Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes

by Howard Washington Odum

Sister when you pray you mus’ pray to de Lord,
For I hab some hopes ob glory,
I feel like, I feel like I’m on my journey home,
I feel like, I feel like, I’m on my journey home.
I’ll away, I’ll away to de promise lan’,
My Father calls me, I mus’ go,
To meet Him in de promise lan’.
I have a father in the promise lan’,
Go meet him in de promise lan’,
I feel like, I feel like I’m on my journey home,
I feel like, I feel like I’m on my journey home.

So, too, the singer has a mother, a sister, an auntie and others in the “promise lan’”. Likewise he says instead of “sister when you pray,” etc., brother, member, mourner, sinner, preacher, and the others. As a rule morning signified to the negroes the time for going to heaven and for the resurrection. The morning star shining as a witness to his conversion, and the midnight dew typified the early morning time of his religion. “In the morning” is sung as of old.

I have been tempted, O yes,
An’ I have been tried, O yes,
I have been to the river an’ been baptize,
An’ I want to go to heaven in the morning.
Won’t you ride on Jesus?
Ride on Jesus, ride on crowning King,
For I want to go to heaven in the morning.
If you see my mother, O yes,
Please tell her for me, O yes,
That the angels in heaven done change my name,
An’ I want to go to heaven in the morning.

So if you see “brother John, sister Nancy,” and others makes the song complete. The song once so popular, “Yes, I’ll be dere, When gen’ral roll call” is still heard occasionally. Many of these songs have been corrupted and changed, consolidated and revised into new songs. Such a song is “Study war no mo’”, which combines the old camp meeting, “down by the river side”, and a new element of peace, the origin of which is not known.

Well there’s goin’ to be a big camp meetin’,
Well there’s goin’ to be a big camp meetin’,
Well there’s goin’ to be a big camp meetin’,
Down by the river side.
Well, I ain’t goin’ to study war no mo’,
Well, I ain’t goin’ to study war no mo’,
Well, I ain’t goin’ to study war no mo’.
Well such a shoutin’ an’ prayin’
Down by the riverside.
Well I goin’ to meet my sister,
Down by the riverside.
Well the brothers got to shoutin’,
Down by the riverside.

Said the old singers: “Some o’ dese mornin’s, hope I’ll see my mother, hope I’ll jine de ban’, hope I’ll walk bout Zion, Talk wid de angels, Talk my trouble over” while they looked “away to hebben”. Now the negro sings:

Gwine to weep, gwine to mourn,
Gwine to git up early in de morn,
Fo’ my soul’s goin’ to heaven jes’ sho’s you born,
Brother Gabriel goin’ to blow his horn.
Goin’ to sing, goin’ to pray,
Goin’ to pack all my things away,
Fo’ my soul’s goin’ to heaven jes’ sho’s you born,
Brother Gabriel gwine ter blow his horn.

“Pray come an’ go wid me” sings the Christian, for “I’m on my journey home to the New Jerusalem”. If refused he says, “Now don’t let me beg you to follow me, for I’m on my journey home”, and finally he sings, “Well, brother come an’ go wid me.” If the sinner needs other exhortation he may listen to the mixed song “Dry bones goin’ to rise ergain”, in which there is first warning, then hope of glory.

Some go ter meetin’ to sing an’ shout,
Dry bones goin’ ter rise again;
Fore six month deys all turned out,
Dry bones goin’ ter rise again.
O little chillun, O little childun,
O lit’le childun, dry bones goin’ rise ergin.
Talk erbout me but taint my fault,
Dry bones goin ter rise ergin;
But me an’ Godermighty goin’ walk an’ talk,
Dry bones goin’ ter rise ergin.
Ef you want ter go to heaven when you die,
Dry bones goin’ rise ergin;
Jes’ stop yo’ tongue from tellin’ lies,
Dry bones goin’ ter rise ergin.

In the old plantation song Ezekiel was represented down in a valley “full of bones as dry as dust” and