{"id":5415,"date":"2021-10-04T18:59:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T23:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=5415"},"modified":"2021-10-04T19:00:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T00:00:30","slug":"folk-music-born-not-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/10\/04\/folk-music-born-not-made\/","title":{"rendered":"Folk Music, “Born not Made”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The spiritual, \u201cOh, Freedom\u201d, popularized during the civil war, is American folk music at its core. In his book, <\/span>Afro-American Folksongs<\/span><\/i>, Musicologist Henry Krehbiel cites W. E. B. Du Bois when mentioning this song and its influences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe song \u2018Oh, Freedom over Me,\u2019 which Dr. Burghardt du Bois quotes in his \u2018The Souls of Black Folk\u2019 as an expression of longing for deliverance from slavery encouraged by fugitive slaves and the agitation of free [black] leaders before the War of the Rebellion, challenges no interest for its musical contents, since it is a compound of two white men\u2019s tunes- \u2018Lily Dale,\u2019 a sentimental ditty, and \u2018The Battle-Cry of Freedom,\u2019 a patriotic song\u2026\u201d<\/span> 1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Here are recordings of the two \u201cwhite men\u2019s tunes\u201d Du Bois mentions, \u201cLily Dale\u201d and \u201cThe Battle-Cry of Freedom\u201d as well as \u201cOh Freedom\u201d-<\/span><\/p>\n

Lily Dale (1910)<\/a><\/p>\n

The Battle-Cry of Freedom (1907)<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, Freedom (1957)<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, Freedom (1965)<\/a><\/p>\n

A casual listener can hear the melodic similarities, especially between the choruses of \u201cLily Dale\u201d and \u201cOh, Freedom\u201d. Lyrical ideas are also shared between \u201cBattle-Cry of Freedom\u201d and \u201cOh, Freedom\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Freedom\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

O Freedom, O Freedom,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

O Freedom over me!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Before I\u2019ll be a slave.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be buried in my grave,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

And go home to my Lord,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

And be free!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cBattle-Cry of Freedom\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We will welcome to our numbers<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The loyal, true and brave,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

And although they may be poor,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Not a man shall be a slave,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.<\/span><\/i>2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, is \u201cOh, Freedom\u201d an appropriated song? Sure, but at the end of the day, isn\u2019t everything?<\/span><\/p>\n

Enslaved black people took the white man’s songs and reappropriated them. \u201cBattle-Cry of Freedom\u201d was a song that swept over the north and united the union after Lincoln\u2019s call for 300,000 volunteers for the union army. The enslaved took this power the song created and used it for their own gain in this emancipation song.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The many influences of \u201cOh, Freedom\u201d from existing songs, as well as the lived experiences of the enslaved, highlights that at its core, it is a folk song.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1<\/a>Henry Krehbiel, Afro-American Folksongs\u00a0<\/em>(New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1962), 17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/a> “Civil War Music: The Battle Cry of Freedom.” American Battlefield Trust. The History Channel. Accessed October 4, 2021, https:\/\/www.battlefields.org\/learn\/primary-sources\/civil-war-music-battle-cry-freedom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The spiritual, \u201cOh, Freedom\u201d, popularized during the civil war, is American folk music at its core. In his book, Afro-American Folksongs, Musicologist Henry Krehbiel cites W. E. B. Du Bois when mentioning this song and its influences.\u00a0 \u201cThe song \u2018Oh, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3525,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[581,470,102,154,127],"class_list":["post-5415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-african-american","tag-american-folk-music","tag-folk-music","tag-slave-songs","tag-spirituals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-1pl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3525"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5415"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5419,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415\/revisions\/5419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}