Very few of the Negro’s ante-bellum secular songs have been preserved, but there is every reason to suppose that he had numerous melancholy songs aside from the spirituals. At any rate, the earliest authentic secular collections abound in the kind of songs which have come to be known as the blues. The following expressions are typical of the early blues. They are taken from songs collected in Georgia and Mississippi between 1905 and 1908, and they were doubtless common property among the Negroes of the lower class long before that.[6]
[6] This collection was published by Howard W. Odum in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 24, pp. 255-94; 351-96.
Went to the sea, sea look so wide,
Thought about my babe, hung my head an’ cried.
O my babe, won’t you come home?
I got the blues, but too damn mean to cry,
Oh, I got the blues, but I’m too damn mean to cry.
Got nowhar to lay my weary head,
O my babe, got nowhar to lay my weary head.
I’m po’ boy long way from home,