AFRICAN AMERICAN SECULAR SLAVE SONGS

AFRICAN AMERICAN SECULAR SLAVE SONGS

This page contains text examples of and comments about selected 19th century or earlier secular African American dance songs, work songs, and play songs. "Secular" means "non-religious". These compositions provide interesting perspectives about the lifes of enslaved African Americans in the 19th century South and earlier.

A few video reproductions of these songs are also included in this post. All videos are from YouTube.

Most of these examples were composed by enslaved African Americans. However, songs such as "No More Auction Block For Me" were composed shortly after the abolishment of slavery in the USA

This page is not meant to be a comprehensive listing of African American secular slave songs.

All lyrics and videos that are showcased on this page are presented for their sociological, folkloric, historical, aesthetic, and entertainment value.

Editor: Azizi Powell
Latest update: December 7, 2012

SOURCES FOR EXAMPLES
Most of the examples on this page are from selected websites. Some examples and comments are quoted from published books. I sincerely thank all the commenters, editors, and authors whose examples and/or comments about these songs are reposted on this site. Special thanks Max Spiegel, the founder of http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm for giving me permission to repost comments from guest posters and from inactive posters to that Folk & Blues discussion forum.

Most of the examples on this page aren't easily found on the Internet or in other easily accessible resources. Brief comments may be included below some of these examples.

If a commenter or site editor sends a request to cocojams17@yahoo.com for me to remove his or her comment from Cocojams.com, I will do so.

USE OF THE N WORD
As founder/editor of Cocojams.com I have decided that the "n word" will only be included on this website with asterisks or dashes or with the euphemistic term "the n word". In this particular Cocojams.com page, "the n word" will be presented by the use of the euphemism "n___r" or "n__a in the case of the shortened version of that word.

I chose to use those euphemisms because I consider any form of "the n word" to be very offensive and highly inflammatory. I cringe when I hear or read that word regardless of who is using it. I also cringe when I read the n word in the title or the content of discussion threads about 19th century or earlier songs on folkloric music discussion sites such as http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm . I realize that there are differing opinions about the use of this word. However, I don't agree with other Black people who believe that that pejorative referent can be "reclaimed", meaning that through repeated use of that word, it would no longer carry any pejorative connotations. I also don't agree that variant forms of the n word mean something different than the n word, or are only acceptable for Black people to use. I join with other Black people and non-Black people who are opposed to the use of the "n word" or variant forms of that word, in songs, speech, or writing.

I recognize the folkloric responsiblity to document, share, and study songs, rhymes, and prose as artifacts from the past. I also recognize the fokloric responsibility to document current songs, rhymes, and other written, sung, and spoken creative works for future generations. However, I've decided that I will not use that word on this website (or elsewhere, though I've done so several times online with regard to secular slave songs) because I've concluded that for me those folkloric responsibilities don't supercede the concern that I have that documenting and showcasing songs or rhymes that include offensive language practices particularly without disclaiming comments about the use of those terms
1. could be interpreted as condoning those practices in the present and/or
2. could be interpreted to mean that the person showcasing those songs doen't have any concerns or opinions about the use of those words and/or
3. could be used to condone and/or encourage the continuation of the use of those words in the future.

My decision to use the euphemism "the n word" and to change that word in the above mentioned song to "the Black man" was also made because I want it noted and documented that some Black people (and some non-Black people) in this day & time still have negative reactions to and strong opinions about the current (and past) use of the n word.

Similarly, in this compilation of African American secular slave songs, I have taken the liberty to substitute the word "mama" for the word "mammy" and the word "children" for the word "pickaninny". I admit that I've done this for my own aesthetic taste as I consider those words particularly offensive. However, for the folkloric record, all other 19th century dialect and vernacular words found in these examples are presented. "as is" (meaning, as I found them in the given source/s). As a means of facilitating readers' comprehension, in some examples of songs featured on this page, I've included words in parenthesis that are the currently standard form of the preceding 19th century or earlier word.

Visit Cocojams' "Mail Box" readers comment page http://www.cocojams.com/content/mail-box for a reader's comments about the deletion of dialect in songs. My response to that comment is also posted on that page.

EDITORIAL COMMENT
Like many African Americans, I grew up knowing very little about the dance songs, work songs, and play songs of enslaved African Americans. As a teen, and as a young adult and middle aged adult, if someone had asked me whether enslaved African Americans had dance songs, I probably would have said "no" because such a concept would have appeared to have contradicted the horrors that I had read about slavery and given comfort to the trope about the "happy slaves". Consequently, I knew little about the music life of enslaved African Americans besides their spirituals and I didn't make any effort to know more.

However, in the beginnings of my sixth decade on this planet, I now recognize the restorative effect dancing has on the body and the spirit. I also now realize that were it not for those social songs work which helped keep the pace, certain repetitive work (such as those associated with sailing and cutting timber) would have been more difficult and dangerous. I also realize that the social songs of enslaved Black people enabled them to comment about their conditions with plausible deniability. And I now realize that without those sometimes light hearted and sometimes bitter songs, my ancestors and the ancestors of many other Americans may not have been able to survive the spirit breaking experiences of chattel slavery.

With regard to African American secular slave songs, I have chosen to "play pass" (ignore as much as I can) the pejorative referents and the dialectic words in those songs and instead focus on the creativity of those examples, the strength & resiliency of those people who composed them, and the information that those songs might reveal about the lives of people then, and the lives of people now.

I've also learned to be more accepting of American banjo & fiddle music, which is closely related to Black plantations song. And I actually like some of this music- especially as it is performed by African American groups such as the Sankofa Strings and the award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. I support their efforts to raise the awareness of African Americans and other people to this music, and I consider this page part of that effort.

I still do not like black faced minstrel music because of that music's negative characterization of Black people. I find it very frustrating and often impossible to separate the authentic Black verses in "Negro folk songs" from the fake Black verses in minstrel songs-or even to determine whether a song or verses in those songs originated as a minstrel song or was first an African American folk song.

In spite of that real frustration, I believe that it's important for more people and particularly for more Black people in the United States and elsewhere to raise their awareness of African American secular slave songs. Perhaps because we African Americans are more self-confident about our racial identity we can go back & embrace banjo music that we had such a large part in creating. As the Ghanaian adinkra proverb Sankofa says "It is never too late to go back and claim what we have left behind."

Furthermore, I strongly believe that it is wrong to adopt a color-blind approach to American folk music. Some old American music such as "spirituals" have come to be associated with Black people. However, most other old timey music is usually just lumped into the generic category of "traditional" or "American folk music". Given the history and present racial realities in the United States, "White (people)" is the automatic default placement for any person who accomplished anything worthwhile (including composing music whose authorship isn't known or knowable). In other words, if the racial identity of a person of high status, or a person who did something good, or a person anonymously posting on the internet isn't specified, most people in the United States-including many People of Color-will automatically think that that person is White. This White default system operates regardless of the election of Barack Obama as the first Black President to the United States in 2008. Usually most people also have a male default (meaning they will assume that a person is male whose gender is unidentified by the selected screen name). This "White default" means that most Americans aren't "color blind" even when they think they are.

Adding to this mix is the fact that White mainstream American culture has long appropriated and continues to appropriate a great deal of African American cultural products (music, dance, slang etc). Such appropriation, coupled with the practice of conferring such generic labels of “traditional” and “folk” on Black cultural expressions, has contributed to many Black children and other Children of Color growing up struggling with poor self-esteem because we were socialized to believe that our ancestors didn't create or invent much of anything. Of course, the opposite is true.

It's difficult to reclaim, honor, study, and/or perform our artistic expressions when we're not aware of the existence of those artistic expressions.I'm trying to add to the efforts to bring more attention to this largely neglected portion of African American culture through this page and other similar Cocojams pages.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to all who help raise awareness of and appreciation for these songs!

This page is dedicated in loving memories and thanss to all the ancestors who composed these songs.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Please send links to or lyrics of African American secular slave songs to cocojams17@yahoo.com for possible posting on this page. Thanks!

Your email address is never posted or shared.

Or, if you are on facebook, visit me at cocojams jambalayah, and befriend me or send me a private message.

Thanks to all those who send in links to lyrics, videos, and information!

RELATED LINKS
http://cocojams.com/content/american-banjo-fiddle-songs

http://www.cocojams.com/content/sea-shanties-chanteys-neglected-area-bla...

http://cocojams.com/content/food-beverages-mentioned-thomas-w-talley%E2%...

****
EXAMPLES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SECULAR SLAVE SONGS

A,B
AUNT JEMIMA
Ole Aunt Jemima grow so tall,
Dat she couldn' see da groun'.
She stumped her toe, an' down she fell
From de Blackwoods clean to town.

W'en Aunt Jemima git in town,
An' see dem "tony" ways,
She natchully faint an' back she fell
To de Blackwoods whar she stays.
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise (Kennikat Press Edition, 1968, p. 107; originally published in 1922)

Editor:
In 19th century & the early 20th century United States and elsewhere, the title "Aunt" and the term "Auntie" like the title "Uncle" were used as referents for Black adults by many White people particularly in the South instead of the titles "Mrs", "Miss" or "Mr". "Mrs", "Miss" or "Mr". were reserved for White people, reflecting the belief that White people were innately superior to non-White people. Many White people in the Southern region of the United States and elsewhere believed that the titles "Aunt", "Uncle", and the term "Auntie" conveyed affection & respect for slaves or servants who were so referred, albeit not the same amount of repect that was given to White people.

As demonstrated by the examples of songs that are found in African American university professor and folk song collector Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise, it was also the custom among some Black peole in the 19th century/early 20th century South to use the titles "Aunt", "Auntie", and "Uncle" instead of "Mrs", "Miss", and "Mr" as referents for Black adults . From what I've read "Aunt", "Auntie", and "Uncle" were either ttitles or terms of respect for the adults, particularly older adults or group leaders, or they were commonly used titles/terms for adults with no connotation of respect. For instance, no respect is implied by the use of the name "Aunt Jemima" in the example from Talley's book that is featured above. Rather, "Aunt Jemima" is used as a generic name for rural Black women who are mocked by city Black people because they are from the country (rural areas) and therefore are far less sophisticated than urban Black folk.

Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise includes several other songs in which the name "Aunt Jemima" or "Auntie" are used as a generic referent for adult Black women. One of those songs is "Chicken In The Bread Tray" with its call & response verses (Auntie does your dog bite/No child no.). In this example and in other examples, "Auntie", "Aunt", and "Uncle" usually don't imply any family relationship between the person so named and the person using that referent.

In the late 19th century, the name "Aunt Jemima" was used by White folks on vaudeville and elsewhere as a short cut referent for the "mammy" stereotype. In 1889 the Quaker Oats corporation debuted the drawing of a smiling slave woman as a representation of their brand of pancake mix. "Aunt Jemima" was drawn as a typical "mammy" wearing a large white apron over a checkered dress, and wearing a hankerchief on her head.

Up to the 1950s Black women dressed as "Aunt Jemima"/ mammy were hired to market "Aunt Jemima" pancake mix at events in Black communities. Due to Black opposition, that marketing strategy ceased and the Aunt Jemima figure on Quaker Oats pancake mixes, syrup, and other products has become decidedly more attractive. However, the damage to the image of Black females was done.

