“Our popular Government has often been called an experiment…”
Category: quotes
To The Leaven’d Soil They Trod (Whitman)
“To the fiery fields emanative, and the endless vistas beyond—to the south and the north…”
Freedmen’s Christmas Shout (South Carolina, 1863)
“At last they cleared the room and began, and a strange sight it was…”
Carter: “The Legacy of the African-American Spiritual” (2010)
“They found a secret door to take them into that world where the tears are wiped away…”
Dixie’s Land No. 5 (“Come, patriots all who hate oppression…”)
This LOC.gov songsheet shows us how Union partisans re-purposed Emmett’s 1859 minstrel walkaround: The opening lines establish reasons for
Walk in the Parlor (1850s)
Note especially the connections delineated between slavery, land, and knowledge…
Kingdom Coming: Union Troops Parade in Richmond
“The demonstrations of the colored people on witnessing the review were at times frantic for joy beyond all description…”
“They follow the American race” ~ Banjo Songs in the Gold Rush
How antebellum minstrel music served a growing continental empire…
I’m Off for California (1850s?)
Here’s a song you’ll recognize, and yet… it’s a side of the Gold Rush story you might not have heard about in school: The melody is Stephen Foster‘s first big hit, “Oh Susannah” (1847), ubiquitous in its time and still common in the “folk song” tradition over a century and a half later. Foster’s original composition features two world-changing technologies…
Star-Spangled Banner (Key, 1814)
What’s the connection between the US National Anthem, militant slave uprisings, and the burning of the White House?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852-1859?)
“Euclid… is no child for effecting social revolutions, but an impassioned song may set a world in conflagration.” ~ The London Times (3 September 1852)
Battle Cry of Freedom: “If we’d had your songs…”
Account given by anonymous captured Confederate officer…
The Hardtacks 