/
Imported Event 1
Annotations
00:00:00 - 00:00:11
Zora Neale Hurston
In the jook houses and doing any kind of work at all, chopping wood and in the lumber camps and everywhere you find this song. No where you can't find parts of this song, 'Mule on the Mount'.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:00:11 - 00:00:15
Herbert Halpert
Well, is it known, is it a consistent song as you hear it all over?
Herbert Halpert
00:00:16 - 00:00:24
Zora Neale Hurston
The tune is consistent but the verses, you know how things, in every locality you can find some new verses, everywhere.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:00:23 - 00:00:23
Herbert Halpert
I mean does it have the same choral verses? Does it have 'Mule on the Mount' wherever you hear it?
Herbert Halpert
00:00:27 - 00:00:33
Zora Neale Hurston
Well, there's some place that I haven't heard that same verse 'Mule on the Mount' but there's no place that I don't hear some of the same verses.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:00:34 - 00:00:38
Herbert Halpert
Where did you learn it this particular way?
Herbert Halpert
00:00:38 - 00:00:43
Zora Neale Hurston
Well, I heard the first verses, I got it in my native village of Eatonville, Florida from George Thomas.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:00:45 - 00:00:47
Herbert Halpert
And this is one version you're going to sing?
Herbert Halpert
00:00:47 - 00:00:52
Zora Neale Hurston
I'm going to sing, oh I guess, all the tune is the same. I'm going to sing verses from a whole lots of places.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:00:52 - 00:00:53
Herbert Halpert
Alright.
Herbert Halpert
00:00:56 - 00:03:38
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Mule on the Mount'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:03:38 - 00:03:46
Herbert Halpert
When you hear that sung, or nearly sung, about how many verses does a man know? He doesn't know as many as you do.
Herbert Halpert
00:03:46 - 00:03:49
Zora Neale Hurston
Yes, sometimes they sing 30 and 40 verses.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:03:49 - 00:03:50
Herbert Halpert
Is one of these continuous?
Herbert Halpert
00:03:50 - 00:03:55
Zora Neale Hurston
It's one of these things that's grown by incremental repetition until perhaps it's the longest song in America.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:03:56 - 00:03:56
Herbert Halpert
[inaudible]
Herbert Halpert
00:03:58 - 00:03:58
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston laughs [distortion]
Zora Neale Hurston
00:04:02 - 00:04:02
Library of Congress
3137 A1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:04:07 - 00:04:08
Herbert Halpert
What's your name, please?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:08 - 00:04:09
Beatrice Lange
Beatrice Lange.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:10 - 00:04:11
Herbert Halpert
Where do you come from?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:12 - 00:04:14
Beatrice Lange
I came from South Georgia.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:15 - 00:04:16
Herbert Halpert
Where? What part of South Georgia?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:16 - 00:04:17
Beatrice Lange
Woodbine.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:17 - 00:04:18
Herbert Halpert
And how old are you?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:19 - 00:04:19
Beatrice Lange
35
Beatrice Lange
00:04:20 - 00:04:22
Herbert Halpert
And what are you going to tell us or?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:22 - 00:04:26
Beatrice Lange
Well, I'm going to tell some folk stories that my brother-in-law told me.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:27 - 00:04:28
Herbert Halpert
How long ago?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:28 - 00:04:30
Beatrice Lange
About a year ago.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:30 - 00:04:31
Herbert Halpert
A short, a short while back.
Herbert Halpert
00:04:31 - 00:04:34
Beatrice Lange
Well, it happened longer than that but he told me about a year ago.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:34 - 00:04:37
Herbert Halpert
I mean, how did it, it happened long ago . . . what do you mean by that?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:37 - 00:04:40
Beatrice Lange
I mean that the story happened longer than that.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:40 - 00:04:42
Herbert Halpert
Well, how did it go? I mean how did it --
Herbert Halpert
00:04:42 - 00:04:46
Beatrice Lange
Well, this old negro of his told him about it. The negro belonged to his father.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:47 - 00:04:47
Herbert Halpert
Uh-huh
Herbert Halpert
00:04:47 - 00:04:49
Beatrice Lange
Who had a rice plantation.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:50 - 00:04:53
Herbert Halpert
The negro told it to him when? I mean did he ever tell you that?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:53 - 00:04:56
Beatrice Lange
About six months to a year ago.
Beatrice Lange
00:04:56 - 00:04:58
Herbert Halpert
I mean the negro had just told him the story?
Herbert Halpert
00:04:58 - 00:05:00
Beatrice Lange
Yes, while he was working with him.
Beatrice Lange
00:05:00 - 00:05:06
Herbert Halpert
I see. And you don't have any name for it? Is that right?
Herbert Halpert
00:05:07 - 00:05:10
Beatrice Lange
Well, uh, it's a storm story, a hurricane story.
