It should be kept constantly in mind that this volume, like The Negro and His Songs, is in no sense an anthology or general collection, but represents the group of songs current in certain areas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, during the years 1924-25. Of course all of this collection cannot be included in this volume; and no doubt many of the most important or most attractive specimens extant have escaped us at this time. It is also important to note that in this volume, as in the previous one, all specimens listed, except lines or references otherwise designated, were taken directly from Negro singers and do not represent reports from memory of white individuals. So far as we know none of the songs in this collection has been published, although there are countless variations, adaptations and corruptions of the modern blues and jazz songs represented in the group. The songs, however, were all sung or repeated by actual Negro workers or singers, and much of their value lies in the exact transcription of natural lines, words, and mixtures. The collection is still growing by leaps and bounds. In this volume every type is represented except the “dirty dozen” popular models and the more formal and sophisticated creations.
Since this volume presents a series of pictures of the Negro as portrayed through his workaday songs it is important that all chapters be read before any final judgment is made. Even then the picture will not be complete. It has not been possible, of course, to make any complete or accurate classification of the songs. They overlap and repeat. They borrow sentiment and expression and repay freely. Free labor song becomes prison song, and chain gang melody turns to pick-and-shovel accompaniment. The chapter divisions, therefore, are made with the idea of approximating a usable classification and providing such mechanical divisions as will facilitate the best possible presentation.
The reader who approaches this volume from the point of view of the technical student of folk song will likely be disappointed at what he considers the lack of discrimination displayed by the authors in admitting so many songs which cannot be classed as strictly folk songs. We have frankly taken the position that these semi-folk songs, crude and fragmentary, and often having only local or individual significance, afford even more accurate pictures of Negro workaday life and art than the conventional folk songs. While we have spared no effort to make the collection valuable for folk song students, we have approached the work primarily as sociologists.
For assistance in recording the type melodies in Chapter XIV we are specially indebted to Mr. Lee M. Brooks, and for many of the songs of women to Mrs. Henry Odum. We wish to thank Mr. Gerald W. Johnson for his goodness in going over much of the manuscript and making valuable suggestions. To Dr. L. R. Wilson, Director of the University of North Carolina Press, we are much indebted for coöperation and suggestions.
Chapel Hill H. W. O.
January, 1926 G. B. J.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | Background Resources in Negro Songs and Work | [1] |
| II. | The Blues: Workaday Sorrow Songs | [17] |
| III. | Songs of the Lonesome Road | [35] |
| IV. | Bad Man Ballads and Jamboree | [47] |
| V. | Songs of Jail, Chain Gang, and Policemen | [71] |
| VI. | Songs of Construction Camps and Gangs | [88] |
| VII. | Just Songs to Help With Work | [118] |
| VIII. | Man’s Song of Woman | [135] |
| IX. | Woman’s Song of Man | [152] |
| X. | Folk Minstrel Types | [166] |
| XI. | Workaday Religious Songs | [188] |
| XII. | The Annals and Blues of Left Wing Gordon | [206] |
| XIII. | John Henry: Epic of the Negro Workingman | [221] |
| XIV. | Types of Negro Melodies | [241] |
| XV. | Types of Phono-photographic Records ofNegro Singers | [252] |
| Bibliography | [265] | |
| Index to Songs | [271] | |
NEGRO WORKADAY SONGS
CHAPTER I
BACKGROUND RESOURCES IN NEGRO SONG AND WORK
To discover and present authentic pictures of the Negro’s folk background as found in his workaday songs is a large and promising task of which there are many phases. Here are spontaneous products of the Negro’s workaday experiences and conflicts. Here are reflections of his individual strivings and his group ways. Here are specimens of folk art and creative effort close to the soil. Here are new examples of the Negro’s contributions to the American scene. Here is important material for the newer scientific interest which is taking the place of the old sentimental viewpoint. And here is a mine of descriptive and objective data to substitute for the emotional and subjective attitudes of the older days.