She used to give me,
Give me lots o’ huggin’ every mornin’.
Now she don’t,
Lawd, Lawd, now she don’t.
[56] This is sung to the same tune as the preceding song, I Don’t Want No Trouble With the Walker, the music of which is given in [Chapter XIV].
[57] All of the stanzas have this form, first two lines always repeated.
Turning from the songs of construction or railroad gangs, some of the mixed songs, partly remnants of former years, partly products of sophistication, may be cited. There are many songs about the white man and the captain, excellent samples of which have already been cited in this chapter. Some were given in The Negro and His Songs and many more are to be found. Indeed, songs about the white man may well constitute a separate chapter in a later volume. A stock joke among the older Negroes used to be that of telling how the white man always brought “nigger out behind.” The modern singer, albeit not always in joking mood, still thrusts “at” his “captain” or “boss” or “white man.” “Captain,” he sings, “you look mo’ lak farmer than railroad man,” and with considerable glee asks, “Captain, captain, where’d you come frum?” On the other hand, reminiscent of farm days and echoing current life, he still sings:
Niggers plant the cotton,
Niggers pick it out,
White man pockets money,