Since at least the 1970s, the term "Aunt Jemima" has been used as a female form of the insulting referent "Uncle Tom". An Uncle Tom is "a Black person who is perceived by others as behaving in a subservient manner to White American authority figures, or as seeking ingratiation with them by way of unnecessary accommodation". ( Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom )

The name "Tom" is also used as a verb. Black individuals can be said to be "tomming", meaning that they are "acting like an "Uncle Tom". During the late 20th century to date, the referent "Uncle Tom" has frequently been shortened to "Tom". Since at least the 1980s, the terms "Uncle Tom" or "Tom" can be used to refer to either males or females.

In the 1990s"Handkerchief head" is another put down referent for Black males and females who acted in ways that weren't in the best interests of their perceived group. but that term seems to be rarely used nowadays.

"Uncle Tom" may also be used to refer to people who aren't Black. For example, in September 2012, United States Congressman Bernie Sanders referred to Log Cabin (gay) Republicans as "Uncle Toms" because that group of Republicans weren't supportive of legislation that would be in the best interests of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender) community. (Click http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-barney-frank/why-i-called-the-log-cabi... for a news article.)

For more information on the "Aunt Jemima" pancake advertisement, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima and http://foodandculture.wikispaces.com/Aunt+Jemima-+From+Bandanas+to+Pearls

For more comments about "Aunt Jemima", "Uncle Tom" and similar referents, visit this discussion thread that I started: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118128
Modern Day Uncle Toms & Aunt Jemimas

Also, visit http://www.mudcat.org/thread_pf.cfm?threadid=128733
for dialectical lyrics to two other example Aunt Jemima songs: Old Aunt Jemima & Aunt Jemima's Plaster

****
AWAY DOWN IN SUNBURY
O massa take dat new bran coat
And hang it on de wall,
Dat darkee take dat same ole coat
And wear 'em to de ball.
O don't you hear my true lub sing?
O don't you hear 'em sigh?
Away down in Sunbury
I'm bound to live and die.
-William Francis Allen, et al. "Slave Songs Of The United States, 1867; http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html (retrieved 2/22/2011)

****
BEDBUG
De June-bug's got de golden wing,
De Lightning-bug de flame;
De bedbug's got no wings at all,
But he gits dar jes de same.

De Punkin-bug's got a punkin smell,
Se Squash-bug smells de wusst'
But de puffme of dat ole Bedbug,
It's enough to make you bust.

W'en dat Bedbug come down to my house,
I wants my walkin' cane/
Go get a pot an' scald 'im hot!
Good-by, Miss Liza Jane!
-from J. Mason Brewer, "American Negro Folklore", in From My People, 400 Years of African American Folklore (Daryl Cumber Dance, editor, New York, W. W. Norton &Co., 2002, p. 485)

Editor:
The lines "The bedbug has no wings at all/but he gets there just the same" were used to teach the moral lesson that people can do what they have to do inspite of limitations. I recall hearing these lines in my childhoold (in New Jersey, 1950s), and they may still be used even now.

The "Goodbye Liza Jane" line at the end of the sentence may have been used as a reminder of another song "Rejected By Eliza" that may have been popular at that time. See that song on this page. Of course, there were a number of 19th century African American and non-African American secular songs that included the name "Eliza", "Liza Jane" or some variant of that name. Among those compositions is the still popular song "Little Liza Jane". Examples of that song can be readily found in American folksong books, and throughout the Internet. Here is a link to one Mudcat Discussion Forum "thread" (a series of comments) about versions of a less commonly known song "Goodbye Liza Jane" http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2777

Also, see the song "Pretty Polly Ann" on this page for another 19th century African American secular song that mentions "Lize Jane".

C,D
CHARLESTON GALS*
1. As I walked down the new-cut road,
I met the tap and then the toad;
The toad commenced to whistle and sing,
And the possum cut the pigeon wing.
Along come an old man riding by:
Old man, if you don't mind, your horse will die;
If he dies I'll tan his skin,
And if he lives I'll ride him agin.
Hi ho, for Charleston gals!
Charleston gals are the gals for me.]

2 As I went a-walking down the street,
Up steps Charleston gals to take a walk with me.
I kep' a walking and they kep' a talking,
I danced with a gal with a hole in her stocking.
- William Francis Allen, et al. "Slave Songs Of The United States, 1867; http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html (retrieved 2/22/2011)

Editor:
"Slave Songs Of The United States" is a very important resource for those interested in African American history. This electronic version of this classic was produced University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This statement prefaces this electronic version: © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

My thanks to those who are responsible for this work

-snip-
With regard to "Charleston Gals", I've read elsewhere that the name of other cities could be and were substituted for the topical name "Charleston" .

****
COTTON EYED JOE (Version #1)
Hol' my fiddle an' hol' my bow,
Whilst I knocks ole Cotton Eyed Joe.

I'd a been dead some seben years ago,
If I hadn't a danced dat Cotton Eyed Joe.

Oh, it makes dem ladies love me so,
W'en I comes 'roun' pickin' ole Cotton Eyed Joe!

Yes, I'd a been married some forty years ago,
If I hadn't stay'd 'roun' wid Cotton Eyed Joe.

I hain't seed ole Joe, since was las' Fall;
Dey say he's been sol' down to Guinea Gall.
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (Kennikat Press, 1968; originally published in 1922 by Macmillan Press)

Editor:
It appears to me that in this song "Cotton Eyed Joe" refers to a particular man and the name of a particular dance and its accompanying tune. "Pickin'" here means to play a tune on a fiddle. "Knock" means to do something, to dance (as in the contemporary phrase "to knock something out").

****
COTTON EYED JOE (Version #2)
Don't you remember, don't you know,
Don't you remember Cotton-eyed Joe?
Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe,
What did make you treat me so?
I'd 'a' been married forty year ago
Ef it had n't a-been for Cotton-eyed Joe!

Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe,
He was de nig dat sarved me so,-
Tuck my gal away fum me,
Carried her off to Tennessee.
I'd 'a' been married forty year ago
Ef it had n't a-been for Cotton-eyed Joe!

His teeth was out an' his nose was flat,
His eyes was crossed, - but she did n't mind dat.
Kase he was tall, and berry slim,
An' so my gal she follered him.
I'd 'a' been married forty year ago
Ef it had n't a-been for Cotton-eyed Joe!

She was de prettiest gal to be found
Anywhar in de country round;
Her lips was red an' her eyes was bright,
Her skin was black but her teeth was white.
I'd 'a' been married forty year ago
Ef it had n't a-been for Cotton-eyed Joe!

Dat gal, she sho' had all my love,
An' swore fum me she'd never move,
But Joe hoodooed her, don't you see,
An' she run off wid him to Tennessee.
I'd 'a' been married forty year ago
Ef it had n't a-been for Cotton-eyed Joe!
-Dorothy Scarborough, On The Trial of Negro Folk Songs, originally published in 1925

Editor:
For an interesting discussion about the meaning of "cotton-eyed", visit this Mudcat Discussion Forum thread:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=13537&messages=74
"Subject: RE: Cotton-eyed Joe-true story/composite?"

Here is one brief excerpt from that thread:
The Penguin Book of American Folk Songs edited by Alan Lomax has a 2-verse version of Cotton-eyed Joe in the "lullaby" section. It has the "Where did you come from..." verse and the "Come for to see you, come for to sing, come for to show you my diamond ring." In a very brief explanatory note, Lomax adds: "In Southern parlance a man is 'cotton-eyed' if his irises are milky-coloured. Cotton-Eye Joe, the obscure hero of a number of Negro dancing tunes and fiddler's airs, here turns up in one of the loveliest of Southern mountain lullabies, found by Margaret Valliant in the hills of Tennessee."
(from a comment posted by rlr 08 Sep 99 - 09:06 PM) . Among other comments in that thread, I would also like to call your attention to rir's 20 Feb 00 - 02:33 PM comment.

****
DIE IN THE PIG PEN FIGHTING
Dat ole sow sad to de barrer:
"I'll tell you w'at let's do":
:et's go an' git dat broad-axe
And die in the pig-pen too"

"Due in de pig -pen fightin'!
Yes, die, die in die wah!
Die in de pig-pen fightin'
Yes, die wid a gitin' jaw!"
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes, "Negro Folk Rhymes", Kennikat Press Edition, 1968; pg. 39

Editor:
I believe that "Die In The Pig Pen Fighting" is an example of a secular slave song that is written in coded language which reveals the composer's discontent with slavery and his determination to fight to be free, even if that led to his death.

E,F

G,H
GRAY AND BLACK HORSES
I went down to de woods an' I couldn' go 'cross,
So I paid five dollars fer an ole gray hoss.
De hoss wouldn' pull, so I sol' 'im fer a bull.
De bull wouldn' holler, so I sol, 'im fer a dollar.
De dollar wouldn' pass, so I throwed it in de grass,
Den de grass wouldn' grow. Heigho! Heigho!

Through dat huckeberry woods I couldn' git far,
So I paid a good dollar fer an ole black mar'.
W'en I got down dar, de trees wouldn' bar;
So I had to gallop back on dat ole black mar'.
"Bookitie-bar!" Dat ole black mar'; "Bookitie-bar!" Dat ole black mar'.
Yes she trabble so hard sat she jolt off my ha'r.
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (Kennikat Press Edition, 1968, p. 45; originally published in 1922 by Macmillan Press)

Editor:
This song/poem is also known as "I Went To The River But I Couldn't Get Across". The first verse of this song lives on in African American children's handclap rhymes that include an "Ooh Ah, I Want A Piece Of Pie" verse. I call these type of playground rhymes "trading rhymes" because they list a number of things that are traded for something else because that item was found to be defective in one way or another. Here's an example of a children's playground "trading rhyme":

Down by the banks of the hanky panky
Where the bull frogs jumped to bank to bankies
with ah eeps opps I wanna piece of pie.
Piece of pie too sweet. I wanna piece of meat.
Piece of meat too rough. I wanna ride a bus.
Bus too full. I wanna ride a bull.
Bull too black. I want my money back.
Money back too green. I want a jelly bean.
Jelly bean not cooked. I wanna read a book.
Book too red. I wanna go to bed.
Bed not made. I want some lemonade.
Lemonade too sour. I got that funky power.
hanzie99 (Uploader; little White girl reciting); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpVeoxwDGcY Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky; Oct 2, 2010 [transcription by Azizip17; February 2011]

Additional examples of this rhyme can be found on this Cocojams' Handclap Rhymes page http://www.cocojams.com/content/handclap-jump-rope-and-elastics-rhymes (under the title "ABC" & Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky". Other examples of trading rhymes can be found on http://www.cocojams.com/content/handclap-jump-rope-and-elastics-rhymes-2 under the title "Ooh Ah I Want A Piece Of Pie" and "Take A Peach Take A Plum". Note that every examples of those rhymes don't include "trading rhymes". Also, trading rhymes can be found in other examples of English language playground rhymes.

****
GREEN OAK TREE!
Green oak tree! Rocky'O! Green oak tree! Rocky'O!
Call dat one you loves, who it may be,
To come an' set by de side o' me.
"Will you hug 'im once an' kiss 'em twice?
"W'y! I wouldn't kiss 'im once fer to save 'is life!"
Green oak tree! Rocky'O! Green oak tree! Rocky'O!
-Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Songs, Wise and Otherwise;p. 81, 1968 Kennikat Press edition

Editor:
This dance/play song from Thomas W. Talley's collection probably is one of the early sources of the children's game song "Green Green Rocky Road".

Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/text-analysis-green-green-rocky-road-hoo...
for examples, videos, and comments about both of these songs.

