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…”
Category: composers
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…”
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…
Old Folks At Home (Foster, 1851)
Stephen Foster’s 1851 song “Old Folks At Home” provides an excellent introduction to the antebellum period:
Vacant Chair (Root & Washburn, 1861)
George Root’s setting of Henry S. Washburn’s popular poem …
Richmond a Hard Road to Travel (1862)
An annotated look at an epic parody…
Babylon is Fallen (Work, 1863)
After the Emancipation Proclamation changed the face of the Civil War, Henry Clay Work released this sequel to his popular “Kingdom Coming”:
Kingdom Coming (Work, 1862)
Popular in both the North and the South, perhaps because of his ambiguous treatment of the plight of “contraband” (liberated slaves) …
Marching Through Georgia (Work, 1865)
This jaunty march commemorating Sherman’s March to the Sea proved to be one of Henry Clay Work’s most famous pieces:
Battle Cry of Freedom (Root, 1862)
“And at the fourth verse a thousand voices were joining in the chorus…”
The Hardtacks 