A Note on Songs as Patriot Propaganda 1765-1776

Abstract

T THE colonists, as is well known, displayed great ingenuity in rallying popular support for the patriot cause.' Little attention, however, has been paid to one phase of their activities: the use of songs.2 No one can gauge the influence of this musical propaganda, but its very existence suggests that it served its purpose. The patriots contented themselves with supplying the words and borrowing the melodies which, being usually of a folk variety, possessed the advantage of being already familiar to the general run of people. The political use of music was not new in America, for back in I734, a New York grand jury, at the Chief Justice's behest, had proceeded against two allegedly Seditious Songs, and in I75I, the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts had posted a reward for the arrest of the distributors of a ballad tending to subvert the happy Constitution of this Government.3 In these later times, however, the authorities did not take similar action, probably because they now faced far more serious threats to British rule. Whether from fear of possible prosecution or from modesty, the writers did not usually acknowledge their authorship. We know, however, that their ranks included such important personages as John Dick-