****
HAMBONE

Editor:
I'm not sure when the song/chant "Hambone" was first composed. It may have been after the emancipation of enslaved African American, and thus may not be a "slave song". However, the body patting performance activity that is known today as "hambone" and is also called "pattin Juba" is documented to have been performed during 18th and i9th century African American slavery if not before then. More information about "pattin Juba" is found below these examples. Furthermore, the practice of rhythmically slapping part of your body (particularly your chest) is documented in West Africa. Here's a video of a children from Senegal doing a traditionally activity called "pat pat":

Traditional Jola dancing. Video 1. July 2006 (Senegal)

UlfJagfors/ September 29, 2006

-snip-

This video shows traditional Jola body patting and dances by girls from Mlomp, Casamance region, Southern Senegal. It was recorded at The Akonting Center for Senegambian folkmusic, Mandinari, Gambia July 2006:

-snip-
Here's some additional information about "hambone":

-snip-
..."Hambone" is a name for a particular way of using body percussion to accompany songs with very rhythmic combinationds. It involves many body percussion sounds, in addition to the usual stamp, pat, clap and
snap.

Some of these are:

Patting the chest with alternating hands

Patting one's open mouth or cheeks (amount of open area in mouth determines pitch)

Patting the front, back and sides of the legs.

Slapping for arms and elbows

Alternately patting one thigh with one hand, then coming up and patting the palm of the other hand which is being held, palm down a few inches above one's thigh.

Alternately patting one hand with the other hand (Clap right hand on left palm, then left hand on right palm)."

-snip-

I'm including several examples of "Hambone" on this page regardless of the dates of their composition. Some of these examples are contemporary in their composition.
I've included most of the examples found below on this post in my pancocojams blog:

HAMBONE (Version #1)
Hambone Hambone pat him on the shoulder
If you get a pretty girl, I'll show you how to hold her.
Hambone, Hambone, where have you been?
All 'round the world and back again.
Hambone, Hambone, what did you do?
I got a train and I fairly flew.
Hambone, Hambone where did you go?
I hopped up to Miss Lucy's door.
I asked Miss Lucy would she marry me.
(in falsetto) "Well I don't care if Papa don't care!"
First come in was Mister Snake,
He crawled all over that wedding cake.
Next walked in was Mister Tick,
He ate so much it made him sick.
Next walked in was Mister Coon,
We asked him to sing us a wedding tune,
Now Ham-....
Now Ham....
-Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes, "Step It Down, Games, Plays, Songs & Stories From The Afro-American Heritage" (Athens, Ga; University of Georgia Press, 1972, pps 34-36)

Editor:
Here's a description of how to perform hambone patting from the book "Step It Down":
"Hambone may be performed alone or with a group all jiving together. While the rhyme is being said, the players slap their thighs lightly on the off-beat, After each line of the poem, they "pat"...

The "patting" may be done on one side of the body only, using the right hand and thigh, or on both sides at the same time in parallel motion. The triplet phrase is done as follows:

1.Slap the side of the thigh with the palm of the hand in an upward brushing
motion.
2. Continuing the upward brushing; strike the side or the chest with the palm of the hand.
3. Strike the thigh downward with the back if the hand.

Do this series twice, then slap your thigh three times. The entire pattern is repeated after each line of the rhyme..."

-snip-

The Hambone beat is a form of 'pattin Juba" that was used for percussive affect in place of drums during African American slavery. The rock & roll singer/musician Bo Diddley used this beat so much in his records that it became known as the "Bo Diddley" beat.
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley to read more about Blues and R&B singer, musician, song writer Bo Diddley. Here's an excerpt from that Wikipedia page:
"He [Bo Diddley] recorded for Chicago's Chess Records subsidiary label Checker. Bo Diddley is best known for the "Bo Diddley beat", a rhumba-based beat (see clave) also influenced by what is known as "hambone", a style used by street performers who play out the beat by slapping and patting their arms, legs, chest, and cheeks while chanting rhymes.

In its simplest form, the Bo Diddley beat can be counted out as a two-bar phrase:

One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four" etc.

****
HAMBONE (Version #2)
Hambone, Hambone
where you been?
“Round the corner
And back agin”
Hambone Hambone,
where's your wife?
"In the kitchen cookin rice"
-Azizi Powell, childhood memories of Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1950s

Editor: I can't remember any other portion of this rhyme. I think it was a handclap rhyme but I'm not certain of that.

****
HAMBONE (Version #3)
There's a version recorded on a lovely CD: Various Artists 'Georgia Folk: A Sampler of Traditional Sounds' Global Village Music CD 03. It is performed by Ray Favors - with body patting, mouth popping etc - and was recorded by Dave Evans in 1970.

Hambone, hambone have you heard
Papa gonna buy me a mockingbird
If that mockingbird don't sing
Papa gonna buy me a diamond ring
If that diamond ring don't shine
Papa gonna buy me a nanny goat
It that nanny goat don't rate
Papa gonna whup my boom-de-yay *
Hambone!

Hambone, hambone where you aye (?)**
In the chicken house cookin' rye
Hambone, hambone where you bin
Round the world and I'm goin' agin
Hambone!
-Stewie; http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=17443&desc=yes "Hambone" ; January 26, 2000

Editor:
* In the context of this song "boom-de-yay" is a rhythmical euphemism for "butt". Notice the similarities between the line "Papa gonna whup my boom-de-yay" and the line "mama gonna beat my b.u.t" in version #4 of this song that is found below.

**The question mark in parenthesis indicates that Stewie was unsure whether his transcription of this word was correct. If "where you aye?" is correct. "Where you aye" probably has the same meaning as the African American English question "Where you at"? (Where are you?) . "In the chicken house cookin rye" is often given as "in the kitchen cookin rice". Stewie's transcribed the word "rye" as "rice". This line is usually given as "cookin rice".

****
HAMBONE (Version #4)
Now what you are about to see
is a little bit of lost history.
A little bit of lost history.
But I'm glad
Somebody showed me.
Whether one or two or all alone
Everybody can enjoy
a little hambone.
Hambone, hambone what is that?
Hambone is more than a hit or a pat.
Hambone is more than a rhyme.
Hambone is more than a notion.
To get into hambone
you gotta show emotion.
So look up!
Listen here!
Hambone's about to bring you some cheer. Hah!

[Begins hambone patting and after several pats with no words, continue pattin while saying these lines]

Hambone, hambone have you heard?
Mama's gonna buy me a mockin' bird.
If that mockin' bird don't sing
Mama's gonna buy me a diamond ring.
If that diamond ring don't shine
Mama's gonna buy me a fishing line.
If that fishing line should break
Mama's gonna throw it in the lake.
If that water splash on me
Mama's gonna beat my b.u.t.
[Stops hambone pattin and without any break flows into the next line]

Tea is what I like to drink
When I know I need to think.
When I like a little song
I like to do the -Hambone. Hah!

[Begins hambone pattin' again then after several patts says]
Break it down! Hah! Hah!

[Does mouth pop]
Hambone!
-NeBo411; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ7VgSivTE8&feature=related; December 04, 2007 (transcription from the YouTube video by Azizi Powell, 8/17/2010)

Here's that video:

Hambonin' Nebo; Hambone

NeBo performs the artistic, thigh-slapping art form called Hambone.

-snip-

Note that portions of this Hambone example include floating lines from another African American song "Hush Little Baby, Don't You Cry". Note that "If that diamond ring don't shine/Mama's gonna buy me a fishing line" is often given as "if that diamond ring don't shine/mama's gonna give me a bottle of wine". "Fishing line" may have been used instead for political correctness.

Click for another example of http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/h/hambone.shtml for more text examples of and commentary about "Hambone".

Also click http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/hushbaby.htm for a text example of the song "Hush Little Baby".

In addition, click http://www.cocojams.com/content/handclap-jump-rope-and-elastics-rhymes for an example of the jump rope rhyme "Hey Concentration" which includes the floating line "...where you been/around the corner and back again". A very short video of girls performing double dutch (double jump rope) to a rhyme of that name is also found on that page.

****
HARD TIMES IN OL' VIRGINIA
Here's a song from slavery heard & reported around the early 1800's & then was taken shipboard to lead a more pleasant life as a shanty.

Chorus Ol Virginia, hard times in Ol Virginia (2x)

Verse:
My ol misses is a rich ol lady
Hard times in ol Virginia
Seven servents around her table
Hard times in ol Virginia

Chorus

Verse:
Go to the well gonna fetch some water
Hard times in ol Virginia
Get a bucket gonna go tomorrow
Hard times in ol Virginia

Chorus

Verse:
My ol misses is a rich ol lady
Seven servents to care for the baby

Chorus: Get some corn lay it down by the fire (2x)

Verse
My ol misses she promised me
When she die gonna set me free

Chorus

Verse:
My ol misses she get so old
That the hair on her got bald

Chorus

Verse:
My ol misses is a rich ol lady
Seven servents to roll the baby round sir
-Barry Finn; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2864 Songs on, or about slavery?;
September 23, 1999

I,J
I'M IN TROUBLE
I'm in trouble, Lord, I'm in trouble,
I'm in trouble, Lord, trouble about my grave, trouble about my grave.
Sometimes I weep, sometimes I mourn,
I'm in trouble about my grave;
Sometimes I can't do neither one,
I'm in trouble about my grave.]
- William Francis Allen, et al. "Slave Songs Of The United States, 1867; http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html (retrieved 2/22/2011)

****
IT AIN'T GONNA RAIN NO MORE (Example #1)
Editor: The following comments and lyrics to this song are from the 1936 book "Negro Musicians And Their Music" by Maud Cuney-Hare:

"There is found in North Carolina And Texas a slave song in which a "rabbit sitting on the fence" typified fair weather. The song with its lilting refrain became popular as a campaign song in 1924:

It ain't gonna a' gwine ter rain,
It ain't gonna a' gwine ter rain,
It ain't gonna a' gwine ter rain no mo';
It rained last night an' de night befo',
Rabbit settin' in de jamb of de fence,
It ain't a gwine ter rain no mo',
He settin' there for de lak ob sense
It ain't gwine ter rain no mo'.

This old song was sung in the cotton fields and by rural laborers.
- Maud Cuney-Hare: “Negro Musicians And Their Music” (Washington, D.C; The Association Publishers, p. 79; 1936)

****
IT AIN'T GONNA RAIN NO MORE (Example #2)
Editor: Here are two quotes from Mudcat Discussion Forum member Q regarding this song [My thanks to Q for this information]

From Q
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 09:09 PM
"There are several fragments of "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" from 1919 or so in collections, and "the words of a refrain "Ain't Goin' to Rain No Mo'" in JAFL, Sept. 1911, p. 277 under the title "I Ain't Bother Yet" (Fuld).

Fuld notes that the last four bars of "Satan's Camp Afire" in Allen's "Slave Songs of the United States" (1867) have a similar melody. Anecdotally, Sandburg reports that the song is "at least as old as the 1870's." Fuld, J. J., 1966, "The Book of World-Famous Music," p. 307. (Dover, 1985, 3rd. ed.)

"Satan's Camp Afire" is no. 36 in Allen. http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html

LYR. ADD: SATAN'S CAMP A-FIRE
(Coll. Allen, 1867)

Fier, my Saviour, fier,
Satan's camp a-fire;
Fier, believer, Fier,
Satan's Camp a-fire.

Fragment, with score, no. 36. William Francis Allen, in Ware and Garrison.
The score in Irving Schlein, 1965, "Slave Songs of the United States," p. 64, is not the same.

