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WORK-SONGS |
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Judge Boyd says that about sunset the Negroes on the plantation, before the war, would sing as follows:
Oh, Miss Liza, oh, mah darlin'! —hoo ah hoo! Gwine away to leave you — hoo ah hoo! Gwine away to-morrow — hoo ah hoo! Ain't you mighty sorry? — hoo ah hoo!
Oh, Miss Liza, oh, mah honey! —hoo ah hoo! Comin' back to see you — hoo ah hoo! Won't you be mah honey? — hoo ah hoo! Gives you all mah money — hoo ah hoo!
Oh, Miss Liza, oh, mah lovie! — hoo ah hoo! Don't you know ah lub you? — hoo ah hoo! Come to me, mah baby! — hoo ah hoo! Don't you want to marry? — hoo ah hoo!
Freedom as well as slavery has its perplexities and complications, and work has not become rosy for the Negro now, simply because he is paid wages instead of clothes and keep. He works for somebody else much as he did in earlier times, if his folk-songs are to be believed. Howard Odum gives a song in the Journal of American Folklore, illustrating this aspect of the Negro's life.
Ain't It Hard to Be a Nigger?
Well, it makes no difference
How you make out yo' time,
White man sho' bring a Nigger out behin'.
Chorus
Ain't it hard, ain't it hard,
Ain't it hard to be a Nigger, Nigger, Nigger?
Ain't it hard, ain't it hard?
For you can't git yo' money when it's due.
Nigger an' white man
Playin' seven-up, Nigger win de money,
Skeered to pick 'em up.
If a Nigger git 'rested
An' can't pay his fine, Dey sho' send him out
To de county gang. |
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