Marek

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Willis, 1850s?)

Wallis Willis created the song “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” sometime before 1862; we like to pair it with this 1862 photograph by Concord, NH’s own H.P Moore.

Home, Sweet Home: “Had we not had the river between us”

One private’s account of the power & presence of music after a terrible battle:

Dixie: “One of the best songs I have ever heard…” (1865)

Abraham Lincoln (April 10, 1865): “Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it.”

Ring, Ring De Banjo (Foster, 1851)

Frederick Douglass (1845) ~ “Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears…”

Kingdom Coming: “It was a proud moment for Robert” (1863)

Esther Hill Hawks ~ Diary (February 1863) ~ “It was a proud moment for Robert when he placed a guard of colored soldiers around the house of his former owner…”

Angelina Baker (Foster, 1850)

Stephen C. Foster ~ Letter to E. P. Christy (May 25, 1852) ~ “As I once intimated to you, I had the intention of omitting my name* on my Ethiopian songs, owing to the prejudice against them by some, which might injure my reputation as a writer of another style of music…”

John Brown’s Original Marching Song (1861)

So is this song about THE John Brown (abolitionist & domestic terrorist), or a more obscure John Brown (enlisted in the 12th MA)… ?

Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel (Emmett, 1853)

Here are a few versions of Dan Emmett’s song, displaying the far-reaching sense of international politics and breaking-news commentary to be found on the antebellum popular stage…