Cindy (II) (Old Jude)

DESCRIPTION: Cantefable; "Railroad, a plank road, river and canoe/If it hadn't have been for Dr. Grey they wouldn't have killed old Jude." Old Jude was Dr. Grey's pregnant slave; Grey beat her to make her name the father, a white Gentleman; she died from the beating
AUTHOR: unknown (possibly Dan Tate)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1979 (collected from Dan Tate by Mike Yates)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Cantefable; "Railroad, a plank road, river and canoe/If it hadn't have been for Doctor Grey they wouldn't have killed old Jude." In a spoken explanation, singer says Old Jude was Doctor Grey's slave; she was pregnant, and Doctor Grey beat her to get her to name the father; in the end she died from the beating. The singer says that Jude said the father was "a white man and a gentleman" and adds, "That's the way that slaves were treated by people in this country." Chorus is a standard chorus from "Cindy (I)."
KEYWORDS: accusation violence abuse crime homicide death pregnancy slavery father slave Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Dan Tate, "Cindy" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)" (tune, chorus)
cf. "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Brown Jug (Bounce Around)" (lyrics)
NOTES [17 words]: This is one of the very few acknowledgments in White traditional music of the horrors of slavery. -PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcC2OlJ

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