See Traditional Ballad Index for discussion and examples of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," including Brown, 1919.
http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/BalladSearch.html
Ballad search

-snip-

From:Q
Date: 11 Nov 06 - 01:42 PM

"Some of the verses above are similar to those of "Massa Had a Yaller Gal," variants of which have been quoted by White, Odum, Scarborough, Talley and others. These verses have been discussed in other threads.
An article in Literary Digest, 1916, mentions variants from South Carolina, dating back to 1876-1886 (White, American Negro Folk-Songs, p. 152-156).
Examples:

Massa bought a yaller gal,
He bought er frum de south;
Her mouth look like de fireplace
Wid de ashes taken out.

Of all the beasts that roam the woods
I'd rather be a squir'l,
Curl my tail upon my back
And travel all over this worl'.

"Simon Slick" is similar:
Ole marster was a stingy man
And everybody know'd it;
Kept good liquor in his house
And never said here goes it.

Fitting the meter of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" much better are songs like "Uncle Ned," a minstrel song from 1848, but the tune is different:

Den lay down de shovel and de hoe,
And hang up de fiddle and de bow;
Dere's no more work for poor Uncle Ned
He's gone where de good old niggers go.
N. I. White; Alabama, "sung by Negro who fought in Civil War," p. 164ff.

(Digression: The above verse was paraphrased in the Ethiopian Serenaders' Own Book, 1857. White found it surviving and sung by a Black in Alabama. One verse:
Then lay down the agricultural implements,
Allow the violin and the bow to be pendent on the wall,-
For there is no more physical energy to be displayed,
By indigent aged Edward,
For he has departed to the abode designated by a kind
Providence for all pious, humane, and benevolent colored individuals. )

I WOULDN'T MARRY
Used by Johnny Carson in "It Ain't ....," some of the verses may go back to the Ethiopian Serenaders of the 1850's. A variant on "Massa Had a Yaller Gal."

I wouldn't marry a yaller gal,
I'll tell you de reason why:
Her hair's so dad-blamed nappy
She'd break all de combs I buy.
Verse from Jamaica (White, p. 323), but little different from those sung in the southern states.

Also common are the white, yaller and black lady-gal comparisons.

Well a white lady wears a hobble skirt,
A yaller gal tries to do the same,
But a poor black gal wears a Mary Jane,
But she's hobbling just the same.

The form goes back to songs that probably originated with Black slaves:
Mr. Coon he is a mighty man,
He carries a bushy tail
He steals old Massa's corn at night,
And husks it in a rail.

All above examples from White, collections of about 1915, but they can be duplicated and added to in the other references mentioned above. "

-snip-
That discussion thread includes numerous examples of verses that from songsters or that readers remember from their childhood & their parent's childhood. "It Aint Gonna Rain No More" was a song that people would make up new verses to as a means of entertainment". Another such song was "Raise A Rukus Tonight" . Examples of that song are found below.

Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/childrens-camp-songs to find lyrics of this song that have been adapted for children's (and family) singalongs. Most of those adapted versions feature the chorus:
It ain't gonna rain no more no more
It ain't gonna rain no more.
How the heck can I wash my neck
'Cause it ain't gonna rain no more.

****
JIM ALONG JOSIE
Source: Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 book "On the Trail Of Negro Folk Songs". The Folklore Associates' edition of Scarborough's book, published in 1963 has three different versions of Jim Along Josie (pps 104-106), one called "Jim Along, Josey", one called "Hold My Mule", and one that Scarborough notes is "a variant of the Josey song".

"Here is a variant of the Josey song, that combines stanza from other well-known favorites, This was sent to me by Virginia Fitzgerald, from Virginia.

As I was going up a new-cut road,
I met a Tarrepin an' a Toad.
Every time the Toad would jump,
The Tarrepin dodge behind a stump.
O! rall, rall Miss Dinah gal,
O! do come along, my darling!
O! rall, rall, Miss Dinah gal,
O! do come along, my darling!

My ole Missis promise me
When she died she'd set me free'
Now ole Missis dead an' gone,
She lef' olde Sambo hillin' up corn.
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long a-Josie,
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, Joe!
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, from Baltimo'!

You go round an' I go through
............................
You get there befo' i do,
Tell 'em all I'm comin' too.
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, Josie
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, Joe!
Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, from Baltimo'

Editor:
In these song, the word "josey" or "josie" appears to refer to one of three different things: a female name (Hey, Jim a-long, Jam a-long, Josie), the name of a dance ("Had a glass of buttermilk and I danced Josey"), or the nickname of a woman's coat. See this excerpt from John Russell Bartlett, The Dictionary of Americanisms: New York Crescent Books, originally published 1849. "Joseph, a very old riding coat for women, scarcely now to be seen or heard of-Forby's Vocabulary. A garment made of Scotch plaid, for an outside coat or habit, was worn in New England about the year 1830, called a Joseph by some a Josey.

"Olivia was drawn as an Amazon, sitting upon a bank of
flowers, dressed in a green Joseph".-Godsmith, Vicar of Wakefield.

****
JOHNNY COME DOWN DE HOLLOW and HILO HILO
There're are two seemingly related songs in John Greenway's American Folksongs of Protest (1953; rpt. Octagon Press, 1970, pp. 94-95) [no mention of Emmett; without music]:

Johnny come down de hollow--
Oh, hollow.
De n****r trader got he--
Oh, hollow.
De speculator bought me--
Oh, hollow.
I'm sold for silver dollars--
Oh, hollow.
Boys, go catch de pony--
Oh, hollow.
Bring him round de corner--
Oh, hollow.
I'm goin' way to Georgia--
Oh, hollow.
Boys, good-bye forever.
Oh, hollow.
--H.M. Henry, The Police Control of the Slave in South Carolina, p. 56.

HILO! HILO!

William Rino sold Henry Silvers--
Hilo! Hilo!
Sold him to de Georgy trader--
Hilo! Hilo!
His wife se cried, and children bawled--
Hilo! Hilo!
Sold him to de Georgy trader--
Hilo! Hilo!
--J.D. Long, Pictures of Salvery, Philadelphia, 1857, p. 198.
-posted on http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=52717 "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" by Masato Sakurai; October 21, 2002

*****
JONAH'S BAND PARTY
Setch a kickin' up san'
Jonah's Band!
Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
"Han's up sixteen! Circle to the right!
We're going to get big eatin's here tonight".

Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
"Raise your foot, kick it up high,
Knock dat Mobile Buck in the eye."

Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
"Stand up flat foot. Jump dem bars!
Karo bac'ards. Like a train o' kyars."

Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
Setch a kickin' up san'!
Jonah's Band!
"Dance round , Mistiss, show'em de p'int;
Dat N****r don't know how to Coonjaint."
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Songs {Kennikat Press Edition, 1968, p. 1; originally published in 1922}

Editor:
"Jonah's Band" is a dance instruction song. The words of this song are made up of references to the "Coonjaint" (coonjine) dance, the "Mobile Buck" dance and to other dance movements. Presumably, when the dancers heard these words, they would do those particular dances or dance steps.

Here's some information about the coonjine dance from http://svr1.cg971.fr/lameca/dossiers/gwoka/references/glossaire/glossair...
"One of the popular tunes in Guadeloupe «Counjaille O Counjaille etc...) and is proof of a Congolese presence in the country. This term describes a dance from the Congolese ritual, traces of which can be found in Guadeloupe and Santo Domingo in 1807/1809 at a time when ethnic groups were travelling from these countries to New Orleans to escape from the Napoleonic wars.

In the same way as the bamboula, Calinda, Chacha etc., these dances were performed from French Guiana to New Orleans as well as Santo Domingo and all of the French West Indies. …

It is important to specify that in the Creole language, this word can mean several different things. The same word describes the music, dance, group gathering, etc"
Here's an excerpt from Lynne Fauley Emery's book "Black Dance from 1619 to Today" {second edition; Princeton Book Company, 1988, pps 1146-147}:

"The Coonjine, another of the river dances, was still "remembered in scattered areas through the Antilles" as late as 1963. In the Caribbean, however the dance was performed during carnival time and called the "Counjaille", while in the United States the Coonjine was performed on the waterfront by the black roustabouts and "was a rhythmic shuffle affected to expedite loading and unloading..." Harold Courlander reported:

'The term Counjaille, or Coojine is still used in southern United States waterfront areas to mean moving or loading cotton, an activity that once, in all probablility, was accompanied by Counjaille-type songs and rhythms. Negro children on the docks and levies sand such songs as:

Throw me a nickle, throw me a dime
If you want to see me do the Coojine.'

According to Mary Wheeler. The Coonjine was a combination of song and dance connected with frieght handling on the steamboats.

'The "plank walk" springs under a heavy weight or even under the lighter step of the rouster when he trots back again empty handed for more freight. To avoid jarring, the feet are dragged along the stage plank accompanied by a song that takes its rhythm from the shuffling feet and swaying shoulders.'

Allen, Ware, and Garrison mentioned the Coonjai and described it as a sort of Minuet, Unfortunately, although the authors spparently saw the dance, they described the musical accompaniment rather than the movements".

-snip-

Visit http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3buckw1.htm to read information about the "Mobile Buck", the "Pigeon Wing", and other Buck & Wing dances.

-snip-

In his role as a rhyme collector, Dr. Tally used the full spelling of the "n-word" in his presentation of this song. However, I have chosen to abbreviate that word because I consider it to be very offensive. See my comments about this in the introduction to this page.

****
JUBA
Juba dis an' Juba dat,
Juba skin dat yaller Cat. Juba! Juba!

Juba jump an' Juba sing.
Juba, cut dat Pigeon's Wing. Juba! Juba!

Juba, kick off Juba's shoe.
Juba, dance dat Jubal Jew. Juba! Juba!

Juba, whirl dat foot about.
Juba, blow dat candle out. Juba! Juba!

Juba circle, Raise de Latch.
Juba do dat Long Dog Scratch.

Editor:
According to Dr. Talley, the words beginning with capital letters are "various kinds of dance steps". In addition, the lines "blow dat candle out", "whirl dat foot about", and "kick off Juba's shoe" refer to particular dance movements. This is important to note since in later publications, "Juba skin the yellow cat" is written as "Juba killed the yellow cat" or many people years after the "original" version was sung erroneously assumed that "skinned the cat" meant "killed the cat". Here's an excerpt from Talley's now classic 1922 book "Negro Folk Rhymes-Wise & Otherwise":

"As has just been casually mentioned, the Negro Folk Rhyme was used for the dance. There are Negro Folk Rhyme Dance Songs and Negro Folk Dance Rhymes. An example of the former is found in "The Banjo Picking," and of the latter, "Juba," both found in this collection. The reader may wonder how a Rhyme simply repeated was used in the dance. The procedure was as follows: Usually one or two individuals "star" danced at time. The others of the crowd (which was usually large) formed a circle about this one or two who were to take their prominent turn at dancing. I use the terms "star" danced and "prominent turn" because in the latter part of our study we shall find that all those present engaged sometimes at intervals in the dance. But those forming the circle, for most of the time, repeated the Rhyme, clapping their hands together, and patting their feet in rhythmic time with the words of the Rhyme being repeated. It was the task of the dancers in the middle of the circle to execute some graceful dance in such a manner that their feet would beat a tattoo upon the ground answering to every word, and sometimes to every syllable of the Rhyme being repeated by those in the circle. There were many such Rhymes. "'Possum up the Gum Stump," and "Jawbone" are good examples. The stanzas to these Rhymes were not usually limited to two or three, as is generally the case with those recorded in our collection. Each selection usually had many stanzas. Thus as there came variation in the words from stanza to stanza, the skill of the dancers was taxed to its utmost, in order to keep up the graceful dance and to beat a changed tattoo upon the ground corresponding to the changed words. If any find fault with the limited number of stanzas recorded in our treatise, I can in apology only sing the words of a certain little encore song each of whose two little stanzas ends with the words, "Please don't call us back, because we don't know any more."

