AFRICAN AMERICAN SECULAR SLAVE SONGS

AFRICAN AMERICAN SECULAR SLAVE SONGS

This page contains selected examples of & commentary about African American secular (non-religious) slave songs. These compositions provide interesting perspectives about the lifes of enslaved African Americans in the 19th century South and earlier. Most of the examples on this page are not easily found on the Internet and through other resources. Some of these song entries are followed by my brief comments. Please note that I am a rhyme/song collector and community folklorist, and not an expert on any subject. I very much welcome visitors' comments, additions, and corrections of the points that I've made on this page and on this entire website.

For the record, I am very opposed to 19th century or earlier African American non-religious or religious songs (such as spirituals) being sung in the dialect used in most of the songs on this page. I believe that words such as "de" and "dem" and "mammy" should be updated to "the" and "them" and "mama". And I'm very much opposed to anyone (including Black people) using the "n word" in songs or speech. I cringe when I read it and don't even care to fully spell it out.

Because I feel so strongly about this, the "n word" will only be included on this website with asterisks or with that euphemistic term. in addition, the word "mama" will be substituted in the examples for the word "mammy", and the word "children" will be substituted for the word "pickinny". However, for the folkloric record, all other 19th century dialect and vernacular words found in these examples will be presented "as is".

[Visit Cocojams' "Mail Box" readers comment page for a reader's comments about the deletion of dialect in songs and my response to those comments.]

**
My thanks to all the authors and editors of the books and other resources cited on this page. Visitors to this page are encouraged to read more examples of & information about 19th century African American dance songs by purchasing the books cited on this page, or borrowing those books from the library.

Submit examples of or commentary about African American secular slave songs to cocojams17@yahoo.com.

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 (Kennikat Press Edition, 1968, p. 107; originally published in 1922)

Editor:
Dr. Thomas W. Talley's collection of social songs from slavery and immediately thereafter includes several songs that are put-downs of women with the name "Aunt Jemima". In those songs such as the one provided above, Black women were being 'put down' because of their rural background & "country" ways, and not because they ingratiated themselves to White folks.

However, since 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 advertisement practice ceased and the Aunt Jemima figure on Quaker Oats pancake mixes, syrup, and other products has become decidedly more attractive. However, the damage 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". 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". Although the terms "Uncle Tom" or "Tom" can be used to refer to either males or females, "Aunt Jemima" is sometimes used to refer to a female "Tom".
"Handkerchief head" is another name for both male and female "Toms". Actually, the phrase "handkerchief head" appears to be used more often nowadays than the "Aunt Jemima" referent.

For more information on the "Aunt Jemima" pancake advertisement, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima

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

****
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
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.

****
COTTON EYED JOE 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").

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". In my opinion, the first verse of this song lives on in African American children's handclap rhymes that have various names, but that I call "Ooh Ah I Want Ah Piece Of Pie". Here's a commonly found verse of those "trading rhymes":

Ooh aah
I want a piece of pie.
The pie too sweet,
I wanna piece of meat.
The meat too rough,
I wanna ride the bus.
The bus too full,
I wanna ride ah bull.
The bull too black,
I want my money back...
-snip-

Other examples of this rhyme can be found on Cocojams' Handclap Rhymes page:
http://www.cocojams.com/content/handclap-jump-rope-and-elastics-rhymes

****
HAMBONE
Hambone, Hambone
where you been?
“Round the corner
And back agin”
Hambone Hambone,
where's your wife?
"In the kitchen cookin rice"
-Multiple sources, including my childhood memories of Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1950s

See also this example from 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}

Note that this example includes a variant form of "Frog Went A 'Courtin":

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....

-snip-

Editor:
See this description of 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.

-snip-

"Pattin Juba" motions live on in some steppin' routines that are performed Black Greek letter fraternities and sororities. Visit Cocojams' page of a small, selected number of YouTube step & stroll videos: http://www.cocojams.com/content/step-stroll-videos

These videos are posted to show Cocojams visitors how fraternity & sorority chants are performed. Also visit this Cocojams' page to read the text of some (mostly African American Greek lettered) fraternity or sorority step chants: http://www.cocojams.com/content/fraternity-and-sorority-chants

See more comments on this page about the word "Juba" in the entry for the song "Juba".

I,J
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.

****
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), the "Mobile Buck" and other dance movements. Presumably, when the dancers heard these words, they would do those particular dances or dance steps.

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.

****
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

M,N
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.

O,P
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.

****
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., 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.

****
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.

****
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

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.

****
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).

****
W,X,Y,Z
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").

****
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