Beatrice Lange
00:05:11 - 00:05:12
Herbert Halpert
Just, okay, [laughing] go ahead .
Herbert Halpert
00:05:12 - 00:05:15
Beatrice Lange
I have several stories though. This is just one.
Beatrice Lange
00:05:15 - 00:05:18
Herbert Halpert
Well, let's start off with just one. That's the easiest way.
Herbert Halpert
00:05:18 - 00:05:19
Beatrice Lange
Alright, sir.
Beatrice Lange
00:05:19 - 00:05:22
Herbert Halpert
Alright. Well, can you tell it or are you going to tell it or read it?
Herbert Halpert
00:05:22 - 00:05:23
Beatrice Lange
Well I can kind of glance at it.
Beatrice Lange
00:05:24 - 00:05:25
Herbert Halpert
Alright. Go ahead.
Herbert Halpert
00:05:26 - 00:05:33
Beatrice Lange
Uh, this story happened during the fall of 1898 upon a small island off of the coast of Georgia
Beatrice Lange
00:05:34 - 00:05:43
Beatrice Lange
Where the sea level was very low. Came a hurricane which covered the whole island in several feet of water and most of the natives had to swim around in their homes.
Beatrice Lange
00:05:43 - 00:05:50
Beatrice Lange
One particular instance which calls to mind is that of an old negrum owned by one of the early rice planters.
Beatrice Lange
00:05:51 - 00:06:02
Beatrice Lange
He tells: Yes sir, we were swimming around in that water trying to find a shallow place when we seen some of them pretty long neck bottles floating around. Look like them water in 'em.
Beatrice Lange
00:06:02 - 00:06:16
Beatrice Lange
So we drink some and before long we was glad to have some been come because it sure made us feel good. Sure wish I could have some of that stuff now. Boss, I believe that been shampoo.
Beatrice Lange
00:06:17 - 00:06:22
Beatrice Lange
Further on the flooded plantation, the boss paddled his canoe up to the loft of the barn.
Beatrice Lange
00:06:22 - 00:06:41
Beatrice Lange
There sat another of his n-- with a big stick in his hand as if he was going to strike something. Even that the hole in the side of the barn where the [inaudible] was stored had looked as if a board had been torn off. He glanced over in the corner and there'n a pile of dead coons which looked like a hundred or so.
Beatrice Lange
00:06:41 - 00:07:13
Beatrice Lange
As the boss approached, he said, 'By grade, Tom, what have you been doing here?' He replied in a dramatic voice, 'Boss, I's just been praying all the time, how's that good for the ole master to come take this water back where it belong so we's could get back to work. Boss, I've been a praying every chance that I'm got to liberation.' 'Well, from the looks of the coons you killed, you didn't have time to pray much, Tom'. 'Mass Donald, I wouldn't have killed 'em but they kept barring me from praying all the time.'
Beatrice Lange
00:07:13 - 00:07:26
Beatrice Lange
Another story I told of an old native of Georgia came to Florida in the nineties to seek adventure. This old cracker who really lived in the backwoods had a name of being the biggest liar in the country.
Beatrice Lange
00:07:26 - 00:07:32
Herbert Halpert
Now look, suppose you don't read it from there and you just tell me it as a story. Go ahead. You can do it.
Herbert Halpert
00:07:31 - 00:07:32
Beatrice Lange
Just let me glance at it.
Beatrice Lange
00:07:32 - 00:07:32
Herbert Halpert
Alright. Go ahead.
Herbert Halpert
00:07:32 - 00:07:33
Beatrice Lange
[Laughter]
Beatrice Lange
00:07:35 - 00:07:35
Herbert Halpert
Go ahead.
Herbert Halpert
00:07:36 - 00:07:47
Beatrice Lange
He said me and my son Israel, we went down to Floridy to pick oranges. Huh. They grow so big you can fill a water bucket full with four of 'em.
Beatrice Lange
00:07:48 - 00:08:04
Beatrice Lange
The alligators, they were so tame, and I bet we had about a hundred and fifty, every day we went down to the palmetto patch and whistled and they would come running under the palmetto patch at me and crawl up on my shoulders and talk to me.
Beatrice Lange
00:08:06 - 00:08:16
Beatrice Lange
Why down there we cut down the palmetto trees to make fence posts and they is the best you ever seen. They would last a hundred years. I know because I tried them twice.
Beatrice Lange
00:08:21 - 00:08:25
Library of Congress
3137 B1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:08:25 - 00:10:25
Zora Neale Hurston
Surely, but I have to give all that other data. My name is Zora Neale Hurston and I'm going to sing a gambling song that I collected at Boston Florida. Turpentine is still there. And the men are playing a game called Georgia Skin. That's the most favorite gambling scheme among the workers of the South. And they lose money on the drop of a card, the fall of a card. And there's a rhythm to the fall of the card and after they get set with the two principles and the other people are called pikers and anybody that wants a special card, he pick it out and they call that, uh, picking one in the rough.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:09:10 - 00:09:16
Herbert Halpert
I think it's better if you explain just how the cards, which way the cards get out or how people are standing there before you go on.