There is a variety of Dance Rhyme to which it is fitting to call attention. This variety is illustrated in our collection by "Jump Jim Crow," and "Juba." In such dances as these, the dancers were required to give such movements of body as would act the sentiment expressed by the words while keeping up the common requirements of beating these same words in a tattoo upon the ground with the feet and executing simultaneously a graceful dance. "

Thomas Washington Talley (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922; p 231)

-snip-
In this song, the word "Juba" appears to have two meanings-a person's name, and an exclamation similar to "Yeah!" or "Amen". Visit this Mudcat thread http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=8972 to read different versions of the song "Juba" and read a discussion about the meaning of the word "Juba". (By the way, most Mudcat discussions can be "refreshed" by the addition of another comment. Guests can comment (or start a music thread) as well as members to that online community. Membership is free and the membership process is very easy).

Here's an excerpt of one post that I wrote on that forum about the word "Juba":

"Juba" and "Juber" were names used by Southern African American males during slavery. This name may have derived from the Akan {Ghana, The Ivory Coast} name "Juba" also given as "Cuba" which means "female born on Monday". The male form of that name is "Cudjo". However I understand that there are other examples of the name "Juba" or similar names in other African languages.

"Juba" is also the name of a number of well known African American slave dance songs. The version of this dance song which is most often published is

Juba this and Juba that
Juba skinned * a yellow cat
and jumped over double trouble
Juba!

Juba up and Juba down
Juba all around the town
Juba in and Juba out
Juba dancing all about..
Juba!

* also found as 'Juba killed a yellow cat"; Professor Thomas Talley, African American author of the 1922 book "Negro Folk Rhymes" wrote that 'skinning the cat' was a type of dance step.

There are 18th century records from the Caribbean that speak of the "Danse Juba". Like many secular dances including the Conga, this dance originally had religious significance.

The phrase "Pattin Juba" [Pattin Juber] refers to percussive body pattin that was documented during African American slavery in the Southern United States. 'Pattin Juba" was performed usually by men in the absence of musical instruments or along with musical instruments such as the fiddle, banjo, and bones. The 'Hambone' rhyme is closely associated with 'Pattin Juba'."

Finally, Master Juba was the nickname of William Henry Lane.
After Charles Dickens visited a Five Points dance hall in 1841, he immortalized Juba, then 16, as "the greatest dancer known."

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Juba to learn more about the dancer called "Master Juba".

Also, see "Whoa Mark Juba" on this page.

K,L
LEAD A MAN *
Lead a man, di-dee-oe, lead a man, di-dee-o;
Lead a man, di-dee-oe, lead a man, di-dee-o;
You swin heads, di-dee-o, I swing feet, di-dee-o
Ain't dat nice, di-dee-o, walkin' on de ice, di-dee-o!

Ladies change, di-dee-o, ladies change, di-dee-o;
Ladies change, di-dee-o, ladies change, di-dee-o.
Ain't dat nice, di-dee-o, ain't dat nice, di-dee-o,
Ain't dat nice, di-dee-o, ain't dat nice, di-dee-o?

Oh my love, di-dee-o, oh my love, di-dee-o.
Oh my love, di-dee-o, oh my love, di-dee-o.
Ain't dat nice, di-dee-o, ain't dat nice, di-dee-o,

* This song's title was given as "Dance Song" in Dorothy Scarborough ; assisted by Ola Lee Gulledge, "On The Trial of Negro Folk Songs" (Folklore Associates edition 1963; pp.115, 116; originally published by Harvard University press, 1925)

This song may have been composed after slavery in the United States ended.

-snip-

Since these songs were open ended, it wouldn't be difficult to imagine another verse being "Sail away ladies, di-dee-do, sail away ladies, di-dee-do". Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/american-banjo-fiddle-songs to read the text and see a video of Uncle Dave Macon's version of "Sail Away Lady" which contains the phrase "di-dee-o".

M,N
MASSA HAD A YALLER GAL
From B. A. Botkin, A Treasury of American Folklore, pp. 903-904.
From p. 68 of Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs

Massa had a yaller gal,
He brought her from de South;
Her hair it curled so very tight
She couldn't shut her mouth.

Chorus:
Oh, I ain't got time to tarry,
Oh, I ain't got time to tarry,
Oh, I ain't got time to tarry, boys,
For I'se gwine away.

He took her to de tailor,
To have her mouth made small.
She swallowed up the tailor,
Tailorshop and all.

Massa had no hooks nor nails
Nor anything like that;
So on this darky's nose he used
To hang his coat and hat.
- http://www.folklorist.org/song/Don't_Get_Weary_Children_(Massa_Had_a_Yellow_Gal), retrieved 1/8/2012

-snip-
For additional information & examples of this song, read "It Aint Gonna Rain No More" above.
****
MASTER IS SIX FOOT ONE WAY
Mosser is six foot one way, an' free foot tudder;
Am' he weigh five hunderd pound.
Britches cut so big dat dey don't suit de tailor.
An' dey don't meet half way 'round

Mosser's coat come bacl to a claw-hammer p'int.
(Speak so' or his Bloodhound 'll bite us.)
His long white stockin's mighty clean an' nice,
But a liddle mo' holier than righteous.
- Thomas W. Talley's 1922 "Negro Folk Rhymes", Kennikat Press Edition, 1968, p, 40

Editor:
"Master Is Six Feet One Way" clearly ridicules "mosser" ("rmassa"; "master"=the current or past owner of slaves). Nowadays people would say that song* was (an example of a) "rip" (i.e. the speaker was "rippin' on" the master). And nowadays people would likely respond to such a rip by saying something like "Oh snap" or "No he didn't" (said in a certain complimentary way).

It should be noted that those enslaved (or recently "freed") people weren't foolish enough to go singing this song when "mosser" could hear it. There were grave consequences for being that foolish. So "coded" songs, in this respect means singing obliquely about a subject, and being careful where and when you sang it.

*Talley emphasized in his preface, these were songs and not prose.

[This comment is excerpted from my Feb 07 - 02:43 PM post in this Mudcat thread: "Mary don't you weep--meaning" http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=7873#1960250 ]

****
MISTER RABBIT
Call:
Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your ears are
mighty long!

Response:
Yes, my Lord, they put on wrong.

Group:
Every little soul must shine, shine, shine
Every little soul must shine!

Call:
Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, you’re in my
cabbage patch!

Response:
Yes, my Lord, I won’t come back.

Group:
Every little soul must shine, shine, shine
Every little soul must shine!

Call:
Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your tail’s
mighty white.

Response:
Yes, my Lord, I’m goin’ out of sight.

Group:
Every little soul must shine, shine, shine
Every little soul must shine!
-multiple sources including books of American folk songs

Editor:
Although “Mister Rabbit” is included in several older books on American folk songs, its African American origin is rarely noted. The song is also rarely written in a call & response style. Yet, I think that this style fits it best. This story song is about a rabbit who is caught by in a farmer’s vegetable garden. How does he explain what he is doing there? How quickly can he think up responses to the farmer’s comments?

This song is one of several rabbit songs that used to be very well known among African American children. However, few African American children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (or I would imagine any other urban area) know this song now. Most urban children may have never seen a rabbit besides the Easter bunny or in the petting zoo. Few urban children know what a cabbage patch is. We might be more familiar with the term “small vegetable garden”, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve ever seen one. When a song’s references become outdated or foreign to a population, people are less likely to sing the song, and may eventually forget it all together.

But, on a deeper level, this song is still relevant. I believe that “Mister Rabbit” may have been more than entertainment. Or, to put it another way, the type of entertainment that enslaved Africans taught their children also helped them develop the survival skill of being mentally alert and knowing how to talk their way out of trouble. Given the oppressive nature of slavery and post slavery societies, being able to talk your way out of trouble was sometimes a matter of life and death. “Thinking fast on your feet” was certainly a survival skill that enslaved people needed and it is still needed today.

****
MY FATHER HOW LONG
My father,* how long,
My father, how long,
My father how long,
Poor sinner suffer here?
1. And it won't be long,
And it won't be long,
And it won't be long,
Poor sinner suffer here.]

2 We'll soon be free, (ter)
De Lord will call us home.

3 We'll walk de miry road
Where pleasure never dies.

4 We'll walk de golden streets
Of de New Jerusalem.

5 My brudders do sing
De praises of de Lord.

6 We'll fight for liberty
When de Lord will call us home.
* Mother, etc.

[For singing this "the negroes had been put in jail at Georgetown, S. C., at the outbreak of the Rebellion. 'We'll soon be free' was too dangerous an assertion, and though the chant was an old one, it was no doubt sung with redoubled emphasis during the new events. 'De lord will call us home,' was evidently thought to be a symbolical verse; for, as a little drummer boy explained it to me, showing all his white teeth as he sat in the moonlight by the door of my tent, 'Dey tink de Lord mean for say de Yankees.'"--T. W. H.]
- William Francis Allen, et al. "Slave Songs Of The United States, 1867; http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html (retrieved 2/22/2011)

****
MY MAMMY STOLE A COW*
Steal up, young ladies,
My mammy stole a cow.
Steal up, my darlin' chile,
My mammy stole a cow.

Chorus:
Stoled dat cow in Baltimo'.
My mammy stole a cow.
Stoled dat cow in Baltimo'.
My mammy stole a cow.

Steal all around, don't slight no one,
My mammy stole a cow;
Steal all around, don't slight no one,
My mammy stole a cow.
Dorothy Scarborough ; assisted by Ola Lee Gulledge, "On The Trial of Negro Folk Songs" (Folklore Associates edition 1963; p 116; originally published by Harvard University press, 1925)

*This song may have been composed after slavery in the United States ended.

Editor: Scarborough prefaced the words to the song with this passage:
"These words to the next [song] have little coherence or ligucm evidently [they were] being used merely to bring in the directions of stealing up for the dance."

-snip-

I'm not sure what "stealing up for the dance" means. Is it an instruction movement used in square dancing or contra dancing?

Btw, Black social dance songs whose lyrics are based on what steps to do are still quite popular today as one can hear in R&B, dancehall Reggae music and other dances of the African Diaspora (and probably social music from the African continent itself).

****
NO MORE AUCTION BLOCK FOR ME
No more auction block for me
No more, no more
No more auction block for me
Many thousand gone

No more peck of corn for me…

No more driver’s lash for me…

No more pint of salt for me…

No more hundred lash for me…

No more mistress’ call for me…

from « The Jubilee Singers » by Gustavus D. Pike, 1873
and quoted in « The Music of Black Americans. A History » by E. Southern, 1983
online source: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/no_more_auction_block_for_me.htm

****
O,P
OLD JESSE
One cold an' frosty mornin'
Just as de sun did riz
De possum roared. de raccoon howled,
'Cause he begin to friz.
He drew hisse'f up in a knot
Wid his knees up to his chin,
An' ev'rything had to cl'ar de trrack
When he stretched out agin.

Chorus:
Old Jesse was a gemman,
Among de olden times.

N****r never went to free school,
Nor any odder college,
An' all de white folks wonder whar
Dat N****r got his knowledge

He chawed up all de Bible
An' den spat out de Scropter,
An' when he 'gin to arger strong,
He was a snortin' ripter!

