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]
"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:
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“My Country ’tis of Thee” (Anti-slavery version) My country, ’tis of thee, SOURCETheta, “America—A Parody,” The Liberator, 3 May 1839. |
“My Country ’tis of Thee” (Samuel Smith’s 1831 original version) My country, ’tis of Thee, Let music swell the breeze, Our fathers’ God to Thee,
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"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.