Way Down on the Alabam (Lorena II)

DESCRIPTION: "They took away my pretty girl / And brought me back a darky." "Listen to my wailing plea / Way down in Alabama / Bring me back my pretty girl / And take away this darky."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, Mrs. Phoebe McCormick)
KEYWORDS: grief love request separation slavery lament nonballad lover slave Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
Roud #4346
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Phoebe McCormick, "Way Down on the Alabam" (in BayardCollection, video 21 ("Mrs. Phoebe McCormick" starting at 00.00))
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Weevily Wheat" (tune)
NOTES [78 words]: The woman in this song is typically called "Lorena" -- which is an historical impossibility. The name "Lorena" literally did not exist until the song of that name was written by Webster and Webster in 1857. Even if a baby had been christened "Lorena" on the day the song first came out, the child would have been only eight years old when emancipation came -- patently too young to have been the heroine of this song. So when was this song written? I have no answer - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: RcWaDotA

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