Chorus:

N****r pick de banjo,
He play so berry well; [or young]
He allus play dat good ole tune.
"So go get while you're strong".
He play so clear, he play so loud,
He skeered de pigs an' goats.
He allus tuck a pint obyeast
To raise de highest notes.

Chorus
-Dorothy Scarborough, editor; assisted by Ola Lee Gilludge: On The Trail Of Negro Folk Songs (Hatboro, Pennsylvania, Folklore Associates, pp 70-72; 1963, originally published in 1925

Editor:
Here's the editor's comments which introduce this song:
"Another song, said to be very old, was given me by Reverend J. H. Dickinson, of Evergreen, Alabama. It was sung by slaves on the plantation before the war, and is still cherished, in some white families at least, until now. Elizabeth Dickinson, now of Columbia University, says that her father was accustomed to use the first stanza as a "waking-up" song for his children, and that she heated to hear the strains of Old Jesse start up, especially on a morning like that described in the initial stanza."

-snip-

One line of this song-in revised form-is part of an African American children's rhyme called "Aunt Jenny Died" (or other similar names). The relevant verse occurs toward the end of that movement rhyme:
"I didn't go to college
I didn't go to school
But when it comes to boogie
I can boogie like a fool"
-snip-

Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/childrens-rhymes-cheers to read that rhyme.

****
OH, ROCKUM JUBILEE
You call me dog and I don’t care.
Oh, my Lord!
You call me dog and I don’t care!
Oh, rockum Jubilee
You call me mule and I don’t care
Oh, my Lord.
You call me mule and I don’t care
Oh, rockum Jubilee.
You call me snake and I don’t care
Oh, my Lord!
You call me snake and I don’t care!
Oh, rockum Jubilee.
-Source: anonymous composers; African American game song included in Dorothy Scarborough: "On The Trail Of Negro Folk Songs" (Folklore Associates, Inc. Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1963; p 190; originally published in 1925, Harvard University Press)

Editor:
“Oh, Rockum Jubilee” is an open-ended song which could continue as long as the singers thought of another negatively regarded animal {for instance: “you call me pig and I don’t care”; “you call me monkey and I don’t care}. Imo, "Oh Rockum Jubilee" was sung to emotionally and mentally toughen up African American children who, because of their race, were bound to be targets of ridicule & distain. In that sense, this song serves the same purpose as the "sticks and stones may break my bones" folk saying that I grew up with in the 1950s.

Note that this song shares the phrase “I don’t care" with another more widely known African American folksong “Jimmy Crack Corn" (also known as "The Blue-Tail Fly"). See that song's lyrics posted on this page. “O Rockum Jubilee” may have been added to make slavery owners think that this was a religious song, since “Jubilee” was a referent for heaven. However, “Jubilee” and “The year of Jubilee” were also referents for freedom.

African Americans used to call these old time songs “plays”. I suppose that children singing this song would have used their bodies and dramatic expressions to act out the animal’s movement that was featured in the particular verse.

****
OLD ZIP COON
See Turkey In The Straw below

****
POSSUM UP THE GUM STUMP
'Possum up the gum stump
Dat (That) raccoon’s in de (the) holler
Twis' (Twist) 'im (him) out and get 'im down
An' I’ll gin (give) you half a dollar.

‘Possum up the gum stump
Yes, cooney’s in de holler’
A pretty girl down my house
Jes (Just) as fat as she can waller.

Possum up de gum stump.
His jaw is black an' dirty.
To come an' kiss you, pretty gal
I’d run lak (like) a goobler tucky (turkey)

Possum up the gum stump
A good man's hard to fin' (find):
You'd better love me, pretty gal
You'll git (get) de yudder (other) kin' (kind).
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (Kennikat Press, Port Washington, N.Y., 1968;
p 3; originally published by The Macmillan Company, 1922)

Note: The words in parenthesis are the standard form of the preceding word.

Editor:
The line “possum up the gum stump, raccoon in a hollow’ is part of a floating verse that is found in a number of other Black non-religious songs of those times. ‘Possum' is a shortened form of the word 'opossum'. “Cooney” is a referent for raccoon. A “gum stump” means the stump of the gum tree. A ‘holler” (“hollow”) means a hole in the ground. “Waller” means “to wobble”. The term “a “goobler” turkey” comes from the “gooble, gobble, gobble” sound the Americans say that a turkey makes.

During slavery in the United States, hunting raccoons & possums was used to supplement the meager diets of enslaved African Americans. In the first verse, the speaker is promising to pay a person to capture a raccoon for him. This may have been wishful thinking.

However, it should be remembered that this was a dance song. Therefore it shouldn't be surprising that the subject of the song quickly turns to courting a pretty girl.

To enhance the meaning of the third line of the 2nd verse, in my opinion, it should read "A pretty girl goes (or "comes") down my house". The line "A good man is hard to find" sounds sooo familiar to me, though I can't at the moment say what other traditional and/or contemporary songs it is found in. Maybe the reason why this line has withstood the test of time is because it's universally true. :o)

The last line of this rhyme may be more easily understood if it were written "Or you'll get the other kind"-meaning if the woman doesn't love the good man, she's likely to get a bad one.

In my opinion. "Possum Up A Gum Stump" demonstrates how African American rhymes, like African rhymes before them, personalized animals & other living creatures. In rhymes like this the listener can assume that the words apply to only animals themselves, or to the animals sometimes and then to humans, or to the animals and humans at one and the same time. This creative use of layered (coded) meanings can be used to deny that any negative meaning was intended...

****
PROMISES OF FREEDOM
My ole Mistiss promise me,
Wen she died, she'd set me free.
She lived so long dat 'er head got bal',
An' she give out'n de notion a dyin'
at all.

My ole Mistiss say to me:
"Sambo, I'se gwine ter set you free."
But w'en dat head git slick an' bal',
De Lawd couldn' a' killed 'er wid
a big green maul.

My ole Mistiss never die,
Wid 'er nose all hooked an* skin all
dry.

But my ole Miss, she's somehow gone,
An' she lef "Uncle Sambo" a-hillin'
up co'n.

Ole Mosser lakwise promise me,
W'en he died, he'd set me free.
But ole Mosser go an' make his Will
Fer to leave me a-plowin' ole Beck
still.
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Songs (Kennikat Press Edition, 1968, pps 25-26; originally published in 1922)

Q,R,S
RABBIT IN THE PEA-PATCH
Rabbit in the pea-patch shho-lye love
(sing sentence 5x)
Shoo-lye love, my darling
You love Miss Sally (substitute another name, sing sentence 5x)
Shoo-lye love, my darling
You stole my partner, shoo-lye-love (5x)
Shoo-lye love, my darling
But I'll get another one, shoo-lye-love (5x)
Shoo-lye love, my darling
Pretty as the other one, shoo-lye-love (5x)
Shoo-lye-love, my darling
-Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs (New World Records, Recorded Anthology of Music) recording & notes, 1978
(The notes for this album are currently online. Google the title given in italics)

Editor:
This song doesn't tell any story. Its words are just an excuse to dance. However, since dancing was frowned upon in some Christian communities, the people called these compositions "play party songs" and considered their actions "games" rather than dances.

According to Kate Rinzler, the author of this record's notes, this song was sung in unison by people who were watching the dance being performed. Male and female couples performed this play-party game by skipping hand in hand around a lone boy who was standing in the middle of the circle. That boy would eventually "steal" a girl from another couple to be his partner. The person who is now alone would be the new "rabbit in the pea-patch". A "pea-patch" is a small vegetable garden where peas are planted.

****
RAISE A RUCUS TONIGHT (Version #1)
Two liddle N__gs all dressed in white,
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Want to get to Heaben on de tail of a kite.
(Raise a rucus to-night)
De kite string broke; dem N__gs fell;
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Wha dem N__gs go, I hain't gwineter tell.
(Raise a rucus to-night)

A N__g an' a w'ite man a playin' seven up;
(Raise a rucus to-night)
De N__g beat de w'te man, but 'e's skeered to pick it up.
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Dat N__g grabbed de money, an' de w'te man fell
(Raise a rucus to-night)
How de N__g run, I'se not gwinter tell.
(Raise a rucus to-night)

Look here, N__g! Let me tell you a naked fac':
(Raise a rucus to-night.)
You mought a been cullud widout bein' dat black;
(Raise a rucus to-night)
Dem 'ar feet look lak youse sh' walkin; back'
(Raise a rucus to-night)
An' yo' ha'r, it look lak a chyarpet tack.
(Raise a rucus to-night)

CHORUS: Oh come 'long chilluns, come 'long
W'le dat moon are shinin' bright
Let's git on board, an' float down de river,
An' raise a rucus to-night.

Source: Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise And Other Wise (Kennikat Presss edition, 1968; page 90 ;originally published in 1922).

NOTE: In a 2004 comment that I wrote on in the Mudcat thread http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=73087&messages=19 "Lyr Add: Raise a Ruckus Tonight" , I made a mistake when I wrote that "Raise a Rucus is an opened ended dance song dating from at least 18th century Southern United States slavery. This song makes use of a varied number of floating verses that can be found in a number of other secular slave songs." end of quote. The corrected sentence is "Raise a Rucus is an open ended dance song dating from at least the 19th century Southern United States slavery. This song makes use of a varied number of floating verses that can be found in a number of other secular slave songs."

-end of quote-

"Raise A Ruckus Tonight" and most of the other songs included in homas W Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes are probably from the 19th century or even earlier. Here's a passage from that book:

"A few of the Rhymes bear the mark of a somewhat recent date in composition. The majority of them, however, were sung by Negro fathers and mothers in the dark days of American slavery to their children...The little songs were similar in structure to the Jubilee Songs, also of Negro Folk origin."

[page 229; Kennikat edition, 1964]

-snip-

"Jubilee songs" is an earlier referent for "spirituals".

**
Somewhat off topic, I believe that the first verse given above in that version of "Raise A Rucus Tonight" is the source for the African American children's rhyme "Ten Little Angels" (Ten little angels dressed in white/tryin' to get to heaven by the tail of a kite/but the kite string broke/and one of them fell/instead of going to heaven she when to __/nine little angels etc.)

****
RAISE A RUKUS (Version #2)
Chorus:
Why don't you come along,
Little children come along,
While the moon is shining bright;
Get on board,
Down by the river shore,
We're gonna raise a rukus tonight!

Old Aunt Dinah went to town,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
Ridin' a billy-goat, leadin' a hound,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
Hound dog barked, billy-goat jumped,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
Threw Aunt Dinah on her rump.
(Raise a rukus tonight!)

(Chorus)

Some folks says that the preacher won't steal,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
But, I caught two in my cornfield;
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
One had a shovel and one had a hoe,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
And they were digging up potatoes by the row.
(Raise a rukus tonight!)

(Chorus)

Way down yonder in Chitlin' Switch,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
Bullfrog jumped from ditch to ditch,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
Bullfrog jumped from the bottom of the well,
(Raise a rukus tonight!)
Swore, by God, he jumped from Hell.
(Raise a rukus tonight!)

(Chorus)
-linear notes:1956 album Josh At Midnight , Josh White and Sam Gary
(Hat Tip to BrooklynJay who posted those lyrics on http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=73087&messages=20 (January 7, 2011)

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_White for information about African American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist Josh White.

Editor:
This version is made up of floaters (verses that are found in other songs). The lines in the Chitlin Switch verse that mention the bull frog jumping from ditch to ditch, and jumping from the bottom of a well marks this verse as part of the very large "Frog in a well" family of songs. Among those song are "Frog Went A Courting", "Keemo Kimo" and "King Kong Kitchie". It's my position that the contemporary song and hand clap rhyme "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" is an off-shoot of the "Frog In The Well" family.

