1: flavor of hospitality about it, was this fifteen welcome easy,
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  Speaker 1: Oh welcome, easy roundy heaven. Welcome, easy, roundy heaven. Welcome, easy,
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  Speaker 1: roundy Heaven. That all d people may join de band. Welcome,
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  Speaker 1: easy roundy Heaven. Thrice, Oh shout glory tillham joined a band.
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  Speaker 1: The chorus was usually the greater part of the song,
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  Speaker 1: and often came in paradoxically. Thus sixteen, Oh yes Lord,
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  Speaker 1: Oh must I be like de foolish man's Oh yes Lord,
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  Speaker 1: We'll build the house on de sandy Hill. Oh yes Lord,
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  Speaker 1: I'll build my house on Zion Hill. Oh yes Lord,
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  Speaker 1: No wind nor rain can blow me down. Oh yes Lord.
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  Speaker 1: The next is very graceful and lyrical, and with more
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  Speaker 1: variety of rhythm than usual. Seventeen bow low Mary, Bowlow,
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  Speaker 1: Mary Bowlow Martha. For Jesus, come and lock the door
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  Speaker 1: and carry de keys away. Sail sail over yonder and
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  Speaker 1: view de promised land. For Jesus, come weep, Oh Mary,
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  Speaker 1: bow low Martha, for Jesus, come sail sail, my true believer,
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  Speaker 1: Sail sail over yonder, Mary, bow low Martha bowlow for Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: come and lock the door and carry de keys away.
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  Speaker 1: But all of the spirituals that which surprise me the most.
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  Speaker 1: I think, perhaps because it was that in which external
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  Speaker 1: nature furnished the images most directly. Was this, with all
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  Speaker 1: my experience of their ideal ways of speech, I was
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  Speaker 1: startled when I came on such a flower of poetry
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  Speaker 1: in that dark soil. Eighteen. I know moon rise, I
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  Speaker 1: know moonrise, I know star rise. Lay this body down.
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  Speaker 1: I walk into moonlight. I walk into starlight to lay
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  Speaker 1: this body down. I walk into graveyard. I walk through
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  Speaker 1: the graveyard to lay this body down. I'll lie in
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  Speaker 1: de grave and stretch out my arms. Lay this body down.
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  Speaker 1: I go to dejudgment in the evening of D Day
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  Speaker 1: when I lay this body down, and my soul and
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  Speaker 1: your soul will meet in D day. When I lay
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  Speaker 1: this body down, I'll lie in de grave and stretch
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  Speaker 1: out my arms. Never, it seems to me, since man
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  Speaker 1: first lived and suffered, was his infinite longing for peace
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  Speaker 1: uttered more plaintively than in that line. The next one
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  Speaker 1: is of the wildest and most striking of the whole series.
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  Speaker 1: There is a mystical effect and a passionate striving throughout
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  Speaker 1: the whole. The scriptural struggle between Jacob and the Angel,
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  Speaker 1: which is only dimly expressed in the word, seems all
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  Speaker 1: uttered in the music. I think it impressed my imagination
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  Speaker 1: more powerfully than any of the other songs. Nineteen wrestling Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: Oh wrestling Jacob Jacob. Days are breaking. I will not
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  Speaker 1: let thee go. Oh wrestling Jacob Jacob, days are breaking.
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  Speaker 1: He will not let me go. Oh. I hold my
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  Speaker 1: brother with a trembling hand. I would not let him go.
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  Speaker 1: I hold my sister with a tremblin hand. I would
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  Speaker 1: not let her go. Oh, Jacob, do hang from a
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  Speaker 1: tremblin limb. He would not let him go. Oh Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: do hang from a tremblin limb. De Lord will bless
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  Speaker 1: my soul. Oh wrestling Jacob Jacob. Of occasional hymns properly
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  Speaker 1: so called, I notice but one, a funeral hymn for
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  Speaker 1: an infant, which is sung plaintively over and over without
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  Speaker 1: variety of words. Twenty The baby gone home, De little
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  Speaker 1: baby gone home. The little baby gone home, De little
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  Speaker 1: baby gone along. For to climb up Jacob's ladder. And
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  Speaker 1: I wish i'd bin dar. I wish ard bin dah,
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  Speaker 1: I wish ard bin da, my Lord, for to climb
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  Speaker 1: up Jacob's ladder. Still simpler is this, which is yet
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  Speaker 1: quite sweet and touching. Twenty one. Jesus with us, he
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  Speaker 1: have been with us. Jesus he still with us. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: he still with us. Jesus be with us to the end.
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  Speaker 1: The next seemed to be a favorite about Christmas time,
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  Speaker 1: when mediations on de rolling year were frequent, Among them,
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, Lord remember me? Oh do Lord remember me? Oh?
