Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 254 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg says this is among the few known work songs of the enslavement days of the American black.“
"If it was so honorable and glorious to be black, why was it the yellow-skinned people among us had so much prestige? Even a child in the first grade could see that this was so from what happened in the classroom and on school programs. The light-skinned children were always the angels, fairies and queens of school play. The lighter the girl, the more money and prestige she was apt to marry. So on into high school years, I was asking myself questions.” (Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road 1942)
Sandburg writes: "The name of Henry Clay rhymes with "heave away." What more was wanted? He was the idolized ”Handsome Harry of the West” in the 1840's. This is among the few known work songs of the slave days of the American black. It is not a ditty but a sonorous, flexible melody.
Day 254 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg says this is among the few known work songs of the enslavement days of the American black.“
"If it was so honorable and glorious to be black, why was it the yellow-skinned people among us had so much prestige? Even a child in the first grade could see that this was so from what happened in the classroom and on school programs. The light-skinned children were always the angels, fairies and queens of school play. The lighter the girl, the more money and prestige she was apt to marry. So on into high school years, I was asking myself questions.” (Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road 1942)
Sandburg writes: "The name of Henry Clay rhymes with "heave away." What more was wanted? He was the idolized ”Handsome Harry of the West” in the 1840's. This is among the few known work songs of the slave days of the American black. It is not a ditty but a sonorous, flexible melody.
