Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-04-29

hooC DtAtO S~NN -
the character of the work that the
singers are engaged at Sometimes,
in the old days, an army of hundreds
of negroes could have been seen on a
cotton plantation hoeing in row
across a young field OF the kingly
plant, and then the leaders sung of
the neighbors, embalming their vir-
tues and commenting on their vices,
or telling the legends of their home
| For instance:
| Old Marster's maxim money now,
| Jaug gam lang go hay.
/ We does il wild de hoe and pillow.
! Jang gam lang go hay
| Oars ole Bell he's gone to hell,
Jang gam lang go hay.
| De niggahs he's sold nobody tell
Jang gam a lang go hsy.
| Little piece OF lean and little piece Of fat,
Jang gam lang go hay
Aud de white folks grumble if you eat too much Of
Jang gam a lang 30 hay.
| Wild all this trouble we all like ham,
Jsng gam lang go hay.
An ruddah be a niggah dan poo white man.
| Jang gam a lang go hay.
At the quarters, after work was
over, al the negroes would gather
in some favoiite spot, and with the
banjo, bones, triangle, fiddle and tam
BORNE, they would make delicious
music, while those possessed of none
of the accomplishments of instrument
tation would dance to the merry mum.
bers. All of these, of every age and
sex, could dance. Sometimes they
carried on a species OF song called
talking jawbone." In this two OF
the most learned would be pitted
against each other, singing alternately
stanza, and the one that could hold
out in rhymes the longest was the VIC
tor All those present would gather
around these musical gladlators and
one would start in:
| Ebo, Edmuu, Simon. Joe,
Ding dat Diggah what stole my oh.
/ Dat putyest sheep dat was In my flock,
AID Taggy stole my turkey cock
] Old jawbOne, do go home.
Then the other would take up the
tune and sing:
/ Oars ole marster promise
| when he died he'd sot FREE;
| Now old marster's dead and gone,
| Here's dis darkey still hiilin' up corn.
/ Old jawbone, do go home.
And thus they would go on, for
hours at time, until finally one or
the other had to succumb for the lack
of more stuff to sing about. 1t has
been a matter OF wonder that this
peculiar style OF song has never been
taken up and presented by the travel
ing negro minstrel troupes of the day.
The plantation negroes in the days
of slavery sang everywhere; in the
fields at work; at the corn huskings;
in their forms of worship; in JOY and
in sorrow, everywhere, they sang.
Who has not seen an aged aunty
sitting on the sunshiny side of her
cabin, on a sunny Sunday afternoon,
with her head resting on her hands,
and her elbows on her knees, rocking
back and fourth, croning something
like this:
| Sing, little children sing,
/ Mighty long time gwine TO the crossroads.
What made You come 80 slow
Hope TO get dar In de due time
/ Before dem gates lie closed,
Glory hally In.
In the log church the leader in the
| field was the leader in the meetin' i,
and his song was sometimes in this
shape:
| Why can't you do like Peter did
Awalkin on de sea,
| II clapped his hands TO hs dyin Lord,
Oh. good Lord remember me.
| Member de rich and membar de poor,
Member de boud and de free
| And when you're done a 'memberin' around,
Dear, good LORD remember me.
Their religious songs were all very
devout, and evinced perfect faith
in the teachings of the Bible, the
great truths of which they had gather
ed by scraps from the familiar associa-
tons of some of the house servants
with white persons who could read,
and by them carried, in a sort of
Legendary way, to the field hands.
Besides, they had kind of religion
craven on the tablets of their hearts,
nearly like those on the tablets of
stone. In the same manner their
songs sometimes contained amusing
touches of the classic as, for instance,
in one ballad where they sang of a
horse whose foot struck rock and
fresh water came to the fainished,
which is doubtless akin to the old
NEUROLOGICAL story of Pegasus.
A huge book could be written
about the songs of this simple and
untutored people, and the half not be
told.