Poor Rosy

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Rosy, poor gal, Rosy broke my poor heart, Heaven shall be my home. Before I stay in Hell one day, Heaven shall be my home." The singer has "hard troubles," and "trials"; (he bids farewell to Brother Robert and Sister Lucy and turns to Heaven)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (J. McKim)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 7, "Poor Rosy" (1 text, 1 tune plus a variant form)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 199-201, "Poor Rosy" (1 text, probably retouched, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. McKim, "Negro Songs" in _Dwight's Journal of Music_, Vol. 21, No. 19 (Whole No. 540), pp. 148-149, "Poor Rosy, Poor Gal" (1 text)
Roud #11856
NOTES [169 words]: J. McKim's 1862 letter from Port Royal, writing about the songs he heard from the ex-slaves: There was one which on shore we heard more than any other, and which was irresistibly touching. It was a sort of ballad, known as 'Poor Rosy, Poor Gal.'" Like all the other work songs McKim heard there, used in rowing or grinding at the mill, its theme was religious.
In a later letter Lucy McKim explained how that adaptation worked. "As the same songs are sung at every sort of work, of course the tempo is not always alike. On the water, the oars dip 'Poor Rosy' to an even andante; a stout boy and girl at the hominy-mill will make the same 'Poor Rosy' fly, to keep up with the whirling stone; and in the evening, after the day's work is done, 'Heab'n shall-a be my home' peals up slowly and mournfully from the distant quarters." (Lucy McKim, "Songs of the Port Royal 'Contrabands'" in Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. 22, No. 6 (Whole No. 553), (Boston, Nov. 8, 1862 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 255) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA199

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