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  Speaker 1: Do Lord remember me? Oh do remember me? Until the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: year roll around? Do Lord remember me? If you want
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to die, like Jesus died, lay in the grave, you
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: would fold your arms and close your eyes and die
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: with a free good will, for death is a simple thing.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: And he go from door to door, and he knocked
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: down some, and he cripple op some, and he leaves
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: some here to pray. Oh do Lord remember me? Oh?
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Do Lord remember me? My old father's gone. Till the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: year roll round? Do Lord remember me? The next was
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: sung in such an operatic and rollicking way that it
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: was quite hard to fancy it a religious performance, which,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: however it was. I heard it but once twenty three,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: early in the morning, I met little Rosa early in
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the morning, Oh Jerusalem, early in the morning, and I
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: axe her. How do you do my daughta, Oh Jerusalem?
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Early in de morning. I meet my mother early in
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the morning, Oh Jerusalem, and I axe her. How do
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: you do my mother, Oh Jerusalem. I meet my brother
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Robert early in the morning, Oh Jerusalem, and I axe him.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: How do you do my sonny, Oh Jerusalem. I meet
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Titty Wessa in the morning, Oh Jerusalem, and I ax her.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: How do you do my data, Oh Jerusalem. Tito Wissa
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: means sister Luisa. In songs of this class, the name
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: of every person present successively appears their best marching song,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the one which was invaluable to lift their feet along.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: As they expressed it was the following. There was a
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: kind of spring and lilt to it, quite indescribable by words.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Twenty four Go in the wilderness. Jesus call you, go
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: into wilderness. Go into wilderness. Go into wilderness. Jesus call you,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: go into wilderness to wait upon de Lord. Go wait
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: upon de Lord. Go wait upon de Lord. Go wait
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: upon de Lord. My God, He take away de sins
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: of de world. Jesus awaitin. Go in to wilderness. Go
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: all dem chillen, go in to wilderness to wait upon
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: de Lord. The next one was one of those which
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I had heard in boyish days, brought north from Charleston.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: But the chorus alone was identical. The words were mainly different,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: and those here given are quaint enough. Twenty five Blow
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: your trumpet, Gabriel, Oh, blow your trumpet, Gabriel, Blow your
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: trumpet louder and I want that trumpet to blow me
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: home to my new Jerusalem. The prettiest thing that ever
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I done was to serve the Lord when I was young.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: So blow your trumpet, Gabriel. Oh, Satan is a liar,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and he conjure too, And if you don't mind, he'll
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: conjure you. So blow your trumpet, Gabrielle. Oh, I was
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: lost in the wilderness. King Jesus hand me de candle down,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: So blow your trumpet, Gabrielle. The following contains one of
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: those odd transformations of proper names with which their scriptural
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: citations were often enriched. It rivals their text Paul may
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: plant and may polish with water, which I have elsewhere quoted,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: and in which the Saint Adpollus would hardly have recognized himself.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Twenty six in the morning, Indy, mourning, Indie morning, chillin Yes,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: my Lord, don't you hear de trumpet sound? If I
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: had a died when I was young, I never would
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: had derace for run? Don't you hear de trumpet sound? O?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Sam and Peter was fishing in de sea, and they
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: drop de net and follow. My lord? Don't you hear
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: de trumpet sound? Des a silver spade for to dig
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: my and a golden chain for to let me down?
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Don't you hear de trumpet sound? Indie mourning, indie mourning chillin? Yes,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: my lord, don't you hear de trumpet sound? These golden
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and silver fancies remind me of one of King of
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Spain's daughters in Mother Goose and the Golden Apple and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the Silver Pear, which are doubtless themselves but the vestiges
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: of some simple early composition like this. The next has
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: a humbler and more domestic style of fancy. Twenty seven.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Fare Ye well, my true believers, fare ye well, fare
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you well, fare ye well, fare ye well, by DeGrace
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of God, for I'm going home Massa. Jesus give me
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: a little broom for to sweep my heart clean, and
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I will try, by digrace of God to win my
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: way home. Among the songs not available for marching, but
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: requiring concentrated enthusiasm of the camp was the Ship of Zion,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: of which they had three wholly distinct versions, all quite
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: exuberant and tumultuous. Twenty eight. The Ship of Zion, come along,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Come along, and let us go home. Oh Glory, hallelujah,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Disty old Ship of Zion. Hallelu hallelu Dity Old Ship
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: of z Iion, hallelujah. She has landed many a thousand,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: she can land as many more, Oh glory, hallelujah. Do
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: you think she will be able for to take us
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: all home? Oh glory, hallelujah. You can tell em, I'm
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: a comin. Hallelu Hallulu, you can tell 'em I'm a
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: comin Hallelujah. Come along, Come along. Twenty nine. The Ship
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: of Zion, second version, Disty, good old Ship of Zion.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Disty good Old Ship of Zion. Disty good old Ship
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: of Zion. And she's making for depromised land. She have
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: angels for de sailors, and she's and how you know
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: days angels, and she's good Lord, shall I be one?
