"Follow the Drinking Gourd"
Cited from: (Davis, 1996, p. 100)
The riverbank will make a very good road
The dead trees show you the way
Left foot, peg foot, traveling on
Follow the drinking gourd
Chorus
Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a-waiting for to take you to freedom
If you follow the drinking gourd
The river ends between two hills
Follow the drinking gourd
There's another river on the other side
Follow the drinking gourd
Chorus
Where the great big river meets the little river
Follow the drinking gourd
The old man is a-waiting for to take you to freedom
If you follow the drinking gourd.
Chorus
"Frederick Douglas chose The North Star as a symbol of black freedom. This
traditional song was sung by slaves and provided a sort of road map to freedom"
(Davis, 1996, p. 100).
"Dixie" (1859)
Composed in New York by Daniel Decatur Emmett
Cited from: (Davis, 1996, p. 158)
I wish I was in de land ob cotton,
Ole times dar am not forgotten;
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land whar I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin',
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
Chorus
Den I wish I was in Dixie! Hooray! Hooray!
In Dixie Land, I'll take my stand,
To lib and die in Dixie.
Away, away, away down south in Dixie
Away, away, away down south in Dixie.
This song, a favorite of both the Union and Confederacy, was played at the inauguaration of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. There are two conflicting sources of origin for the song. One states that it is an abbreviation of the Mason and Dixon Line, which symbolized the border between free and slave states. The other relates to the French word dix which means ten. In Louisiana, where French is spoken too, the word dix was printed on the back of ten-dollar notes. "In time New Orleans and much of the South were called "the Land of Dixie" (Davis, 1996, p. 159), which inspired this song.
"The Battle Cry of Freedom"
By George Root
Cited from: (Davis, 1996, p. 178)
Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!
We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain, Shouting the battle cry of
Freedom.
Chorus
The Union, forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the star;
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again.
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave.
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
This song was written in response to President Lincoln's call for volunteers.
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
By Julia Ward Howe
First Appeared in: The Atlantic Monthly
February 1862
Cited from: (Davis, 1996, p. 212-213)
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath
are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift
sword;
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling
camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and
damps;
I have read his righteous sentence in the dim and flaring
lamps;
His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel;
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall
deal";
Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpant with his
heel,
Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call re-
treat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea.
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Julia Ward Howe used the book of Isaiah in writing the five verses to this song. The song became the unofficial anthem of the Union soon after it was sung to an audience that included President Lincoln by Army Chaplain Charles Caldwell McCabe, following the battle at Gettysburg in 1863.