{"id":7308,"date":"2022-12-13T19:39:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T01:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=7308"},"modified":"2022-12-13T19:44:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T01:44:43","slug":"francis-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2022\/12\/13\/francis-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"What Survives of Francis Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francis \u201cFrank\u201d Johnson was a distinctive figure in U.S. music history, not only because of his many achievements and musical innovations, but also in his unique sociocultural position in the antebellum world. His accomplishments were fascinating, including being the first U.S. musician to tour Europe and to lead an interracial musical performance, alongside a multitude of compositional innovations\u2014some of which are believed to have inspired other composers of and since his time.1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Johnson\u2019s concurrent involvement in white, upper-class spaces and various Black churches\u2014as well as records exhibiting pro-Black ideals\u2014suggest a rather dichotomous placement and standing in society and politics. While Johnson mostly avoided minstrel songs\/shows\u2014with the exception of “Miss Lucy Long” and \u201cSam of Tennessee and Dandy Jim of Caroline\u201d\u2014he primarily composed and performed patriotic band music and within European classical genres.2,<\/sup><\/a>3<\/sup><\/a> Albeit, secondary source note that Johnson only performed “Miss Lucy Long” in England to appease the British upper-class, and “refused to cater to racism” by never performing the piece for Philadelphia.4<\/sup><\/a> Even though Philadelphia was a rather progressive city with an Abolitionist society compared to the rest of the country at the time, incidents of hate, mockery, and racism were still present.5<\/sup><\/a> It almost seemed as if he was living a double life, hidden between the pages of long-forgotten history periodicals\u2014and I became deeply invested in trying to uncover whatever meager clues I could manage to find.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Johnson, Francis. \u201cRecognition March of the Independence of Hayti\u202f: For the Piano Forte & Flute.\u201d Philadelphia: G. Willig, 1826. Colenda Digital Repository.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Kramer, Hayden James. \u201cSix Works by Francis Johnson (1792\u20131844): A Snapshot of Early American Social Life.\u201d ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2022. 143-148.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I was particularly drawn to his pieces \u201cRecognition March of the Independence of Hayti\u201d and \u201cThe Grave of a Slave” (pictured above), and what they could reveal about Johnson’s complicated relationship with white audiences and society. The lyrics of Johnson’s “The Grave of a Slave” were set to an abolitionist poem by Sarah Louisa Forten, openly admonished slavery and slave-owners in the text, and was formally published in Philadelphia. His \u201cRecognition March of the Independence of Hayti\u201d was arranged for piano and flute, but still carried similar abolitionist indications and was dedicated to one of the leader’s of the Haitian Revolution, President Jean-Pierre Boyer. Upon visiting his house, one of Johnson’s violin students also recorded that Johnson had President Boyer’s portrait hung over his mantle.6<\/sup><\/a> Considering the many sociopolitical factors that could have negatively impacted the survival and coverage of such documents, these bits of Johnson’s worldview stand out to me as compelling possible evidence for his progressive beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Charon, Louis Francois. \u201cBroadside\u202f: Jean Pierre Boyer, President de La Republique d\u2019Haiti.\u201d Between the Covers.<\/p><\/div>\n

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1 Karpf, Juanita. “Populism with Religious Restraint: William B. Bradbury’s Esther, the Beautiful Queen.”\u00a0Popular Music and Society<\/i>\u00a023, no. 1 (Spring, 1999): 1-29. https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/scholarly-journals\/populism-with-religious-restraint-william-b\/docview\/208074036\/se-2.<\/a><\/p>\n

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2 Johnson, Francis,\u00a0The Favourite Extravaganza Miss Lucy Long.<\/i>Philadelphia (171 Chesnut St.): G. Willig, 1842. https:\/\/colenda.library.upenn.edu\/catalog\/81431-p3dr2ph7f<\/a><\/p>\n

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3 Paul, Henry H., J. R Myers, Silas Sexton Steele, and Francis Johnson.\u00a0Sam of Tennessee and Dandy Jim of Caroline.<\/i> Philadelphia (112 S. 3d St.): Osbourn’s Music Saloon, 1844.\u00a0 https:\/\/colenda.library.upenn.edu\/catalog\/81431-p33776484 *Content Warning: Racist and Explicit Language*<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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4 Newmann, Richard S. <\/span>Philadelphia Stories: People and Their Places in Early America<\/span><\/i>. ed. Hessinger, Rodney, Richter, Daniel K. United States: University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated, 2021.<\/span> 237.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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5 <\/a>Newmann, Richard S. <\/span>Philadelphia Stories: People and Their Places in Early America<\/span><\/i>. ed. Hessinger, Rodney, Richter, Daniel K. United States: University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated, 2021.<\/span> 227.<\/span><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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6 Philip English Mackey, <\/span>A Gentleman Of Much Promise: The Diary of Isaac Mickle 1837-1845<\/span><\/i>, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977), 195\u201398.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Francis \u201cFrank\u201d Johnson was a distinctive figure in U.S. music history, not only because of his many achievements and musical innovations, but also in his unique sociocultural position in the antebellum world. His accomplishments were fascinating, including being the first … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4585,"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":[],"class_list":["post-7308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-1TS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308","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\/4585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7308"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7331,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions\/7331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}