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: And she's that ship is out a sailin, sailin sailin
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: and She's she's a sailing mighty steady, steady, steady, And
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: she's she'll neither reel nor totter totter totter. And she's
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: she's a sailing away cold Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, And she's
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: King Jesus is de captain, Captain captain, and she's making
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: for de Promised Land. Thirty The Ship of Zion third version.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: The Gospel ship is sailing Hosan San. Oh. Jesus is
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: de captain, Hosan San. The angels are de sailors Hosan San. Oh.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Is your bundle ready? Hossan San? Oh? Have you got
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: your ticket? Hossan San. This abbreviated chorus is given with
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: unspeakable unction. The three just given are modifications of an
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: old camp meeting melody, and the same may be true
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: of the three following, although I cannot find them in
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the Methodist hymn books. Each, however, has its characteristic modifications
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: which make it well worth giving. In the second verse
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of this next, for instance, Savior evidently has become soldier
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: thirty one. Sweet music, Sweet music in heaven, just beginning
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: for to roll. Don't you love God? Glory? Hallelujah? Yes
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Late I heard my soldier say, come heavy, soul, I
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: am de way. Don't you love God glory hallelujah. I'll
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: go and tell to sinners round what a savior I
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: have found. Don't you love God glory? Hallelu My grief,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: My burden long has been because I was not cease
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: from sin. Don't you love God glory hallelujah. Thirty two
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Good news, Oh good news, O good news. The angels
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: brought the tidings down. Just come in from Detrone, as
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: grief from out my soul shall fly. Just coming from Detrone.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: I'll shout salvation when I die. Good news, Oh good news.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Just coming from Detrone. Lord, I want to go to
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: heaven when I die. Good news, Oh good news. De
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: white folks call us a noisy crew. Good news, Oh
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: good news. But this I know we are happy too.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Just coming from Detrone. Thirty three The Heavenly Road. You
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: may talk of my name as much as you please,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: and carry my name abroad, but I really do believe
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I'm a child of God as I walk in de
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: heavenly road. Oh won't you go with me? Thrice? For
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: to keep our garments clean? Oh, Satan is a mighty
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: busy old man, and roll rocks in my way. But
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Jesus is my bosom friend, and roll em out of
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: de way. Oh won't you go with me thrice? For
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: to keep our garments clean? Come, my brother, if you
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: never did pray, I hope you may pray to night,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: for I really believe in a child of God as
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I walk in de heavenly road. Oh won't you. Some
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of the songs had played an historic part during the war.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: For singing the next, for instance, the Negroes had been
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: put in jail in Georgetown, s c. At the outbreak
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: of the rebellion. We'll soon be free. It was too
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: dangerous an assertion, and though the chant was an old one,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: it was no doubt sung with redoubled emphasis during the
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: new events. De Lord will call us home, who was
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: evidently thought to be a symbolic verse, For as a
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: drummer boy explained to me, showing all his white teeth
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: as he sat in the moonlight by the door of
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: my tent, they tink de Lord mean, for say, de Yankees,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: thirty four will soon be free. We'll soon be free.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: We'll soon be free. We'll soon be free. When de
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Lord will call us home? My brother. How long, my brother?
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: How long, my brother? How long for we done suffering here?
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: It won't be long thrice for de Lord will call
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: us home. We'll walk Demrie Road thrice where pleasure never dies.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: We'll walk de Golden Street thrice where pleasure never dies?
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: My brother? How long thrice for we done suffering here?