Herbert Halpert
00:09:17 - 00:09:17
Zora Neale Hurston
Well, you see, they take a deck of cards and they shuffle it real good and watch the man to be sure he don't steal nothing. That is, that he don't set a cub. There are four cards of every kind in the deck. And when the card like the card you have selected falls, you lose. Sometimes if you don't watch the dealer he'll put three cards just like his own down at the bottom of the deck so that everybody falls before he does and then he wins all the money.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:09:41 - 00:09:41
Herbert Halpert
Well, what does he do? Is the dealer holding the deck of cards?
Herbert Halpert
00:09:44 - 00:09:44
Zora Neale Hurston
And he puts it on the table. They don't allow him to hold it because they're afraid he'll steal.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:09:48 - 00:09:48
Herbert Halpert
Alright.
Herbert Halpert
00:09:48 - 00:09:48
Zora Neale Hurston
So they, he puts it on the table and he turns over a card.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:09:52 - 00:09:52
Herbert Halpert
He just turns over . . .
Herbert Halpert
00:09:53 - 00:09:53
Zora Neale Hurston
Card by card and if the card is just like yours, when it falls, you lose. And, uh, so they holler when he gets all set, when the principles has got their cards and the pikers has got theirs and then the man will say he wants them to put the bets down and he'll say 'Put the money on the wood, and make the bet go good and then again, put it insight and save a fight' and so they all get the bets down and then he start and they'll holler, 'Let the deal go down, boys, let the deal go down'. And someone will start singing.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:10:25 - 00:12:49
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Let the Deal Go Down'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:12:55 - 00:12:57
Library of Congress
3138 A1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:12:58 - 00:13:39
Zora Neale Hurston
Uncle Bud is not a work song. It's a sort of social song for amusement and it's so widely distributed, it's growing all the time by incremental repetition, and it is known all over the South. No matter where you go you can find verses of Uncle Bud. And, uh, it's a favorite song. And the men get to working in every kind of work and they just yell down on Uncle Bud and nobody particular leads it. Everybody puts in his verse when he gets ready and Uncle Bud goes and goes and goes.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:13:28 - 00:13:33
Herbert Halpert
What, is it sung before the respectable ladies?
Herbert Halpert
00:13:33 - 00:13:39
Zora Neale Hurston
Never! It's one of those jook songs and the woman that they sing Uncle Bud in front of is a jook woman.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:13:41 - 00:13:43
Herbert Halpert
I thought you heard it from women?
Herbert Halpert
00:13:43 - 00:13:45
Zora Neale Hurston
Yes, I heard it from women [laughs].
Zora Neale Hurston
00:13:45 - 00:13:46
Herbert Halpert
Go ahead.
Herbert Halpert
00:13:46 - 00:15:53
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Uncle Bud'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:15:54 - 00:15:56
Herbert Halpert
Is there more to it?
Herbert Halpert
00:15:58 - 00:16:01
Zora Neale Hurston
I know I know some more verses but right off I don't recall.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:16:05 - 00:16:07
Herbert Halpert
I think that's a very valuable contribution to scientific recording.
Herbert Halpert
00:16:12 - 00:16:12
Herbert Halpert
Alright.
Herbert Halpert
00:16:12 - 00:16:23
Zora Neale Hurston
Oh the Buford Boat Done Come' is a song from the Geechee country in South Carolina but I heard it down in Florida from a Geechee that moved down in Florida. I forget her name right now.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:16:23 - 00:16:23
Herbert Halpert
Well, what type of song is it?
Herbert Halpert
00:16:24 - 00:16:24
Zora Neale Hurston
It's a little dance song with a Charleston rhythm.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:16:29 - 00:17:16
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Oh the Buford Boat Done Come'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:16:58 - 00:17:02
Herbert Halpert
How do they play it? Would you tell us very quickly?
Herbert Halpert
00:17:02 - 00:17:06
Zora Neale Hurston
Uh, it's just a dance song and then they dance a Charleston rhythm on it.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:17:06 - 00:17:08
Herbert Halpert
Was it, is it solo dancing?
Herbert Halpert
00:17:08 - 00:17:09
Zora Neale Hurston
No, group dancing.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:17:09 - 00:17:11
Herbert Halpert
Well, what kind of group is it?
