Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes

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AN examination of the first twenty volumes of the Journal of American Folk-Lore, and a study of the published folk-songs of the Southern negroes, reveal a large amount of valuable material for the student of folk-songs and ballads. Investigation of the field indicates a still larger supply of songs as yet not collected or published. Unfortunately the collection of these songs has been permitted to lapse within recent years, although there is no indication that even a majority have been collected. In fact, the supply seems almost inexhaustible, and the present-day negro folk-songs appear to be no less distinctive than formerly. It is hoped that special efforts will be made by as many persons as possible to contribute to the negro department of American folk-lore as many of the songs of the Southern negroes as can be obtained. That they are most valuable to the student of sociology and anthropology, as well as to the student of literature and the ballad, will scarcely be doubted. Two distinct classes of folk-songs have been, and are, current among the Southern negroes, the religious songs, or spirituals; and the social or secular songs. An examination of the principal collections of negro songs, a list of which is appended at the end of this paper, shows that emphasis has been placed heretofore upon the religious songs, although the secular songs appear to be equally as interesting and valuable. My study of negro folk-songs included originally the religious and secular songs of the Southern negroes; analysis of their content; a discussion of the mental imagery, style and habit, reflected in them; and the word-vocabulary of the collection of songs. The religious songs have already been published in the American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education (vol. iii, pp. 265-365). In order to bring this paper within the scope and limits of the Journal of American Folk-Lore, it has been necessary to omit the introductory discussion of the songs, for the most part, and to omit entirely the