Amazing Grace is a hymn. The lyrics were written by John Newton, slave ship captain (B. 1725, London). On one voyage, a violent storm swept a crewman overboard from the place where Newton had been standing just minutes before. As he continued steering the ship through the storm, he realized his ultimate helplessness and concluded that only the grace of God could save him and the ship.
Many years later, Newton turned to the ministry and repented his role in slavery. The lyrics of “Amazing Grace” are his reflections on a Biblical text and describe his own conversion while on his ship in 1748.
Listen to Mark O'Connor's beautiful rendition below
“Buffalo Gals” is a traditional American song from almost 200 years ago. In 1844, it was published by a minstrel performer named John Hodges. Originally, the song was about Buffalo, NY, during the construction of the Erie Canal ending in 1825. At that time, before steam engines were commonly used, barges carrying cargo for trade and distribution were pulled by mules through the Canal.
The title of the song, “Buffalo Gals,” refers to the pretty girls on Canal Street in Buffalo. Because of the song’s popularity, minstrel performers began to alter the lyrics to appeal to the local audiences where they were performing - “New York Gals,” “Boston Gals,” “Charleston Gals” and “Round Town Gals” to name a few.
“Oh! Susanna” was written in the 1840s by America’s first great songwriter, Stephen Foster. The Virginia Minstrels and The Christy’s Minstrels (two of New York’s first performing troupes) encouraged the young Foster to write minstrel show music. “Oh! Susanna” fits this category and eventually enjoyed great popularity. The lyrics describe a man from Alabama traveling to Louisiana to court his lover.
“Boil `em Cabbage Down” is an African American hoedown. The tune has roots reaching all the way to the African slaves that were brought to the southern part of the United States almost 400 hundred years ago. Africans played “bowed” string instruments that resembled the fiddle, so they found the violin to be a familiar instrument. African American fiddlers played with percussive effects and rhythmic bowings derived from their music culture. Early African American and European American fiddlers created the “hoedown” by combining African string playing and Scotch/Irish “reels.”
The title “Boil `em Cabbage Down” speaks of cooking cabbage by boiling it. “Cabbage” could have meant any leafy green vegetable such as collards, kale etc. The Southern style of cooking “greens” that have been cooked down into a gravy came with the arrival of the African slaves to the southern colonies. They boiled these greens down until they were soft, smoothing out their bitter flavor, and created the famous “southern greens.” The chorus of the tune also contains the term “hoe-cake.” This refers to a bread that African American field workers cooked in a round skillet or on the blade of a shovel (hoe) held over a fire like a griddle.
Hear Mark O'Connor play Boil 'Em Cabbage Down with Wynton Marsalis, below:
Hear Mr. O'Connor's version in Book I of the O'Connor Method.
The plantation “Juba” dance was brought from West Africa and is thought to be the predecessor of modern tap dancing. “Pattin’ the Juba” and “Hambone” (involving patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks) mixed with clogging and buck dancing were popular with fiddle tunes like “Boil `em Cabbage Down.”
Plantation owners and servants would often dance together. As the musicians became more and more intoxicated with the spirit of the dancing, they played faster and wilder, until finally no one could keep up any longer. Playing music and dancing was about the only good time to be had in early plantation life.
“Alas! Had it not been formy beloved violin, I scarcely can conceive how I could have endured ...”
- Solomon Northup
Amazing Grace is a hymn. The lyrics were written by John Newton, slave ship captain (B. 1725, London). On one voyage, a violent storm swept a crewman overboard from the place where Newton had been standing just minutes before. As he continued steering the ship through the storm, he realized his ultimate helplessness and concluded that only the grace of God could save him and the ship.
