US, Canadian & Caribbean Versions: 95. The Maid Freed from the Gallows
[This ballad is one of the more popular Child ballads in North America. It was well-known before being vaulted into popular culture by Leadbelly and a subsequent cover by Led Zepplin, who included a version on their third album. I have 181 traditional versions currently in my collection. I recorded Nathan Hick's version (see his photo and details: Endurance- Hicks (NC) 1936 Matteson) on his dulcimer in 2011 with my niece and nephew [Endurance- 2011].
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The ballad has a wide geographic distribution and is found in a variety of forms (see my headnotes above Child's on front page) in North America and the Caribbean. Although it has been found in Maine and New England, it is rarely found in Canada, which may be a clue to its origin. "Maid Freed" is primarily found in the South with Virginia being the main repository and point of origin, followed by North and South Carolina as well as West Virginia. From here it traveled west into The Appalachians (Kentucky and Tennessee) and points westward.
A North Carolina version which originated in Yorkshire has been dated by Backus before The Revolution (See Child, Appendix). Ingeborg Urcia in her article, The Gallows and the Golden Ball, hypothesizes, "This migration took place possibly as early as the seventeenth century," which is 70 years before it appeared in the British Isles (1770, Child A). This date doesn't seem unreasonable to me because the British date may also much older. Long (1971) dates the ur-ballad in the British Isles between 1650-1700. The ballad was popular among African-Americans and has been found in the Caribbean Islands as both songs and cante-fable versions.
I'm including the Caribbean texts here (attached to this page):
Saylan- cante-fable song (JA) 1907 Walter Jekyll
Dis Gallus Tree- sung by negroes (BA) 1918 Parsons
To Save Me Body- Williams (JA) 1924 Beckwith
John Gould, hangman- Bristol (WI) 1966 Abrahams
Sailor Girl from Asia- (JA) 1973 Olive Lewin
A Gullah version was found on the South Carolina Sea Islands (Parsons, 1923) near where I once lived (Beaufort) and played the guitar.
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A dozen or so US versions have the motive for the hanging; either a stolen or missing: 1) golden ball; golden comb or 2) silver or golden cup. In the British Isles the "Golden Ball"versions (rarely "golden key" see Child Hb) are found as Child H (with Child Ha taken from Baring-Gould's Appendix to Henderson's Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, 1866, p. 333, Yorkshire). These "Golden Ball" versions are also found in the US from both black and white informants and I estimate they pre-date the 1866 Yorkshire text. Kittredge gave a version of the golden ball from NYC, 1916 in his Ballads and Songs article (JAFL, 1917). There are several articles that give information about the "Golden Ball" versions including The Gallows and the Golden Ball: An Analysis of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child 95) by Ingeborg Urcia in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 79, No. 313 (Jul.- Sept., 1966), pp. 463-468 (found attached to my Recordings & Info page).
Several "Silver Cup" versions have been found in the Appalachians dating back to Cecil Sharp's version I in 1917 (Kentucky). A very obscure recording was made in 1936 ("Little Silver Cup" Nate Marlor) and several other versions have surfaced, including Frank Proffitt's "Silvery Cup" which has been covered by Debra Cowan.
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Several "floating" stanzas have been attached to the ballad. In the British Isles there is the "The broom o the Cauthery Knowes" stanza (Child B) and the "Prickly Bush" stanza (Child J and K). In North America a number of floating stanzas have been attached and also stanzas of the ballad have appeared in different songs (John Hardy; Poor Boy/ The Highwayman/ Coon-Can Game). The most detailed article about the added stanzas in the British Isles is the Prickly Bush by A. G. Gilchrist and Lucy E. Broadwood; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 19 (Jun., 1915), pp. 221-239. Scarborough uses Gilchrist's article to postulate that the golden ball represents the maid's virginity. When she loses the golden ball it can only be rescued by her lover.
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The fact that the maid sometimes is a man may be due to the "folk process." Some collectors have theorized that since few women have been hung in the US that it was changed to a man on the gallows to fit in with local norms. Evidence of the original gender of the ur-ballad is inconclusive (See Long's conclusions).
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The Maid Freed From the Gallows is not a local title but one assigned by collectors. Collectors have also named it "The Hangman's Tree" (see, for example, Davis I, P or S) or "The Hangman's Song" (see, for example, Hudson). The Child title itself is not sung but is description of the outcome of the narrative.
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The first recording "The Hangman's Tree" on Columbia A3084, was sung by (Walter) Bentley Ball in early 1920 in NYC.
Listen: http://jopiepopie.blogspot.com/2015/06/gallows-tree-1920-maid-freed-from.html Ball, a concert and college-circuit baritone called it a North Carolina minstrel song, and according to a clip on WFMU, he collected songs when he traveled around rural states selling typewriters.
