[79] Cf. The song given by Ballanta in his St. Helena Island Spirituals, p. 72.
Sung in very much the same way is the War Jubilee Song, itself a type of popular traveling song. It was the favorite of the same two singers, both noted songsters of the Columbia environs, and they claimed to have learned it from a traveling Negro secretary of the Y. W. C. A., who came from Florida immediately after the World War. Here again the chorus was sung with effective variations, “Now I’m so glad,” or “You know I’m so glad,” or “I declare I’m so glad,” and many others.
War Jubilee Song
When the U. S. got in de war
Wus de saddes’ day I ever saw.
Registration day began to start
An’ it come near breakin’ all mothers’ heart.
Chorus:
Now I’m so glad, I’m so glad,
Now I’m so glad, I’m so glad,