Herbert Halpert
00:17:11 - 00:17:14
Zora Neale Hurston
Oh, just any group, any working group, and they'll clap their hands on it and sing.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:17:20 - 00:17:22
Library of Congress
3138 B1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:17:23 - 00:17:29
Zora Neale Hurston
I'm a sing a blues, 'Cuz Ever Been Down', and I got it at Palm Beach from a fellow named from Johnny Bardon.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:17:30 - 00:17:32
Herbert Halpert
Where did you get it
Herbert Halpert
00:17:33 - 00:17:35
Zora Neale Hurston
I got it in 1933.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:17:36 - 00:17:41
Herbert Halpert
Can you tell me, do you know how old a Blues it is? And how you happened to learn it?
Herbert Halpert
00:17:41 - 00:17:54
Zora Neale Hurston
Well, it's one of those things just go around all the jooks and what not like that and it goes by incremental repetition, a verse here and a verse there. I don't suppose anybody knows how old it is and when it started.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:17:57 - 00:19:48
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Cuz Ever Been Down'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:19:49 - 00:19:54
Zora Neale Hurston
I heard 'Halimuhfack' down on the East Coast.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:19:55 - 00:19:56
Herbert Halpert
Who did you hear it from and when?
Herbert Halpert
00:19:57 - 00:19:57
Zora Neale Hurston
I don't remember. I was in a big crowd and I learned it in the evening during the crowd. And I'm just, don't can't exactly remember who I, who did teach it to me but I learned it from the crowd most exactly more from one.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:20:10 - 00:21:09
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Halimuhfack'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:21:12 - 00:21:15
Herbert Halpert
You said you learned it in a crowd. How do you learn most of your songs?
Herbert Halpert
00:21:16 - 00:21:43
Zora Neale Hurston
I learn them. I just get in the crowd with the people if they singing and I listen as best I can and I start to joining in with a phrase or two and then finally I get so I can sing a verse and then I keep on until I learn all the songs, all the verses, and then I sing them back to the people until they tell me that I can sing them just like them and then I take part and I try it out on different people who already know the song until they are quite satisfied that I know it and then I carry it in my memory.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:21:43 - 00:21:47
Herbert Halpert
Well how about those that you have in your books and publish in the journals?
Herbert Halpert
00:21:47 - 00:21:53
Zora Neale Hurston
Well, that's the same way I got them. I learn the song myself and then I can take it with me wherever I go because I -- [cut off]
Zora Neale Hurston
00:21:56 - 00:22:00
Library of Congress
3139 A1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:22:06 - 00:22:06
Zora Neale Hurston
This is a song, uh, called 'Tampa'. I've known it ever since I could remember so I don't know who taught it to me but I heard it sung in my native village when I was a child, not in front of the old folks, of course.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:22:19 - 00:23:06
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Tampa'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:23:08 - 00:23:10
Herbert Halpert
You say that was uh. . . when was that sung?
Herbert Halpert
00:23:11 - 00:23:11
Zora Neale Hurston
I've known it all my life. No, it was not confined to children. Everybody sung and danced on it. And you hear a Negro orchestra, a local orchestra, they often played it now, played the tune. They don't sing the words but the tune is one of their favorite dance tunes.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:23:26 - 00:23:26
Herbert Halpert
Alright.
Herbert Halpert
00:23:27 - 00:23:47
Zora Neale Hurston
This one. Some of them call it 'Po Boy' and some of them call it 'Po Gal' but it's a pretty well-distributed blues tune all over the South. The words are not rhymed. It's a typical Negro pattern. The same line repeated three times with a sort of flip line on the end and the change is in the tune rather than the words for the most part.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:23:48 - 00:23:50
Herbert Halpert
Where did you pick up the way you sing it?
Herbert Halpert
00:23:51 - 00:23:56
Zora Neale Hurston
I'm - no, not all my life but I kept learning verses as I've gone around.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:23:58 - 00:26:23
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Po Boy'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:26:25 - 00:26:28
Library of Congress
3139 B1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:26:33 - 00:26:34
Herbert Halpert
Just play it for me in ballad.
Herbert Halpert
00:26:35 - 00:27:01
Zora Neale Hurston
Mama Don't Want No Peas No Rice' is a song from Nassau in the Bahama islands. They are great song makers and their tunes are decidedly more African than the ones made by the negroes in America. They make songs so rapidly they say 'Anything you do we put you in sing'. And in a few hours they have a song about it. Mama don't want no peas no rice is about a woman who wanted to stay drunk all the time and her husband is really complaining about it. He's explaining to the neighbors what's the matter with his wife and why they don't get along better.
Zora Neale Hurston
00:27:03 - 00:28:48
Songs
Zora Neale Hurston sings 'Mama Don't Want No Peas No Rice'
Zora Neale Hurston
00:28:49 - 00:28:51
Library of Congress
3140a 1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:28:58 - 05:05:00
Evelyn Werner
Evelyn Werner, 32.
Evelyn Werner
00:30:38 - 00:30:44
Herbert Halpert
Dr. Corse would you please explain why we asked to have this record made?
Herbert Halpert
00:30:44 - 00:31:03
Carita Doggett Corse
This record was made for the purpose of recording the annunciation of an educated Southern white voice. And the story was one which was recorded by the Federal Writers as part of their work for the American guide series volume that's Florida.
Carita Doggett Corse
00:31:05 - 00:31:07
Unknown
Educated white woman.
Unknown
00:31:13 - 00:31:14
Herbert Halpert
Dr. Corse will you please introduce the speaker?
Herbert Halpert
00:31:15 - 00:31:30
Carita Doggett Corse
This is Mrs. Rolla Southworth, State Director of the Professional Service Projects of the WPA in Florida who will give us her opinion of the recording program of the folk songs in Florida.
Carita Doggett Corse
00:31:31 - 00:32:14
Rolla Southworth
Rolla Southworth: Well, Dr. Corse it would really seem that we have finally grown up as a nation when we can spend the day recording such folklore as we have heard today. And this is only the beginning and in only one city. Think of the endless material alone throughout Florida. Now although we are in the deep South, our state, with Mr. Call, has a very cosmopolitan group. As a matter of fact, the flags of five nations have flown over Florida. Isn't that a fact? And what a wealth of material that will indicate. Personally, my greatest interest is in the Negro Folklore and how justly proud we all are of Zora Hurston whose fine literary ability and wealth of experience has made our recordings possible today.
Rolla Southworth
00:32:14 - 00:32:15
Carita Doggett Corse
Thank you, Ms. Southworth.
Carita Doggett Corse
00:32:19 - 00:32:21
Library of Congress
3140 B1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:32:40 - 00:32:44
Herbert Halpert
And, uh, you are also a preacher, aren't you, sir? What congregation?
Herbert Halpert
00:32:47 - 00:32:54
Herbert Halpert
Now, uh, this isn't part of your usual, as a missionary Baptist, does your church approve of singing?
Herbert Halpert
00:32:56 - 00:33:00
Herbert Halpert
You're going to help us out with these, however?
Herbert Halpert
00:33:20 - 00:33:45
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:33:45 - 00:33:49
Herbert Halpert
Let me interrupt you here. Now that, that, what would you call that?
Herbert Halpert
00:34:11 - 00:34:16
Herbert Halpert
Suppose you give the effect of actually being out on the farm?
Herbert Halpert
00:34:17 - 00:34:56
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:35:02 - 00:35:02
Herbert Halpert
No, no there's another one without words.
Herbert Halpert
00:35:27 - 00:35:48
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:35:51 - 00:35:53
Herbert Halpert
Where would the two of them be?
Herbert Halpert
00:36:14 - 00:36:16
Herbert Halpert
Would they be near each other? Or? Or?
Herbert Halpert
00:36:19 - 00:36:23
Herbert Halpert
Would you do it again? Was it the same effect between a quarter mile [inaudible] do a quarter mile.
Herbert Halpert
00:36:25 - 00:36:25
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:36:50 - 00:36:53
Library of Congress
31,41, A1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:36:50 - 00:36:53
Library of Congress
3141 A1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:37:24 - 00:38:00
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:38:00 - 00:38:02
Herbert Halpert
Are there more verses to that?
Herbert Halpert
00:38:10 - 00:38:45
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:38:46 - 00:39:06
Herbert Halpert
Now, Those last directions, were they taught, is that what he called out for them to do?
Herbert Halpert
00:39:34 - 00:39:58
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:40:00 - 00:40:02
Herbert Halpert
Is that you as a kid? You learned it as a boy?
Herbert Halpert
00:40:11 - 00:40:33
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:40:40 - 00:40:40
Library of Congress
3141 B1, 2, and 3
Library of Congress
00:41:08 - 00:41:58
Songs
H. W. Stuckey sings
H. W. Stuckey
00:42:09 - 00:42:10
Irene Jackson
Irene Jackson
Irene Jackson
00:42:11 - 00:42:12
Herbert Halpert
How old are you?
Herbert Halpert
00:42:12 - 00:42:14
Irene Jackson
I'll be 40 my next birthday.
Irene Jackson
00:42:15 - 00:42:16
Herbert Halpert
And where were you brought up?
Herbert Halpert
00:42:17 - 00:42:18
Irene Jackson
In South Jacksonville, FL.
Irene Jackson
00:42:19 - 00:42:21
Herbert Halpert
And what is it, tell us about what you are going to sing?
Herbert Halpert
00:42:23 - 00:42:23
Irene Jackson
It's just a play we used to have when we were children and we would be playing church and then rather than sing church songs, we'd make up our songs and we called it our 'play church'.
Irene Jackson
00:42:40 - 00:42:44
Herbert Halpert
When you were small did you play it with a guitar.
Herbert Halpert
00:42:43 - 00:42:45
Irene Jackson
No, I was just playing with it since then.
Irene Jackson
00:42:45 - 00:42:45
Herbert Halpert
You're playing it with a guitar since then. Why are you singing it with a guitar? Can you sing it without?
Herbert Halpert
00:42:50 - 00:42:50
Irene Jackson
Yes, I could.
Irene Jackson
00:42:51 - 00:42:51
Herbert Halpert
Well, would you try it without?
Herbert Halpert
00:42:53 - 00:42:53
Irene Jackson
Yes.
Irene Jackson
00:42:54 - 00:42:54
Herbert Halpert
Try it without.
Herbert Halpert
00:42:54 - 00:42:54
Irene Jackson
[Bang] Oh my god.
Irene Jackson
00:42:56 - 00:42:59
Herbert Halpert
That's alright. Don't worry about it. Go ahead.
Herbert Halpert
00:42:59 - 00:43:55
Songs
Irene Jackson sings
Irene Jackson
00:43:59 - 00:44:03
Herbert Halpert
And that's one you used to, you used to play games to that?
Herbert Halpert
00:44:11 - 00:44:11
Herbert Halpert
Explain about that.
Herbert Halpert
00:44:13 - 00:44:24
Irene Jackson
Well, we would be having service and it was time for our preacher to preach though. He couldn't preach out the bible so we'd just take a word and add on and go to preaching. We'd be out in the yard.
Irene Jackson
00:44:24 - 00:44:27
Herbert Halpert
Well, where was this? Where would you be? You wouldn't be doing it in the church.
Herbert Halpert
00:44:27 - 00:44:28
Irene Jackson
No, we'd be out in the yard.
Irene Jackson
00:44:28 - 00:44:29
Herbert Halpert
Just playing.
Herbert Halpert
00:44:29 - 00:44:29
Irene Jackson
Clean.
Irene Jackson
00:44:29 - 00:44:29
Herbert Halpert
Uh-huh
Herbert Halpert
00:44:33 - 00:45:02
Songs
Irene Jackson sings
Irene Jackson
00:45:06 - 00:45:10
Library of Congress
3142 A1, 2, and 3
Library of Congress
00:45:11 - 00:45:18
Irene Jackson
The closing part of children's sermon that we used to have.
Irene Jackson
00:45:18 - 00:45:57
Songs
Irene Jackson chants
Irene Jackson
00:46:01 - 00:46:04
Alabama Singleton
Alabama Singleton. I am 33-years-old.
Alabama Singleton
00:46:05 - 00:46:06
Herbert Halpert
And where were you brought up?
Herbert Halpert
00:46:06 - 00:46:06
Alabama Singleton
Savannah, GA
Alabama Singleton
00:46:08 - 00:46:11
Herbert Halpert
And, uh, what are you going to [inaudible]
Herbert Halpert
00:46:11 - 00:46:15
Alabama Singleton
A play that we used to play when we were children in Savannah.
Alabama Singleton
00:46:17 - 00:46:18
Herbert Halpert
And what was it called?
Herbert Halpert
00:46:19 - 00:46:22
Alabama Singleton
A ring play, just a ring play, a children's ring play
Alabama Singleton
00:46:23 - 00:46:24
Herbert Halpert
Alright. Sing.
Herbert Halpert
00:46:25 - 00:46:25
Songs
Alabama Singleton sings
Alabama Singleton
00:47:12 - 00:47:15
Herbert Halpert
How did they play that?
Herbert Halpert
00:47:15 - 00:47:15
Alabama Singleton
A ring play, yes. When you say 'go all around the maypole' you'll join hands and be going around the ring and then you're showing your emotion and doing a little dance.
Alabama Singleton
00:47:23 - 00:47:23
Herbert Halpert
Well now, how do you, was there somebody [inaudible].
Herbert Halpert
00:47:25 - 00:47:25
Alabama Singleton
In the middle of the ring and the rest of the children would be patting their hands.
Alabama Singleton
00:47:29 - 00:47:29
Herbert Halpert
Could you pat the way they did? Take it over again and do the patting.
Herbert Halpert
00:47:31 - 00:47:31
Alabama Singleton
Yes.
Alabama Singleton
00:47:35 - 00:47:35
Alabama Singleton
Alright
Alabama Singleton
00:47:37 - 00:47:37
Herbert Halpert
Alright
Herbert Halpert
00:47:38 - 00:47:42
Alabama Singleton
Well, when you throw around the maypole you doesn't pat because your hands be joined then.
Alabama Singleton
00:47:42 - 00:47:42
Herbert Halpert
Oh, I see, well sing that and don't do your hands [Inaudible].
