Melissa Benbow Spring 2019
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • Who was Singing?
    • The AME Church and Afro-Protestant Leadership
    • Delegates and Attendees
    • Fisk Jubilee Singers
    • Black Civil War Soldiers
    • Choirs
  • What Did They Sing?
    • Anti-Slavery Songs
    • Spirituals
    • Patriotic Songs
    • Hymns
  • Where Did They Sing?
  • Why Did They Sing?
    • Religious Exercise
    • Celebration
    • Protest
  • Music and Activism Through the Years
  • Teaching
  • CREDITS
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MUSIC IN THE COLORED CONVENTIONS

PATRIOTIC SONGS

Colored Conventions in 1865 increasingly incorporated patriotic songs in convention proceedings, aligning with delegates’ active support for the Union army during the war. The war and its aftermath renewed hopes for many Black activists including Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who, in the 1850s, publicly criticized those who opposed emigration to Canada and elsewhere. When the US War Department finally authorized the enlistment of Black men and establishment of Black troops in 1863, Black communities’ hopes for full citizenship were even more bolstered. Shadd Cary came back to the United States from Canada to support the war effort, recruiting men for the Union army. Likewise, Frederick Douglass actively spoke about the war as a tremendous upheaval against slavery. Both his sons joined the army. Emigrationist Martin R. Delaney was commissioned as a major, becoming the first Black field-grade officer in the US Army. Feelings of national belonging thus ran high, and when Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery except as a punishment for a crime, in January 1865, the push for its ratification began, mobilizing Black activists throughout the US to demand their rights as citizens.

Click on the tabs below to listen and read about patriotic songs.

“Rally Around the Flag, Boys”

Also known as “Battle Cry of Freedom,” this song was written by George Frederick Root in 1862. Apart from being explicitly anti-slavery, the song explicitly advocated for the enlistment of Black men: “Oh we’re springing to the call for three hundred thousand more, / Shouting the battle cry of freedom! / we’ll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more” Below is a medley of “Rally Round the Flag”; “Tenting To-night”; “John Brown’s Body”; and “Star Spangled Banner.” It was performed by Billy Murray, Steve Porter, John H. Bieling, George Botsford, and William F. Hooley in 1913.[1]

 

SOURCE

[1] Murray, Billy, et al. War Song Medley. 1913. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-132787/>.

 
"My Country 'Tis of Thee"

“My Country ’tis of Thee” was sung in conventions in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. It is also likely that Colored Conventions attendees and delegates were aware of the anti-slavery version of the song. The original of the same title, written by Samuel Smith in 1831, was the subject of criticism and was often satirized by anti-slavery activists for the song’s overt celebration of purported freedom on US soil and its blindness towards the cruelties and injustices of slavery. Below are the lyrics to both versions:

“My Country ’tis of Thee” (Anti-slavery version)

My country, ’tis of thee,
Stronghold of slavery, of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Where men man’s rights deride,
From every mountainside thy deeds shall ring.
My native country, thee,
Where all men are born free, if white’s their skin;
I love thy hills and dales,
Thy mounts and pleasant vales;
But hate thy negro sales, as foulest sin.
Let wailing swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees the black man’s wrong;
Let every tongue awake;
Let bond and free partake;
Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.
Our father’s God! to thee,
Author of Liberty, to thee we sing;
Soon may our land be bright,
With holy freedom’s right,
Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King.
It comes, the joyful day,
When tyranny’s proud sway, stern as the grave,
Shall to the ground be hurl’d,
And freedom’s flag, unfurl’d,
Shall wave throughout the world, O’er every slave.
Trump of glad jubilee!
Echo o’er land and sea freedom for all.
Let the glad tidings fly,
And every tribe reply,
“Glory to God on high,” at Slavery’s fall!

SOURCE

Theta, “America—A Parody,” The Liberator, 3 May 1839.

“My Country ’tis of Thee” (Samuel Smith’s 1831 original version)

My country, ’tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers’ God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom’s holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.

