Five Fingers In the Boll

DESCRIPTION: A recurring line is "Won't get my hundred [pounds] all day." "Way down in the bottom the cotton boll's rotten," "before I get beaten or cheated I'll leave five fingers in the boll," "black man beat me -- white man cheat me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 60, pp. 247-248, "Five Fingers In the Boll" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish writes that "'fingers' are the compartments [at the bottom of a cotton boll] holding the white fiber. The song has reference to the [cotton] variety that contains five in a boll...." - BS"
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr060

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography