My Skiff Is By the Shore

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gwan, I'm gwan to see my lubly Dinah, Dawn among de swamps in old Carolina." They will be happy together. "My skiff is by the shore... And as we paddle on, our song shall be, My dearest Dinah, I love but thee." They will be happy together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (sheet music from the Campbell's Melodies collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NegroMelodiesNo5-OldZipCoon, pp. 17-18, "My Skiff Is by the Shore" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #359, p. 24, "My Skiff is by the Shore" (2 references, filed under another song, "Come. Oh! Come with Me")
Roud #13803
NOTES [83 words]: The 1848 sheet music for this proclaims that it was sung by the Ethiopian Serenaders. The Library of Congress site says that Frank Spencer was the composer, but his name is not on the sheet music anywhere that I can see; in any case, he might have been the arranger of the piano accompaniment rather than the actual author of the tune.
There is another nineteenth century song entitled "My Skiff Is by the Shore," but it's pretty clearly an art song although it might well be related to this. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: ZOZC017

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