Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information and some examples of 19th century blackface minstrel songs that include the words "the Wild Goose Nation".The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and educational purposes.
WARNING: This post features a minstrel song that includes what is now commonly known as "the n word". I use amended spelling for that word in this blog.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on African Americans and West Indians chanties (shanties). Click the tags given below for previous posts and subsequent posts on this subject.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/five-examples-of-sea-shanties-that.html for the closelyrelated pancocojams post.
From https://londonseashantycollective.com/songs/wild-goose/
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From reading examples of the Wild Goose shanty and examples of certain 19th century Black plantation songs*, my guess is that "Wild Goose Nation" is a fictitious name for a Native American "nation" which included Black people who escaped from slavery, some of whom married Native Americans and had mixed race offspring.
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MINSTREL SONGS THAT REFER TO THE WILD GOOSE NATION
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Wild_Goose-Nation
" "De Wild Goose-Nation" is an American song composed by blackface minstrel performer Dan Emmett.
The song is a parody (or possibly an adaptation) of "Gumbo Chaff", a blackface minstrel song dating to the 1830s, the music of which most closely resembles an 1844 version of that song.[2] Musicologist Hans Nathan sees similarities in the introduction of the song to the later "Dixie".[3]
Animal characters are the song's protagonists, tying "De Wild Goose-Nation" to similar tales in African American folklore.[4] Despite the title, the phrase "wild goose nation" occurs only once, in the first verse. Some lyrics from the song are repeated in "Dixie": "De tarapin he thot it was time for to trabble / He screw aron his tail and begin to scratch grabble."[5]
Emmett published the song through the Charles Keith Company
in Boston in 1844."
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I haven't found any other lyrics for this song online except those given on this Wikipedia page.
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Excerpt #2
Pancocojams Editor's Note: I use amended spelling in this blog for what is now commonly known as the "n word".
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=46147
Subject: RE: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib - PM
Date: 13 Nov 10 - 03:58 AM
Might this be the progenitor of "Huckleberry
Hunting"/"Ranzo Ray"?
From NEGRO SINGER'S OWN BOOK, ca.1843(?), pp148-9:
WE AM DE NI&&ERS FROM DE WILD GOOSE NATION.
Written and sung by the Luminaries.
We am de ni&&ers from de wild goose nation,
Come dis night to
sing to you;
We're just arrived from de old plantation,
Down on the banks
of de O-hi-o.
To de fields, to de fields must go,
When de driber
calls we must obey
To chop de wood, de corn to hoe,
And work hard all
the day.
[Full Chorus]
Den sing away, sing away,
Tambourine and de
banjo play;
Happy ni&&ers while we sing,
Today we work no
more.
Ebery morning bright and early,
How dese
ni&&ers hates to rise,
Because dey am all-ways attacted,
By de ting called
the Blue-tailed fly.
To de fields...
When the big white moon am shining,
De ni&&ers
de am out fore soon;
And up the cimmon tree are climbing,
For to catch de
possum and coon.
To de fields...
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According to https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Negro_Singer_s_Own_Book/GTZiMQEACAAJ?hl=en
The Negro Singer's Own Book
Containing Every Negro Song that Has Ever Been Sung Or
Printed was published in 1846 by Turner & Fisher. No author/s are given.
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I believe that the term "Negro Song" in this book's title refers to minstrel songs about "Negroes" ("Negro" is an outdated referent for African Americans since at least the mid 1960s). A number of these minstrel included lyrics from actual Black work songs, dance songs, and/or spirituals.
"Negro" spelled with a lower case "n" was the norm in the 19th century and early 20th century, but even then some people, especially Black people, considered the lack of a capitol letter for "Negro" to be demeaning and offensive.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Huckleberry Hunting (Pumping Chantey)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 09:34 PM
Gibb-
If there's a connection, I'm not seeing it.
Charley Noble
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Huckleberry Hunting (Pumping Chantey)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 04:53 AM
Charlie--
Can you picture it? It's the early minstrel era. A blackface group calling itself The Luminaries creep out on stage in a comic, maudlin style. As they come out, they begin their signature opening number:
We am de ni&&ers from de wild goose nation,
Come dis night to
sing to you;
We're just arrived from de old plantation,
Down on the banks
of de O-hi-o.
Subsequently, that catchy opening cliche gets adopted by work-singers. They discard the grand chorus, which is superfluous to this particular chanty form.
Hugill's:
I'm shantyman of the Wild Goose nation
Timme way, timme
hay, timme hee-ho hay!
Got a maid that I left on the big plantation
An' sing Hilo, me
Ranzo way!
Terry's:
I'm the Shanty-man of the Wild Goose Nation.
Tibby Way-ay
Hioha!
I've left my wife on a big plantation.
Hilo my Ranzo Hay!
Harlow's:
I'm Ranzo Jim from the Southern cotton growing belt
To me way, hay, oh
hi o!
De sun am so hot dat you'd think a man would melt
And sing, Hilo, my
Ranzo way
Harlow's version is straight up minstrel. The Mystic version, at the beginning of the thread, is composed of pieces from Hugill and Colcord -- the latter whose verses sound very prim and Cecil Sharpy. The lads at Mystic have effectively "whitened" the song by omitting any obvious race-related language. Hey, I can understand 100% why they'd do that. They have to. My only word of caution is that this particular Revival version shouldn't become the "go to" version if someone is *seeking lyrics*, because I think it inadvertently contributes to erasing Black people from the face of the chanty genre.
Gibb
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Hugill, Terry, Harlow, Colcord, and Sharp are names of White people who collected and wrote books about shanties. A pancocojams post about Hugill and Harding, his Black Caribbean friend who shared a number of sea shanties with him, will be published ASAP and that link will be added here.
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Here's information about Cecil Sharp from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Sharp
"Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924)[1] was
an English-born folk song collector, musician and composer. He was a key leader
of the folk-song revival in England as a collector, archivist, teacher and
promoter. He gathered thousands of tunes both from rural England and the
Southern Appalachians region of the United States, and wrote an influential
volume, English Folk Song: Some Conclusions.
[...]
Sharp's legacy survives in the folk music and dances that he helped preserve, some of which are still performed today. Many of the most popular musicians of the British Folk Revival of the 1960s, for example, used songs collected by Sharp in their music and understood his contribution.[2]
Conversely, Sharp has been criticised by historians for the manner in which his racist and sexist attitudes influenced his works, noting that he refused to collect folk music from people of colour. Sharp has also been criticised for downplaying the role of female and ethnic Scottish creators in the history of folk music."
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