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: We'll soon be free thrice when Jesus sets me free.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: We'll fight for liberty thrice when de Lord will call
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: us home. The suspicion in this case was unfounded. But
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: they had another song to which the rebellion had actually
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: given rise. This was composed by nobody knew whom, though
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: it was the most recent, doubtless, of all these spirituals,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: and had been sung in secret to avoid detection, it
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: is certainly plaintive enough. The peck of corn and the
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: pint of salt were slavery's rations. Thirty five, many thousand go,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: No more peco corn for me, no more, No more,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: No more pecca corn for me, many tousand go, No
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: more driver's lash for me twice, no more, no more
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: pint a sort for me twice, no more, no more,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: one hundred lash for me twice, no more, no more
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: mistress call for me, no more, no more, no more,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: mistress call for me. Many tousand go Even of this
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: last composition, however, we have only an approximate date and
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: know nothing of the mode of composition. Allan Ramsay says
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: of the Scotch songs that no matter who made them,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: they were soon attributed to the minister of the parish.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Whence they sprang. And I always wondered about these, whether
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: they had a conscious and definite origin in some leading mind,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: or whether they grew by gradual accretion in an almost
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: unconscious way. On this point I could get no information,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: though I asked many questions, until at last one day,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: when I was being rowed across the Beaufort to Ladies Island,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: I found myself with delight on the actual trail of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: a song. One of the oarsmen, a brisk young fellow
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: not a soldier, on being asked for his theory of
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: the matter, dropped out a coy confession. Some good spirituals
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: he said, are just out o curiosity. I've been a raiser,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: sing myself. Once my dream was fulfilled and I had
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: traced out not the poem alone, but the poet. I
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: implored him to proceed once. Wee boys, he said, went
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: for toads and rice, and de nigger driver. He keep
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: a calling on us, and I say, oh, de old
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: nigger driver. Then another said, fusting. My mammy told me
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: was nothing so bad as nigger driver. Then I made
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: a sing, just put in a word, and then another word.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Then he began singing, and the men, after listening a moment,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: joined in the chorus, as if it were an old acquaintance,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: though they evidently had never heard it before. I saw
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: how easily the new sing took root among them. Thirty
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: six The driver, O d old nigger driver, O gwine Away,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Fusting my Mamma, tell me, O gwine Away, tell me
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: bout de nigger driver, O gwine Away, nigger driver, Second devil,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: O gwine Away, besting for d he driver, O gwine Away,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: knock he down, and spoilty labor, O gwine Away. It
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: will be observed that, although this song is quite secular
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: in its character, yet its author called it a spiritual
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I heard but two songs among them at any time,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to which they would not perhaps have given this generic name.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: One of these consisted simply in the endless repetition, and
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the manner of certain college songs, of the mysterious line
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: rainfall and wet Becky Lawton. But who Becky Lawton was,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: and why she should or should not be wet, and
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: whether the dryness was a reward or a penalty, none
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: could say. I got the impression that in either case,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the event was posthumous, and that there was some tradition
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: of grass not growing over the grave of a sinner.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: But even this was vague, and all else vaguer. The
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: other song I heard but once on a morning, when
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: a squad of men came in from picket duty and
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: chanted it in the most rousing way. It had been
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: a stormy and comfortless night, and the picket station was
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: very exposed. It's it still rained in the morning when
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I strolled to the edge of the camp, looking out
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: for the men, and wondering how they had stood it.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Presently they came striding along the road at a great pace,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: with their shining rubber blankets worn as cloaks around them,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the rains streaming from these and from their equally shining faces,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: which were almost all upon the broad grin. As they
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: peeled out this remarkable ditty hangman, Johnny, Oh, they call
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: me hangman Johnny. Oh ho oh ho, But I never
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: hang nobody. Oh hang boys, hang. Oh they call me
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: hangman Johnny. Oh ho oh ho. But we'll all hang together.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Oh hang boys hang. My presence apparently checked the performance
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: of another verse, beginning debuckra List for money, apparently in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: reference to the controversy about the pay question then just beginning,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and to the more mercenary aims they attributed to the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: white soldiers. But Hangman Johnny remained always a myth as
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: inscrutable as Becky Lawton. As they learned all their songs
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: by ear, they often strayed into wholly new versions, which
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: sometimes became popular and entirely banished the others. This was
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: amusingly the case, for instance, with one phrase in the
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: popular camp song of marching Along, which was entirely new
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: to them until our quartermaster taught it to them at
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: my request. The words gird on the armour were to
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: them a stumbling block and no wonder until some ingenious
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: ears substituted guide on de army, which was at once
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: accepted and became universal. Will guide on de army and
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: be marching along is now the established version. On the
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: sea islands, these quaint religious songs were to the men
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: more than a source of relaxation. They were as stimulus
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: to courage and to tie to heaven. I never overheard
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: in camp a profane or vulgar song. With the trifling
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: exceptions given, all had a religious motive, while the most
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: secular melody could not have been more exciting. A few
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: youths from Savannah, who were comparatively men of the world,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: had learned some of the Ethiopian minstrel deities imported from
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: the north. These took no hold upon the mass, and
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, they sang reluctantly even on Sunday
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: the long and short meters of the hymn books, always
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: gladly yielding to the more potent excitement of their own spirituals.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: But these they could sing themselves, as had their fathers
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: before them, out of the contemplation of their own low estate,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: into the sublime scenery of the apocalypse. I remember that
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: this minor keyed pathos used to seem to me almost
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: too sad to dwell upon, while slavery seemed destined to
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: last for generations. But now that their patients had had
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: its perfect work, history cannot afford to lose this portion
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of its record. There is no parallel instance of an
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: oppressed race thus sustained by religious sentiment alone. These songs
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: are but the vocal expression of the simplicity of their
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: faith and the sublimity of of their long resignation. End
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: of Chapter nine. Recording by f n H. Visit www
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: dot book Ranger dot co dot uk.