W. H. Thomas

“ Or to put it interrogatively, why do the members of this particular class sing, and why do their songs contain the thoughts that they do?
I believe it is pretty generally agreed today that any well-defined period of literature is merely the reflection of some great economic change. I notice that the critics have begun to speak of Victorian literature as merely the ornament of nineteenth century prosperity—the prosperity that was incident to the utilization of steam as motive power.
Now a great change has come into the negro’s economic life within the past two decades. ”

“ It has been my experience that where a knowledge of the negro’s every day, or rather every-night, life is lacking, the appreciation of these songs is never very keen. Hence, in order to make it certain that you will appreciate these songs, I deem it necessary to try to acquaint you with the life of one of the “songsters.” Otherwise I am afraid that too many of you will look upon these songs as absolutely puerile. ”

“ Remember that a greater man than you or I once declared the ancient ballads to be without merit and also maintained that he could write, on the spur of the moment, a stanza that was just as good and that contained just as much meaning. ”

“ The negro, then, sings because he is losing his economic foothold. This economic insecurity has interfered most seriously with those two primal necessities—work and love—and you will notice that the thoughts in all these songs cluster around these two ideas. ”

“ You will notice that I have taken as my title, “Some Current Folk-Songs of the Negro and Their Economic Interpretation.” Now it is somewhat misleading at this day and time to speak of the negro as a “folk.” That word seems to me to be applicable only to a people living in an industry in which economic function has not been specialized. So it would be more accurate to speak of “negro class lore.” The class that I am treating of is the semi-rural proletariat. ”

“ A brown-skinned woman and she smells like toilet soap.
A black-skinned woman and she smells like a billy goat.
A brown-skinned woman makes a freight train slip and slide.
A brown-skinned woman makes an engine stop and blow.
A brown-skinned woman makes a bulldog break his chain.
A brown-skinned woman makes a preacher lay his Bible down.
I married a woman; she was even tailor made.
You will find plenty of economics in the following song. The present-day negro early made that most fatal of all discoveries: namely, that a man can really live in this world without working. ”

“ He has come into competition with the European immigrant, whose staying qualities are much greater than his; and agriculture has been changing from a feudalistic to a capitalistic basis, which requires a greater technical ability than the negro possesses. ”

“ When Frankie got to Albert’s house, she didn’t say a word,
But she cut down upon poor Albert just like he was a bird.
He was her man, babe, but she shot him down.
When Frankie left Albert’s house, she lit out in a run,
For, underneath her apron was a smoking 41.
He was her man, babe, but he done her wrong.
“Roll me over, doctor, roll me over slow,
Cause, when you rolls me over, them bullets hurt me so;
I was her man, babe, but she shot me down.”
Frankie went to the church house and fell upon her knees,
Crying “Lord ’a’ mercy, won’t you give my heart some ease? ”

“ The white man rises early and eats his breakfast. My proletarian doesn’t rise at all for the chances are that he has never gone to bed. At noon they “knock off.” While the white man is preparing to eat his lunch, the “nigger” has already done so and is up in the bed of a wagon or on a plank underneath a tree fast asleep, usually with his head in the sun. ”

“ He was co-editor, with Stewart Morgan, of two volumes of essays designed for collegians. He died March 1, 1935. Gates Thomas, Professor of English in Southwestern State Teachers College at San Marcos, who has done notable work in Negro folk songs and who is one of the nestors and pillars of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, is his brother.
J. FRANK DOBIE
Austin, Texas
April, 1936
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SOME CURRENT FOLK-SONGS OF THE NEGRO AND THEIR ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION.
BY W. H. THOMAS, COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS.
Mr. ”