If we can hold our immediate revulsion at the (now offensive) language, we’ll find some shocking critique and surprisingly liberal views in the lyrics…
Jeff in Petticoats (Tucker & Cooper, 1865)
A humorous slather of wordplay and derision aimed at (former) confederate president Jefferson Davis…
Howe: Instructor for the Guitar (1851)
“Containing NEW AND COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS. To Which is Added A SELECTION OF CELEBRATED WALTZES, POLKAS, &c. TOGETHER WITH A LARGE COLLECTION OF POPULAR SONGS.”
Briggs: Banjo Instructor (1855)
“Containing the elementary principles of music, together with examples and lessons, … to which is added a choice collection of pieces, numbering over fifty popular dances, polkas, melodies, &c. &c., many of which have never before been published. Composed and arranged expressly for this work.”
Allen &c.: Slave Songs of the United States (1867)
“The musical capacity of the negro race has been recognized for so many years that it is hard to explain why no systematic effort has hitherto been made to collect and preserve their melodies…”
Buckley: Banjo Guide (1868)
“Containing the Elementary Principles of Music, Together with New, Easy, and Progressive Exercises, and a Great Variety of Songs, Dances, and Beautiful Melodies, Many of Them Never Before Published.”
UCSB: Early 20th Century Recordings
UCSB’s Edison wax cylinder collection provides a great many early recordings from the 1890s and 1900s, which is as close as modern recorded music gets to the 1860s*.
Library of Congress: “America Singing: 19th Century Song Sheets”
“For most of the nineteenth century, before the advent of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets….”
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…”
The Hardtacks 