Late 19th Century/Early 20th Century Lyrics For "Child Of God" ("If Anybody Ask You Who I Am") & Information About Some Other Late 19th Century/Early 20th Century African American Christmas Songs

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series about the African American song "If Anybody Ask You Who I Am" (also known as "Tell Them I'm A Child Of God", and "Child Of God".

This post presents some information about and lyric examples of late 19th century African American Christmas songs.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-soul-children-of-chicago-tell-them.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video of The Soul Children Of Chicago singing a version of this song in the early 1980s. My transcription of the lyrics for that song is included in that post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/12/more-lyrics-to-gospel-song-if-anybody.html  for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III presents additional lyrics of 'if Anybody Tells You Who I Am" that I found online.

The content of this post is presented for religious, historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composer/s of this song and thanks to the collectors of these songs. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.

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ARTICLE AND DISCUSSION THREAD EXCERPTS

These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

EXCERPT #1
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=167719
Subject: ADD: Child of God (Mother's Child)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Apr 20 - 08:34 PM

"CHILD OF GOD (Mother's Child)

 If anybody ask you who I am,
Who I am, who I am,
If anybody ask you who I am,
Tell him I'm a child of God (mother's child).

The little cradle rocks tonight in glory,
In glory, in glory,
The little cradle rocks tonight in glory,
The Christ child born in glory. [Jesus was a mother's child]

Peace on earth, Mary rock the cradle,
Mary rock the cradle, Mary rock the cradle,
Peace on earth, Mary rock the cradle,
The Christ child born in glory

The Christ Child passing, singing softly,
Singing softly, singing softly,
The Christ Child passing, singing softly,
Christ child born in glory

Don't you hear the foot on the tree top,
Foot on the tree top, foot on the tree top,
Don't you hear the foot on the tree top,
Soft like the south wind blow?

from American Folk Songs for Christmas, by Ruth Crawford Seeger (Doubleday) page 40

Verse 1 from Mellows, by R. Emmett Kennedy, 1925

Verses 2-5 from the Journal of American Folklore, Vol 12, 1899, p. 272, "Christmas Carols in Georgia," by Emma Backus (slightly altered by Ruth Crawford Seeger)

2013 Recording by Elizabeth Mitchell, Peggy Seeger from The Sounding Joy: Christmas Songs In and Out of the Ruth Crawford Seeger Songbook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1F0ijtpl4

Lyrics in parentheses by Peggy Seeger –“
-snip-
* American Folk Songs for Christmas, by Ruth Crawford Seeger (book) was originally published in 1953.

The lyrics for "Child Of God ("Mother's Child") as given above were used with a few slight changes in (White American) Pop singer Bobby Darin's 1960 record "Child Of God". 
https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/2013161/Bobby+Darin/Child+of+God

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EXCERPT #2
From https://artandtheology.org/2020/12/21/american-folk-songs-for-christmas-ruth-crawford-seeger/  "American Folk Songs for Christmas, compiled by Ruth Crawford Seeger", Posted on December 21, 2020 by Victoria Emily Jones
"Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901–1953) was a pioneering American folk music specialist who selected, transcribed, and placed songs from the vast collections of the Lomax family and others into published works for use in primary schools and homes.

[...]

Ruth keenly felt an urgency to save American folk songs from extinction. Toiling deep in the archives of the Library of Congress alongside the famed father, son, and daughter musicologist team of John Avery Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Bess Lomax Hawes, she sifted through their 10,000 field recordings of native singers and transcribed songs. She helped the Lomaxes produce two sweeping surveys of “people’s music,” Our Singing Country (1941) and Best Loved American Folk Songs (1947), creating notated versions for over 300 folk songs (the second anthology with the help of both her husband Charles Seeger and her stepson Pete Seeger).

[...]

Although at least half the selections will still be unfamiliar to the general public, several have become beloved classics, especially some of the African American spirituals, like “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” and “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow.” While Ruth wasn’t the only one drawing attention to these songs—the lengthy Acknowledgments section cites the publisher, society, institution, and/or individual each song was sourced from—she was certainly an important popularizer.

Twenty of these songs were released in 1957 on an album of the same title, American Folk Songs for Christmas, performed by Ruth’s daughters Peggy, Barbara, and Penny Seeger and with children from the South Boston Music School. In 2013 the songs were revitalized with the release of The Sounding Joy: Christmas Songs in and out of the Ruth Crawford Seeger Songbook by Elizabeth Mitchell and friends. Both albums were put out by Smithsonian Folkways, the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution."...

One of my favorites is “Baby Born Today,” a “shout” song from McIntosh County, Georgia, that was traditionally sung at Watch Night services at Black churches on Christmas Eve, the lyrics traded back and forth from leader to group for a long time. [5] Folklorist Robert W. Gordon learned it from Mary C. Mann, a deaconess in the Episcopal Church, when doing field recordings in Darien, Georgia, in 1926.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh6Tq67EMrY [Pancocojams Editor: This 2013 video by Elizabeth Mitchell & Friends is embedded in this article.]

Another African American Christmas spiritual is “Sing Hallelu,” which is from St. Helena Island, South Carolina. It’s sung here by Elizabeth Mitchell and her husband, Daniel Littleton, accompanied on harp by Elizabeth Clark-Jerez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if589A_arvk&t=1s"... [Pancocojams Editor: This 2013 video by Elizabeth Mitchell & Friends is embedded in this article.]
-snip-
This article includes some additional songs and videos of African American Christmas songs from the late 19th and early 20th century as well as Christmas songs from other American traditions.

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EXCERPT #3
From https://genius.com/Norfolk-jazz-and-jubilee-quartette-if-anybody-asks-you-who-i-am-lyrics

Norfolk Jazz And Jubilee Quartets: Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Vol. 3 (1925-1927) (1995)

Norfolk Jazz & Jubilee Quartette [1927]

[Chorus]

If anybody asks you who I am
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am
Tell them I'm a child of God

If anybody asks you who I am
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am
Tell them I'm a child of God

[Verse 1]

See that a-sister come walking
She is dressed so fine
She ain't got the love of Jesus
She’s prancing ‘cross that line*

[Chorus]

If anybody asks you who I am
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am
Tell them I'm a child of God

[Verse 2]

Now just mind, old baptist brother
Now just how you walk on the cross
Now if you make just one misstep
Brother, your soul'll be lost

[Chorus]

If anybody asks you who I am
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am
Tell them I'm a child of God

[Verse 3]

Now you see that sister [hard/how you/how she] laughing
Looking so big and fat
Now I walk right over and ask her
"Sister, where your 'ligion at?"

[Chorus]

If anybody asks you who I am
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am
Tell them I'm a child of God

[Verse 4]

Now she didn't pay me no answer
She just looked at me and smiled
She said "Lord, Lord," said "Brother, Lord
My brother, I'm a child of God"

 

[Chorus]

If anybody asks you who I am
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am
Tell them I'm a child of God
If anybody asks you who I am
Who I am, who I am
If anybody asks you who I am
Tell them I'm a child of God, of God

 

*This is my transcription of those lyrics from a short sound file that is found on that genius.com link. Those lyrics replace the question mark that the genuis.com transcriber had for that line.

Additions and corrections are welcome.
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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.

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