Herbert Halpert
00:47:47 - 00:48:14
Songs
Alabama Singleton sings
Alabama Singleton
00:48:33 - 00:49:04
Songs
Alabama Singleton sings
Alabama Singleton
00:49:10 - 00:49:31
Songs
Alabama Singleton sings
Alabama Singleton
00:49:35 - 00:49:39
Library of Congress
3142, B1, 2, 3, and 4
Library of Congress
00:49:43 - 00:50:03
Herbert Halpert
[Inaudible] Just sitting down is alright. Well no, I want to get it close to you. I'm going to put it around here. Now, you just face in that direction. Talk right out. [Adjusts the microphone].
Herbert Halpert
00:50:03 - 00:50:04
Maggie Fulton
Maggie Fulton
Maggie Fulton
00:50:04 - 00:50:05
Herbert Halpert
And how old are you?
Herbert Halpert
00:50:06 - 00:50:06
Maggie Fulton
43
Maggie Fulton
00:50:08 - 00:50:08
Herbert Halpert
Tell us about this game. Where you learned it.
Herbert Halpert
00:50:11 - 00:50:20
Maggie Fulton
Well I learned it at my home in Leesville, South Carolina, a little childhood play. The play goes like this.
Maggie Fulton
00:50:21 - 00:50:33
Games
Maggie Fulton chants a game
Maggie Fulton
00:50:35 - 00:50:40
Herbert Halpert
Well, what, how did it go on? What else happened? What happened in the game?
Herbert Halpert
00:50:40 - 00:50:44
Maggie Fulton
Well, the children would act as if they were flying like the turkeys.
Maggie Fulton
00:50:45 - 00:50:51
Herbert Halpert
As if they were flying like a turkey? How was it played and how did they start off play
Herbert Halpert
00:50:51 - 00:51:14
Maggie Fulton
So they start off playing all over so if you're standing around and one would say 'Little girl, little girl have you been to the barn' and everyone said, yes Ma'am. And they answered 'Did you see my turkey?'' You say 'Yes Ma'am'. And you say 'How high did it fly' and you say 'So high' and then everybody stretched their arms up as if it was the wingspan.
Maggie Fulton
00:51:18 - 00:51:35
Songs
Maggie Fulton sings a song
Maggie Fulton
00:51:40 - 00:51:40
Games
Maggie Fulton demonstrates a game
Maggie Fulton
00:52:21 - 00:52:22
Herbert Halpert
And where were you brought up?
Herbert Halpert
00:52:26 - 00:52:26
Herbert Halpert
Where did you learn this particular song?
Herbert Halpert
00:52:30 - 00:52:33
Herbert Halpert
How did you learn it?
Herbert Halpert
00:52:39 - 00:52:41
Herbert Halpert
What is this one called?
Herbert Halpert
00:52:46 - 00:52:48
Herbert Halpert
I like that. Alright. Let's hear it.
Herbert Halpert
00:52:48 - 00:53:48
Songs
Harold B. Hazelhurst sings 'The Captain's Mule'
Harold B. Hazelhurst
00:53:50 - 00:53:54
Library of Congress
3143 A1 and 2
Library of Congress
00:53:56 - 00:55:00
Songs
Harold B. Hazelhurst sings John Henry
Harold B. Hazelhurst
00:55:17 - 00:55:19
Herbert Halpert
What kind of work were they doing?
Herbert Halpert
00:55:23 - 00:55:30
Herbert Halpert
And these were the mule-skinners who were doing the singing? And what do they do? Sing the song while they were [inaudible]
Herbert Halpert
00:55:39 - 00:55:40
Herbert Halpert
And what is the name of this song?
Herbert Halpert
00:55:42 - 00:55:43
Herbert Halpert
Now how did you happen to learn it?
Herbert Halpert
00:55:56 - 00:55:56
Herbert Halpert
While they were driving spikes. Could you mark off how the hammers would be coming down? Just where they'd be coming, hitting against this.
Herbert Halpert
00:56:07 - 00:56:20
Herbert Halpert
[Banging] Alright. Can you, You can double-drive as long as you don't double-drive on the microphone. Alright. That's fine. Now, uh, and, This is 'John' -- you were telling me that this 'John Henry' wasn't sung the same way always? I mean, they wouldn't begin --
Herbert Halpert
00:56:31 - 00:56:35
Herbert Halpert
Well now tell me, uh, but did they always have the same tune to it?
Herbert Halpert
02:33:00 - 02:33:00
Zora Neale Hurston
How do you want this?
Zora Neale Hurston
03:44:00 - 03:44:00
Distortion
[Distortion]
Distortion
04:44:00 - 04:44:00
Distortion
[Distortion]
Distortion
04:57:00 - 04:57:00
Herbert Halpert
Your name, age?
Herbert Halpert
05:05:00 - 05:05:00
Herbert Halpert
And where were you brought up?
