America, Commerce, and Freedom

DESCRIPTION: "How blest the life a sailor leads From clime to clime still ranging." They laugh at the gale and "toss off a glass to some favorite lass, To America, Commerce, and Freedom." They drink and enjoy likfe, but also have a duty "To relieve the distress'd"
AUTHOR: Music: Alexander Reinagle (1756-1809) (source: Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads site); the site seems to attribute the words to Susanna Rowson (1762-1824)
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (The Sailor's Landlady)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrighamYoungSongster, p. 36, "America, Commerce, and Freedom" (1 text)
Roud #31432
NOTES [53 words]: Susanna Rowson was also the author of 'Truxton's Victory," and was a popular writer -- probably America's first successful female author. She seems to have inspired at least three biographies and several studies of her works. Several of her works are still in print from the scan-cheaply-and-print-poorly presses. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: BrYS036

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