There Comes a Reckoning Day

DESCRIPTION: "I had a dream the other night when every thing was still; I dreamt I saw the lab'ring men all going down the hill." They are ragged, poor, and overworked; they will have a "reckoning day" -- and then will do their work for a proper reward
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Vincent, Alliance and Labor Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes derivative clothes money | greenbacks currency exchange rates inflation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 480-481, "There Comes a Reckoning Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 271, "There Comes a Reckoning Day" (1 text)
Roud #V57013
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune) and references there
NOTES [154 words]: The song says "You bought with greenbacks, now ask for gold." This seems to hint at a date earlier than 1891. Greenbacks -- unbacked currency -- were first issued by the Federal Government in the Civil War, and at times were quite heavily discounted against gold (at one point in 1864, a greenback was worth less than half of a gold dollar, according to the site u-s-history.com). After the war, they continued in circulation, but no new ones were issued. They were not as badly discounted after the war, but gold was still regarded as the "real" currency. The complaint about paying out greenbacks but requiring payment in gold is thus very real -- this was charging a substantial premium. And farmers needed an inflationary environment -- they liked greenbacks. The demand for gold was very hard on them. For background, see "Free Silver"; also "Marching for Freedom," which comes from the same movement as this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC480

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