Herbert Halpert
05:06:00 - 05:06:00
Evelyn Werner
I was born and raised in Jacksonville, studied voice in Chicago but never went to college.
Evelyn Werner
05:16:00 - 05:16:00
Herbert Halpert
Uh, huh, What do you mean 'voice'? Singing?
Herbert Halpert
05:18:00 - 05:18:00
Evelyn Werner
Yes.
Evelyn Werner
05:19:00 - 05:19:00
Herbert Halpert
Uh-huh, Alright. But you were brought up, most of your life, you spent right around here?
Herbert Halpert
05:25:00 - 05:25:00
Evelyn Werner
Well, as far as the life goes, yes but I'd go to Philadelphia for a while and come back and go to Chicago for a while and come back.
Evelyn Werner
05:34:00 - 05:54:00
Herbert Halpert
Alright, now you'll tell the story. Apparently the interest in the story is just to have you talk naturally and at the same time, we'll have the story. So, would you try --
Herbert Halpert
05:44:00 - 05:44:00
Unknown
Man: Go ahead.
Unknown
05:45:00 - 05:45:00
Evelyn Werner
Well, this story was told to me two years ago by one of the heirs to the Reed Plantation, Mulberry Grove, which is just south of Jacksonville. She said that right after the war when the slaves were freed she gave, she told Mariah the cook of her freedom and gave her the house at the end of the field to live in. So Mariah and all of her children set out and the youngest and the tiniest at the end of the line would fall down and get up, fall down again and get up. So Mrs. Pearson called to Mariah and said, 'You're losing one of your children, Mariah'. And Mariah turned back and said, 'You can have that one, Miss. Pearson, if you wants it.' That's all.
Evelyn Werner
08:19:00 - 08:19:00
Distortion
[Distortion]
Distortion
08:25:00 - 08:25:00
Herbert Halpert
Can you state your name, your age, and your occupation?
Herbert Halpert
09:06:00 - 09:06:00
Herbert Halpert
Now you have one, you have that holler, that uh?
Herbert Halpert
09:12:00 - 09:12:00
Herbert Halpert
What, would you explain something about how it was used and when or something like that?
Herbert Halpert
09:18:00 - 09:18:00
Herbert Halpert
Go ahead. Tell me something about it.
Herbert Halpert
11:07:00 - 11:07:00
Zora Neale Hurston
The one without the words.
Zora Neale Hurston
11:22:00 - 11:22:00
Herbert Halpert
How would it sound, suppose someone had just haerd it, what would they hear?
Herbert Halpert
12:46:00 - 09:46:00
Distortion
[Distortion]
Distortion
14:06:00 - 14:06:00
Herbert Halpert
Will you sing that, will you repeat the point [inaudible]
Herbert Halpert
14:53:00 - 14:53:00
Herbert Halpert
What do they do on the song part, I mean.
Herbert Halpert
14:56:00 - 14:56:00
Herbert Halpert
They'd be dancing.
Herbert Halpert
15:01:00 - 15:01:00
Herbert Halpert
I see. The last part was giving directions. The rest of the time they were dancing.
Herbert Halpert
15:06:00 - 15:06:00
Herbert Halpert
What kind of dancing were they doing?
Herbert Halpert
15:16:00 - 15:16:00
Herbert Halpert
Go ahead.
Herbert Halpert
18:37:00 - 18:37:00
Herbert Halpert
You did? Well, woud you start in with?
Herbert Halpert
21:47:00 - 21:47:00
Unknown
[Laughter]
Unknown
22:43:00 - 22:43:00
Distortion
[Distortion]
Distortion
00:16:00 - 00:16:00
Herbert Halpert
Now, what kind of motion would they do?
Herbert Halpert
00:18:00 - 00:18:00
Alabama Singleton
Oh, shucks. There'd be motion of their feets. [Laughter]
Alabama Singleton
00:25:00 - 00:25:00
Alabama Singleton
Well, there was a man in Savannah Georgia used to sell watermelons and he would come through every morning early and we'd hear him sing.
Alabama Singleton
01:40:00 - 01:50:00
Maggie Fulton
Maggie Fulton
Maggie Fulton
03:09:00 - 03:09:00
Herbert Halpert
Now you'll have to talk a little bit louder now on the next game.
Herbert Halpert
03:12:00 - 03:12:00
Maggie Fulton
Alright
Maggie Fulton
03:19:00 - 03:21:00
Maggie Fulton
Just a little barnyard play
Maggie Fulton
03:21:00 - 03:23:00
Herbert Halpert
Alright. How does it go?
Herbert Halpert
07:08:00 - 07:08:00
Herbert Halpert
What would they sing it for?
Herbert Halpert
08:06:00 - 07:06:00
Herbert Halpert
Yeah, that would be good.
Herbert Halpert