**
Hat to Tip BrooklynJay for this information which is excerpted from this January 9, 2011 post: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=73087&messages=20#3070315

"The [Cotton Eyed Joe] song turns up in Folk Song U.S.A. (1947) by John and Alan Lomax. Here are the full notes and lyrics from the book: [found at that site; the last verse is the same as given above]

...The refrain of this ditty, "raise a rukus tonight," has two meanings: to start trouble, to have fun. This contrast in meanings aptly hits off the dual aspects of the song: a song of protest and irony -- a crazy "black-face minstrel song" which will tickle "the white folks." In this latter guise, the song is known and loved all over the South, both among Negroes and whites. Ironically enough, it is one of the few secular songs that Negro ministers will officially permit their congregations to sing at picnics and church socials."

**
Here's a video of a version of "Raise A Rukus Tonight" by Buster Brown (This version is of that song is different from the words given above.)

9thWardBluezBox | June 01, 2010

****
REJECTED BY ELIZA JANE
W'en I went 'cross de cotton patch
I give my ho'n a blow.
I thought I heared pretty Lizie say:
"Oh, yon'er come my beau!"

So: I axed pretty Lizie to marry me,
An' what d'you reckon she said?
She said she wouldn't marry me,
If ev'ybody else wus dead.

An': As I went up de new ut road,
An' she went down de lane'
Sen I thought I heared somebody say:
"Good-bye, ole Lize Jane!"

Well" Jes git 'long, Lizie, my true love.
Git 'long, Miss Lizie Jane.
Perhaps you'll sack "Ole Sour Bill"
An' git choked on "Sugar Cain".
-Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (Kennikat Press, Port Washington, N.Y., p 134; originally published by The Macmillan Company, 1922)

Editor:
Dr. Talley indicated that "sacked" meant "to reject as a lover". Given the fact that he put the phrases "Ole Sour Bill" and "Sugar Cain" in quotation marks, and capitalized the beginning letter for each word, it seems likely to me that these phrases were male names that probably had been used in a song or songs that were familiar to this particular song's dancers & singers.

****
RIDIN' IN THE BUGGY MISS MARY JANE
Ridin' in the buggy,
Miss Mary Jane,
Miss Mary Jane,
Miss Mary Jane,
Ridin' in de buggy,
Miss Mary Jane,
I'm a long ways from home.

Chorus
Who moan for me?
Who moan for me?
Who moan for me, my darlin'?
Who moan for me?

(2 additional stanzas)
-snip-
The two additional verses (stanzas) that are usually given are
the floating verse*

Sally got a house in Baltimo',
Baltimo', Baltimo'
Sally got a house in Baltimo'
And it's full of chicken pie.

and the verse:
I got a gal in Baltimo',
Baltimo', Baltimo'
I got a gal in Baltimo',
And she's sixteen stories high.

From Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs,
p. 117. As recalled from the singing of South Carolina slaves
by Dr. W. F. More.

Dorothy Scarborough's book was published in 1925.
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/12/riding-in-buggy-miss-mary-jane-v... for a video of a young girl singing this song. That post also includes other comments about this song.

****
ROUN' DE CORN, SALLY (Version #1)
(corn husking song collected by slaveholder James Hungerford's The Old Plantation and What I Gathered There in an Autumn Month, c. 1832, quoted in THE MUSIC OF BLACK AMERICANS by Eileen Southern, pp. 180)

Grand Chorus:

Hooray, hooray, ho! Roun' de corn, Sally!
Hooray for all de lubly (lovely) ladies! Roun' de corn, Sally!
Hooray, hooray, ho! Roun' de corn, Sally!
Hooray for all de lubly ladies! Roun' de corn, Sally!

Dis lub's er (a) thing dat's sure to hab you, Roun' de corn, Sally!
He hole (hold) you tight, when once he grab you, Roun' de corn, Sally!
Un (an) ole (old) un (one) ugly, young un (one) pretty, Roun' de corn, Sally!
You needen try when once he git you, Roun' de corn, Sally! (CHO)

Dere's Mr. Travers lub Miss Jinny, Roun' de corn, Sally!
He thinks she is us (as) good us any, Roun' de corn, Sally!
He comes from church wid her er (on) Sunday, Roun' de corn, Sally!
Un (He) don't go back ter town till Monday, Roun' de corn, Sally! (CHO)

My interpretations in ()'s.
-posted on http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=52717 "Origin: Johnny Come Down to Hilo"; by Charley Noble, October 23, 2002

****
ROUN' DE CORN, SALLY (Version #2)
1. Five can't ketch me and ten can't hold me,
Ho, . . . . round the corn, Sally!
Round the corn, round the corn, round the corn, Sally!
Ho, ho, ho, round the corn, Sally!]

2 Here's your iggle-quarter and here's your count-aquils.

3 I can bank, 'ginny bank, 'ginny bank the weaver.

["Iggle" is of course "eagle;" for the rest of the enigmatical words and expressions in this corn-song, we must leave readers to guess at the interpretation.]
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html William Francis Allen et al "Slave Songs Of The United States", 1867 (retreived 2/22/2011)

Editor:
Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/sea-shanties-chanteys-neglected-area-bla... for an example of the shanty "Round The Corner, Sally" which was undoubtedly based on these corn husking songs.

****
ROUN' DE CORN, SALLY (Version #3)
Hooray, hooray, ho!
Roun’ de corn, Sally!
Hooray for all de lubly ladies!
Roun’de corn, Sally!
Hooray, hooray, ho!
Roun’ de corn, Sally!
Hooray for all de lubly ladies!
Roun’de corn, Sally!

Dis lub’s er thing dat’s sure to hab you,
Roun’de corn, Sally!
He hole you tight, when he grab you,
Roun’de corn, Sally!
Un ole un ugly, young un pritty,
Roun’ de corn, Sally!
You needen try when once he git you,
Roun’de corn, Sally!

From: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1991/issue31/3130.html [no other source is credited]

****
RUN BLACK MAN RUN* (The Paterroller Song)
Chorus:
Run Black man* run.
The patterollers get you.
Run Black man run,
It’s almost day.

Verse 1
That man* ran.
That man flew.
That man tore his
shirt in two.

Verse 2
That man* ran.
He ran his best.
He stuck his head
in a hornet’s nest.

Verse 3
He jumped the fence
and ran through the pasture.
White man run,
But the Black man run faster.
-Multiple sources

* This title is traditionally given as "Run N****r Run"

Editor:
This seemingly humorous song (which also is given the title "Run Children Run" and other non-racial titles) was originally a very serious warning to enslaved Black people about slave patrols (called "paddyrollers" or similar sounding terms). This song was composed by anonymous Black people and was given the title "Run N****r Run".

The phrases “Black man” and "that man" in this song are my substitutions for the word “n****r”. It's true that during slavery some (but not all) African Americans commonly used “the n-word” as a basic referent for themselves and other Black people. However, that does not refute the fact that many people consider this word to be highly offensive.
That racial slur has been commonly referred to as "the n word" since its frequent use during the televised O.J. Simpson trial in 1995 necessitated the creation of such an euphemism.

The chorus and first two verses of “The Patterollers Song” can be found in a number of American children’s folk song books with the word “children” substituted for the original referent.

Incidentally, the word "paddyroller" probably has no connection to "paddy, a pejorative referent for Irish people.

Here is some information about "paddyrollers" that I have gleaned from various internet sources which are noted in this comment:

"Slave patrols" (called "patrollers", "pattyrollers" or "paddy rollers" by enlaved Black people) "apprehended runaways, monitored the rigid pass requirements for blacks traversing the countryside, broke up large gatherings and assemblies of blacks, visited and searched slave quarters randomly, inflicted impromptu punishments, and as occassion arose, suppressed insurrections. The patrollers generally made their rounds at night, with their activity and regularity differing according to time and place. And patrol duty was often compulsory for most able-bodied white males. Some professions were exempt, but otherwise avoided duty required paying a fine or hiring a substitute."

http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/0513

"These slave patrols were composed of White men who were well to do "respectable" members of society as well as poor Whites. Armed with whips and guns, "paddyrollers" exerted a brutal and archaic brand of racial control that is inextricably linked to post-Civil War vigilantism and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)." http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:oNn8nsnJK5oJ:www.rinr.fsu.edu/issue2...

"Patrols used summary punishment against escapees, which included maiming or killing them."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_patrol

"Slave patrols were populated in the beginning by people from all walks of life in the South, from wealthy land- and slave-owning aristocrats on down. Service in the patrols was required by law and refusal to perform patrol duty met with stiff fines. As such, Hadden writes, "Historians have routinely assumed that since patrollers did not stop every runaway, it matters little what patrols did; their uneven enforcement of the law must have diminished their impact on Southern history and slavery. As a result, the number of prominent slave histories that fail to mention even the existence of patrollers is startling. And when histories do include them, patrollers generally appear as little more than straw men, paraded for their inadequacies and little else.

When mentioned at all, slave patrollers are drawn as poor, slaveless, sadistic whites of very low social rank. In fact, the dominant image is of Marks and Loker, the supremely evil slave-catchers of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

But, as Hadden's research reveals, "Slave patrols between 1704 and 1721 frequently included men of superior social status, not just poor slaveless whites." And in a two-county study in Virginia, Hadden finds that "'Poor whites' does not describe the status of 18th century slave patrollers ...Typically, these men headed their own households. ...Half or more of all patrollers owned slaves, usually one to five slaves."
http://books.google.com/books?id=WC7andkrJNcC&dq=slave+patrols+hadden&so...

The book Slave Patrols Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas by Sally E. Hadden, (Harvard University Press, 2001) is available online at http://books.google.com/books?id=WC7andkrJNcC&dq=slave+patrols+hadden&pr...
**
The song “Run N****r Run" has many rhyming verses. According to Dorothy Scaborough’s 1925 book, On the Trail Of Negro Folk Songs (Folklore Associates, Inc. Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1963; p 12; originally published in 1925, Harvard University Press), the chorus could also be used with religious verses such as this one “If you get there before I do, ‘most done lingering here, look out for me, I’m coming too, most done lingering here.” This verse may have been used as a secret code to let people know that the person was planning to escape to the Northern United States or to Canada.

****
SAIL AWAY LADY
Sail away, ladies! Sail away!
Sail away, ladies! Sail away!
Nev' min' what dem white folks say,
May de Mighty bless you. Sail away!

Nev' min' what yo daddy say,
Shake yo liddle foot an' fly away,
Nev' min' if yo' mammy say:
"De Devil'll git you." Sail away!
- Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise & Otherwise"; kennikat Editor; 1969; p 20; originally published in 1922.

Click http://www.cocojams.com/content/american-banjo-fiddle-songs to find a version of this dance song with the "di-dee-o" phrase. Folk singer Odetta's version of "Sail Away Lady" is found on that same page. In her rendition, Odetta uses the phrase "daddy-o" instead of "di-dee-o", which produces a more updated feel to that song.

Also click http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97649#1923675 to read my theory that "sail away, ladies" might be a dance command (in square dancing or other group dancing) similar to the phrase "steal away, ladies" in the song "Lead A Man" that is posted above.

