As I have not been on the farm much for the last two years. I have been unable to use the Boswellian method of recording these songs but have had to depend mostly on memory. The result is that some of them are not complete and some may not be textually correct. Of course the collection is not anything like an exhaustive one.
If you consider these songs as the negro’s literature, you will notice some striking parallels between its history and that of English literature. As all of you know, English literature for several centuries was little more than paraphrases of various parts of the Bible. The first songs I shall read you are clearly not indigenous but are merely revamping the Biblical incidents and reflections of the sect disputes of the whites. The first song here presented is one that I heard twenty years ago as it was sung on the banks of a creek at a “big baptizing.” It is entitled:
TELL ALL THE MEMBERS I’M A NEW BORN.
I went to the valley on a cloudy day.
O good Lord!
My soul got so happy that I couldn’t get away.
Chorus.
Tell all the members I’m a new-born,
I’m a new-born, I’m a new-born,
O Lord!
I’m a new-born baby, born in the manger,
Tell all the members I’m a new-born.
Read the Scriptures, I am told,
Read about the garment Achan stole.
Chorus.
Away over yonder in the harvest fields,
O good Lord!
Angels working with the chariot wheels.
Chorus.
Away over yonder, got nothing to do,
O good Lord!
But to walk about Heaven and shout Halloo.
Chorus.
I’m so glad, I don’t know what about,
O good Lord!
Sprinkling and pourings done played out.
Chorus.
Here are two more of the same kind:
PREACHING IN THE WILDERNESS.
Daniel in that lion’s den,
He called God A’mighty for to be his friend;
Read a little further, ’bout the latter clause:
The angel locked them lions’ jaws.
Refrain.
Oh, Daniel, hallelujah;
Oh, Daniel, preaching in that wilderness.
Old man Adam, never been out;
Devil get in him, he’ll jump up and shout;
He’ll shout till he give a poor sister a blow,
Then he’ll stop right still and he’ll shout no more.
Refrain.
P’s for peter; in his word
He tells us all not to judge;
Read a little further and you’ll find it there,
I knows the tree by the fruit it bear.
Refrain.
SAVE ME FROM SINKING DOWN.
Seven stars in his right hand,
Save me from sinking down.
All stars move at his command,
Save me from sinking down.
Refrain.
Oh, my Lord, save me from sinking down.
John was a Baptist, so am I,
Save me from sinking down.
And he heard poor Israel’s cry,
Save us from sinking down.