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Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932Band B2Fieldwork in Georgia gave Gordon an opportunity to do problem-oriented research in an area of folksong which, during the twenties, was the focus of extensive debate. Just as he sought evidence to establish the history of ballads like "Old 97" and lyric songs like "The Prisoner's Song," he also sought the origin and development of spirituals. The debate about spirituals, which began after the Civil War, arose from the question of whether they were of black or white origin and, depending on one's point of view, whether they had been altered by one group or the other. Gordon spoke to the question twice; once in his article "Negro Chants," in Folk-Songs of America and again in "The Negro Spiritual," his contribution to the 1931 book The Carolina Low-Country (Smythe, pp. 191-222). In both articles he used as his principal piece of evidence Mary Mann's first song on this record. Gordon believed that "a monotonous sing song chant its rhythm sometimes closely imitating that of a drum" (Gordon, p. 34) represented the Negro's earliest attempt at religious song composition in English. These, which had as their unit the single line or, at most, the couplet, and in which the chorus was used irregularly (perhaps only when the singer was trying to remember more verses), were "prior to regular adoption of white models." When such songs were sung in a group, the refrain was carried on in a nearly continuous way, providing a "basing" over which the lead soared. Mary C. Mann's "Ol' Man Satan/Drive Ol' Satan Away" was evidence, Gordon believed, of "the earliest text of a Negro spiritual that has ever been published." He explained: This song was a favorite with Amelia, a slave brought to this country prior to 1800 from the island of Madagascar. She taught it to her grand-daughter, Violet, and she in turn taught it to her granddaughter, Mary, from whom I obtained it. Amelia was one of a number of slaves captured by the British in the war of 1812 and taken to Nassau, in the Bahama Islands, whence she never returned. She must, therefore, have sung the song prior to this time. The evidence rests entirely upon tradition, but the scrupulous accuracy of my informant in many other statements made to me -- statements that I have been able to check in historical documents -- leads me to place great trust in her account (p. 39). He then printed the text. In his 1931 essay he called this an example of a pre-stanzic Negro spiritual which "proceeds in surges rather than in stanzas" (Smythe, p. 215). Gordon collected several songs in Georgia which parallel these texts (GA401, GA447). The song given here represents the usable portions of the two cylinders on which Gordon recorded it. Therefore this recording varies at several points from the texts as published by Gordon. In particular, the last six verses are omitted. OL' MAN SATAN/ DRIVE OL' SATAN AWAY [MP3
file] Oh, old man Satan Drive him out the back door, hallelujah Far as he will go, hallelujah, Drive him out the grog shop, hallelujah, I think I ought to know him, hallelujah, Mary Mann's second song is, in her words, a "boat song". Such songs are familiar in the Georgia Sea Islands. In "Negro Work Songs From Georgia," Gordon described the rowing songs which he collected. He found them "very close to spirituals—some of them are spirituals slightly made over." He described the long boats—cypress dug outs—and their crews of six to eight manning long sweeps, and then the songs as they were sung: The leader always sang the verses, usually in tenor voice, and the other rowers chanted the refrain in lower key. There was no pause, the lines overlapping each other with curious effectiveness. Though I print the songs in stanzaic form, the stanzas were not apparent in the singing (Gordon, p. 17). This song, like Mann's first, shares the non-stanzaic construction noted by Gordon for rowing songs. The contrast between strophic construction found in European folksong and the litany form found in Africa supports Gordon's argument that these songs in Mann's repertoire represent an early stage in the progress from African to Afro-American folksong traditions. Gordon collected several other rowing songs from Mann; he also collected another version of "Finger Ring" from a Darien informant (A285, GA75). Mann's statement at the end refers to Mrs. (Roberta Paul) Gordon, whom Mann had known since childhood. FINGER RING [MP3
file] I lost mama's finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring, I know how, I know how to row the boat, I can row, I can row the Bumble Bee, I know how to row the Bee, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee. I lost mama, I lost mama finger ring, Spoken: |
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