Slavery Days

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls slavery in Virginia: "they took away my boy"; they sold his wife; at night the wind seemed to say "you people must be free"; "our souls they were tied down"; "they'll never come again... cruel slavery days"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music published by William A. Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: grief separation slavery children wife Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #8, pp. 29-31, "Slavery Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 9, "Slavery Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 106-107, "Slavery Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 104 Songs No. 24 (New York, 1889 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 21, "The Unfortunate Lovers" (1 text)
Roud #12897
NOTES [248 words]: For background on composers Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
According to Franceschina, p. 85, this song is from a Harrigan and Hart sketch of the same name, which debuted in March 1875; Franceschina refers to the tune as "Stephen-Foster-like," but the text obviously has a lot more "Darling Nelly Gray" in it. As Spaeth, p. 185, says, "A great Harrigan-Braham song of 1876 was Slavery Days, in which an old Negro told his young companion of past horrors." The sketch was later upgraded into a full-scale drama, "Pete" (Franceschina, p. 184).
"In Pete, Harrigan returned to the melodramatic entanglements of his early plays. Colonel Coolidge has inadvertently married twice. His first wife has given him a child unbeknownst to him. His second wife is after his fortune. He's called up to join his regiment, is killed, and when the second wife tries to claim the plantation, she's foiled by his child Mary Morgan with the assistance of Old Pete [who is black]. The telltale document is the original wedding license. The witnesses' names have been shot away, but Pete has retrieved the wad from the bullet, with the names! It took three hours and ten minutes to ravel and unravel the story, explore related sub-plots, exhibit both threatening and entertaining spectacles, and introduce slavery songs and spirituals" (Moody, p. 176). According to Moody, p. 173, it was a "new kind of play."
For more on "Pete," see the notes to "Haul the Woodpile Down." - RBW
Bibliography

Franceschina: John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003
Moody: Richard Moody, Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square, Nelson Hall, 1980
Spaeth: Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948

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