****
SHORT'NIN BREAD *
Put on the skillet
Put on the led
Momma's gonna make
A lil short'nin bread
That's not all
That she's gonna do-
She's gonna make
A li'l coffee, too

Chorus
Momma's little baby loves short'nin, short'nin
Momma's little baby loves short'nin, bread
Momma's little baby loves short'nin, short'nin
Momma's little baby loves short'nin, bread

Three little children
lyin in bed
Two was sick
And the other 'most dead
Sent for the doctor
And the doctor said,
"Give them children
some short'nin bread

Chorus

I slipped in the kitchen,
An' slipped up the led
An' I slipped up my pockets
Full of short'nin bread
I stole the skillet
I stole the led
I stole that gal
To make short'nin bread

Chorus
They caught me wth the skillet,
They caught me with the led,
And they caught me with the gal
Cookin' short'nin bread.

Paid six dollars for the skillet,
Six dollars for the led
Served six months in jail,
Eatin short'nin bread.

Chorus
-multiple sources including Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail Of Negro Folk Songs: (Folklore Associates, Inc. Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1963; p 150; originally published in 1925, Harvard University Press).

Editor:
“Shortnin Bread” is a folk song that was composed by enslaved African Americans. In the United States this song is still relatively well known as it is often taught in school as a American children's folk song. As is the case with other folk songs, "Shortnin' Bread" isn't supposed to have any fixed verses or fixed order of verses. Therefore it's more than acceptable for the singer to improvise new verses, and add them to the verses that she or he had heard before. Dorothy Scarborough, a White American woman who collected the version of "Short'nin Bread" presented above (without the updated words) wrote that this song was a lullaby (a song used to “lull” or help babies and young children go to sleep). At some point, however, a more uptempo tune was used and "Short'nin Bread" became a dance song.

*Because I find the "n-word" offensive, I have substituted "children" for the "n-word" that was used in this song. Also, because of negative connotation associated with the word “mammy”, when I introduce this song to children, I substitute the word “mama” for “mammy.” In addition, I have also updated the word "pickinny" in this song because that word also has very negative connotations now

In the version presented above, the word "skillet" means "frying pan". The word "led" means the "lid" (cover) for the frying pan.

“Shortnin’ bread” is cornbread cooked with bacon bits or bacon gravy mixed in it. Both shortn'in bread and coffee were longed for treats for people who barely existed on the food staples that were allotted to them during slavery. Unfortunately, all too often during slavery, and afterwards, children were sick in bed or almost dead from starvation. Some children today barely have enough food to eat-even in the United States which is said to be the richest nation in the world.

Another name for “shortnin’ bread is “cracklin bread. “Cracklin” is the word used for the crispy bacon bits. According to Dorothy Scarborough, African Americans cooked cracklin bread during hog killing time and it was considered by them to be a real treat. (Dorothy Scaborough, On the Trail Of Negro Folk Songs: (Folklore Associates, Inc. Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1963; p 151; originally published in 1925, Harvard University Press).

****
SOLD OFF TO GEORGY
Farewell, fellow servants! O-ho! O-ho!
I'm gwine away to leabe you; O-ho! O-ho!
I'm gwine to leabe de ole county; O-ho! O-ho!
I'm sold off to Georgy! O-ho! O-ho!

Farewell, old plantation, O-ho! O-ho!
Farewell, de old quarter, O-ho! O-ho!
Un daddy, un mammy; O-ho! O-ho!
Un marster, un missus! O-ho! O-ho!

My dear wife un one chile, O-ho! O-ho!
My poor heart is breaking; O-ho! O-ho!
No more shall I see you, O-ho! O-ho!
Oh! No more foreber! O-ho! O-ho!

The response on the part of the rowers, O-ho!, easily changes to "Weel-ho!," "Yoe! Yoee!," "Shilo," "Hollow!," "Hilo!" noted in other songs.

This song appears in many guises in various references. "Sold off to Georgy" (or other far south plantation region) seems to have been a constant fear of slaves working in the more liberal coastal Carolinas.

Aye! Ayee!, is another of the chorused responses in a rowing song (This one has to be called a chantey!).

We are going down to Georgia, boys, Aye! Aye!
To see the pretty girls, boys; Yoe! Yoe!
We'll give 'em a pint of brandy, boys, Aye! Aye!
An a hearty kiss, besides, boys. Yoe! Yoe!
etc., etc.

"The words were nonsense; anything, in fact, which came into their heads." Heard in 1808, traveling by boat from Purrysburgh to Savannah, GA, by boat. John Lambert, Travels, II, p. 253-54.

Others have written of the singing of the Galley slaves on the larger rivers and estuary boats and canoes of the coastal and riverine South.

Unfortunately, secular songs were seldom collected. Major attention was given to the spirituals on the part of collectors.
-posted in http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=52717 "Origin: Johnny Come Down to Hilo"; by Guest, October 23, 2002

T,U,V
TURKEY IN THE STRAW *
[I acknowledge that "Turkey In The Straw" is considered to be a minstrel song, However, most of the verses from this song are from 19th century & earlier African American folk traditions.]

TURKEY IN THE STRAW (Version #1)
As I was a goin' on down the road,
with a tired team and a heavy load,
I cracked my whip and the leader sprung,
I says day-day to the wagon tongue.

CHORUS:

"Turkey in the straw (whistle)
Turkey in the straw (whistle)
Roll 'em up and twist 'em up a high tuck a haw
And hit 'em up a high tuck a haw"
Went out to milk and I didn't know how
I milked the goat instead of the cow
A monkey sittin' on a pile of straw
A winkin' at his mother in law

Chorus repeat

I came to the river and I couldn't get across
So I paid five dollars for a big bay hoss
Well, he wouldn't go ahead and he wouldn't stand still
So he went up and down like an old saw mill

Chorus repeat

Did you ever go fishin' on a warm summer day
when all the fish were swimmin' in the bay
with their hands in their pockets and their pockets in their pants
Did you ever see a fish do the hootchy kootchy dance?

Chorus repeat
-grlrednck8 [email address removed] ; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=5183 ; Lyr Req: Turkey in the Straw; November 25, 1998

Editor: Here is a related comment:
…."Natchez Under the Hill", which is seemingly related, may have been the antecedent of "Zip Coon." G.P. Knauff's version of "NATCHEZ ON THE HILL" is Here http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/levy-cgi/display.cgi?id=041.123.002;pa... at The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music
-masato sakurai ; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=5183 ; Lyr Req: Turkey in the Straw; 14 November 14, 2001

****
TURKEY IN THE STRAW (Version #2)
Another verse I learned up in Arkansas:

Saw a big catfish comin' down the stream
Said the big catfish "What do you mean?"
Caught that big catfish right on the snout
And turned Mister Catfish inside out!
-Guest; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=5183 ; Lyr Req: Turkey in the Straw; August 26, 2004

W,X,Y,Z
WE AM DE N****RS FROM DE WILD GOOSE NATION.
Might this be the progenitor of "Huckleberry Hunting"/"Ranzo Ray"?

From Negro Singer's Own Book, ca.1843(?), pp148-9:

Written and sung by the Luminaries.

We am de n***rs from de wild goose nation,
Come dis night to sing to you;
We're just arrived from de old plantation,
Down on the banks of de O-hi-o.
To de fields, to de fields must go,
When de driber calls we must obey
To chop de wood, de corn to hoe,
And work hard all the day.

[Full Chorus]
Den sing away, sing away,
Tambourine and de banjo play;
Happy n****rs while we sing,
Today we work no more.

Ebery morning bright and early,
How dese n****rs hates to rise,
Because dey am all-ways attacted,
By de ting called the Blue-tailed fly.
To de fields...

When the big white moon am shining,
De n****rs de am out fore soon;
And up the cimmon tree are climbing,
For to catch de possum and coon.
To de fields...

Editor:
This is probably a White black faced minstrel song and not an "authenticly" composed Black social song. However, unfortunately, it's very difficult to tell most "authentic Black songs" from most examples that originated as minstrel songs as there was probably a lot of back and forth admixture going on.

An example entitled "Wild Goose Nation" is found below.

Also, click http://www.cocojams.com/content/shanties-chanties-and-sing-outs-semi-sha... to find an example of a shanty that mentions the Wild Goose Nation.

****
WHOA MARK JUBA
Statement that prefaced the performance of the song:

"Among the Dance-songs may be included all those musical or rhythmical combinations of sounds which were used to set the time of the dances, plays, or marches in which plantation Negroes indulged when work hours were over. On some of these, the rhythmic expression is mainly through the beating of feet and the patting of hands, while the vocal expression is simply a rude chant. The whole effect of this music, if music it can be called, is as barbarous as if rendered in African forests at some heathen festival, A specimen of this class is the well known Juba..."

Marster had a yaller man
Talles' n****r in de land,
Juba was dat feller's name.
De way he strutted was a shame.
Juba, Juba, Juba, Juba (repeat several times)
Oh, twas Juba dis and Juba dat
Juba killed the yaller cat
To make his wife a Sunday hat-Juba.
His wife was yaller, tall an' fat;
He killed ole missis yaller cat
To make his wife a Sunday hat.
Juba, Juba, Juba, Juba
Marster had a yaller steer
Ol's de mountain to er year,
I tells yer dis for all 'er dat
He'd run away at de drop' o yer hat.
Whoa Mark.
See 'im comin up de road
Pullin in er monstrous load,
Git out'n de way mighty spry
Or he'll tho' you to de sky.
Whoa Mark.
Juba driv dat ole steer
Fer five an' twenty year,
Thu de rain and thu de snow
Juba an de steer'd go
Whoa Mark-Juba.
When de sun was shinin breight,
Ef twas dat, ef twas night,
Her him holler loud an' strong
Mark, why don't yer git er long.
Golong-Whoa Mark-Juba.
By'em by dat ole ox died,
Juba he jes cried and cried
Tell on day he ups an' die
I spec he's drivin in de sky,
Golong-whoa Mark-Juba.
-The Black Perspective In Music Vol. 4, July 1976, Special Issue, Number 2, pp.148-149, "Negro Folk Songs", reprinted from "The Southern Workman" 24 (February 1895), 30-32 (program presented by Hampton Folklorist Society of Washington, DC, meeting of the American Folklore Society)

Editor:
It appears to me that the word "Juba" in this example is both a man's name ("Juba was dat feller's name"), and an exclamation like "Amen" or "Yeah" ("Juba, Juba, Juba, Juba" and Whoa Mark-Juba").

****
WILD GOOSE NATION
Here I am, as you diskiver,
All de way from Roaring River;
Here I cum, as you must know,
For to play de ole banjo.

CHORUS: Oh Lord, gals, gib me chaw tobacco.
Oh Lord, fetch on de whiskey,
Makes a man glad to get a little boosey.

Way down in de Indian nation,
Pretty little gals from de wild goose nation
My wife's dead, an' I'm a widow,
All de way from Roaring River.

Ole Massa Miller goes out a preachin',
'Bout de world coming to pieces,
An' if you want to do what's right,
Go an' join de Millerite.

No, den, if dis should happen,
Den good bye to Arthur Tappen;
But if it should fail,
We'll ride ole Miller on a rail.

Time draws near, it does by Job,
So now get ready your ascension robes;
Farewell, ladies, I must go,
To git some strings for my ole banjo.

Uncle Samel, and Massa Jess,
Dey buy a bully cider press,
De hoops flew off, de barrel buss,
An' blew 'em up in a thunder guss.

From Marsh's Selection, or, Singing for the Million. New York: Richard Marsh, 1854

[William Miller, preacher, prophesied the end of the world in 1843. Arthur Tappen was an abolitionist. Roaring River is both a river and a town in North Carolina.]
-Jim Dixon ; ; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11138 Lyr Req: Old Gray Mare November 13, 2008

****
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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