 

 

"Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" / "The Red, White, and Blue"

“Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” (1843), also known as “The Red, White, and Blue,” is credited to Philadelphia singer David T. Shaw, although its origins is quite contested.[1] There are various songs titled “The Red, White, and Blue” that emerged in the twentieth century, which incorporate the same chorus “Three cheers for the red, white, and blue” from “Columbia.” During the 1870 Colored People’s Educational Convention in Missouri, Ella Turner, the wife of Missouri delegate and political leader James Milton Turner, “sang, with power and pathos, that patriotic song, ‘The Red, White, and Blue;’ after which, by special request, the same lady sang, with all the thrilling sweetness of rendition for which she is remarkable, ‘Hear me, Norma, hear me!'”[1] Below is a 1914 recording of “Columbia” by the Columbia Stellar Quartette.

“Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” (1843)

O Columbia, the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each patriot’s devotion,
A world offers homage to thee.
Thy mandates make heroes assemble,
When Liberty’s form stands in view;
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,
When borne by the red, white, and blue!
When borne by the red, white, and blue!
When borne by the red, white, and blue!
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,
When borne by the red, white, and blue!

When war winged its wide desolations,
And threatened the land to deform,
The ark then of freedom’s foundation,
Columbia, rode safe through the storm;
With the garlands of vict’ry about her,
When so proudly she bore her brave crew,
With her flag proudly floating before her,
The boast of the red, white, and blue!
The boast of the red, white, and blue!
The boast of the red, white, and blue!

With her flag proudly floating before her,
The boast of the red, white, and blue!
The star-spangled banner bring hither,
O’er Columbia’s true sons let it wave;
May the wreaths they have won never wither,
Nor its stars cease to shine on the brave;
May the service united ne’er sever,
But hold to their colors so true;
The army and navy forever,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue!
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue!
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue!

The army and navy forever,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue!

REFERENCES

[1] Colored People’s Educational Convention (1870 : Jefferson City, MO), “Proceedings of the Colored People’s Educational Convention held in Jefferson City, Missouri, January , 1870.,” Colored Conventions Project Digital Records, accessed May 9, 2023, https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/308.

SOURCES

Columbia the Gem of the Ocean. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 2002. Web.. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200000004/>

Shaw, David T, Columbia Stellar Quartette, and Timothy Dwight. Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean. 1914. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-650041/>.

 
 
"Sherman's March to the Sea"

The song “Sherman’s March to the Sea” was a poem written by Union officer Samuel H. M. Byers while being held as a prisoner of war in South Carolina. Reportedly, Byers wrote it after reading about Major General Willliam T. Sherman’s Savannah Campaign in a newspaper, which an enslaved person smuggled into the prison. A fellow prisoner, J.O. Rockwell, composed it into a song. Laura Britton and Ellen Sherman sang the song at the First Convention of Colored Men in Kentucky (1866).

“Sherman’s March to the Sea”

Our camp fires shone bright o’er the mountain,
That frowned on the river below,
While we stood by our guns in the morning,
And eagerly watched for the foe.
When a rider came out from the darkness,
That hung over mountain and tree,
And shouted “Boys, up and be ready,”
For Sherman will march for the sea.
Chorus. —Tramp, tramp, tramp, over mountain and lea,
Sherman is marching away for the sea!
Tramp, tramp, tramp, with the flag of the free,
Sherman is marching away for the sea!
Then onward we pressed till our banners
Swept out from Atlanta’s grim walls,
Where the blood of the patriot ensanguined
The soil where the traitor flag falls;
But we paused not to weep for the fallen,
Who slept by each river and tree,
Yet we twined them a wreath of the laurel,
As Sherman marched on to the sea.
Tramp, tramp, c.
Then forward, boys, forward to battle,
We marched in our wearisome way,
And we stormed the wild hills of Kenesaw,
God bless those who fell on that day.
Then Kenesaw, proud in its glory,
Frowned down on the flag of the free,
But the East and the West bore our standards,
And Sherman marched on to the sea.
Tramp, tramp, c.
O proud was the army that morning,
That stood where the pine darkly towers,
When Sherman said “Boys, you are weary,
But to-day fair Savannah is ours”
Then sung we a song for our Chieftain,
That echoed o’er river and lea,
And the stars in our banner shone brighter
When Sherman marched down to the sea.

View the music sheet here.

CREDITS

Written by Samantha de Vera.

Viewing » TO STAY OR TO GO?: THE NATIONAL EMIGRATION CONVENTION OF 1854

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