In 1926, Charlie Poole and his NC Ramblers recorded "The Highwayman" on Columbia- 15160D. This is a combination of "Poor Boy" with 2 stanzas of "Hangman." Poole also recorded a straight version of the ballad titled, "Hangman Hangman Slack The Rope," in 1928. In 1933 Kentuckian Asa Martin with James Roberts recorded "Hang Down Your Head and Cry" which is a cover of Poole's "The Highwayman." Roy Harvey, as not to be upstaged by former band-mate Charlie Poole, recorded "John Hardy Blues" (Champion 16281) on June 3, 1931, with his group by Roy Harvey, Jess Johnston & the West Virginia Ramblers. Harvey's version is sung to the tune of John Hardy. The first verse of text is from John Hardy, the rest has been adapted from "Maid Freed" except for one floating line of text with the "ten thousand miles" lyrics.
The most influential and well-known US recording is Leadbelly's 1939 recording, "Gallis Pole," which was covered by Fred Gerlach in 1970 then by Led Zepplin. Where Leadbelly learned the song is, as far as I know, unknown. He possibly learned and arranged it from James "Iron Head" Baker. Leadbelly made at least four recordings of the ballad between 1935 and 1948 under a variety of titles. Listen: Huddie Ledbetter , 1939.
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Besides the early country recordings of Hangman (Poole) and The Highwayman (Poole and others). The ballad has also been adapted by Country and Western singers either from folk sources or as a cover song by Tex Ritter, Jimmy Driftwood, Harry Jackson, Saul Broudy and others.
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There are two folk tales about a blue ball and a golden ball reported in South from Hell-fer-Sartin: Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales by Leonard W. Roberts; 1964. Neither tale is related to the ballad, "Maid Freed" but both are about losing a ball that goes into a giant's den. Roberts says, "I have collected tales with similar motifs in Kentucky (South from Hell-for-Sartin, no. 6) titled "The Little Blue Ball" and "The Golden Ball." I classified them as Type 311, Three Sisters Rescued From the Power of an Ogre. Further collecting and study may reveal the nature of story and ballad kinship." (In the Pine, 1978).
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R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
CONTENTS: (To access texts click on blue highlighted title below or on the titles attached to this page on the left-hand column)
1) The Hangman's Tree- (NC) pre1776 Backus/Child -- From: The English and Scottish popular ballads: Volume 5, Part 2 - Page 296; Additions and Corrections; Francis James Child, George Lyman Kittredge - 1898. Communicated by Mr. W.W. Newell, as derived from Miss Emma M. Backus, North Carolina, who says: "This is an old English song in the Yorkshire dialect, which was brought over to Virginia before the Revolution."
2) The Scarlet Tree- Dehon (SC) c.1856 Smith B -- From Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads, 1928. Communicated by Mr. W. R. Dehon, of Summerville, S. C., in 1913. Mr. Dehon learned it from the singing of a colored nurse many years ago. "The name of the nurse was Margaret," he writes. "She belonged to my Uncle, the Rev. Paul Trapier, then rector of St. Michael's Church, Charleston, who was living then, about 1856 or 1857, in my Great-Grandfather's house, known as the 'N. R.' house on Meeting Street next south of the Scotch Church."
3) The Girl To Be Hanged- Otey (VA) 1867 Davis J -- From Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. Collected by Mrs. James A. Otey. Sung by two old women of Walnut Spring, Va. Montgomery County. February 21, 1916. Mrs. Otey writes, "The apple tree still is here at Walnut Spring where the white school children acted and sang this ballad as I have taken it down - about the year 1867, they think. It was given me by two old scholars of the private school here. They never saw it in print."
4) Hangman! Hangman!- Lassiter (TN) c1868 McDowell -- From Memory Melodies- A Collection of Folk-Songs from Middle Tennessee- Mrs. L. L. McDowell; 1947. The song below, words and music, were furnished by Robert Lassiter, who says he has known it all his life. Robert A. Lassiter was born 1857.
5) Lord James- Sullivan (VT) c.1868 Flanders A
6) True Love- McCauley (NC) c.1877 Brown H
The Raspel Pole- Whisenhunt (OK) pre1880 Moore B
The Golden Ball- Grauman (MI-KY) 1883 Gardner
Slack Your Rope- West (IN) c.1885 Brewster
The Hangman's Tree- Wiseman (WV) 1891 Cox E
Hangman- McCord (MO) 1897 Randolph D
The Gallows Tree- Ditch (MO) 1900 Belden
The Hangman's Tree- (WV) 1902 Kittredge/Smith A
Hangman- Drain (AR) 1902 Randolph E
Oh Hangman- McDonald (AR) c1902 Randolph F
Saylan- cante-fable song (JA) 1907 Walter Jekyll
O, Stop Your Hand- Irish maid (MA) 1909 Kittredge
Granny & Golden Ball- Singleton(KY) 1909 Niles B
Hangman- Davis (VA) 1913 Davis P
My Golden Comb- colored girl (VA) 1913 Davis K
The Hangman's Tree- mt. woman (VA) 1914 Davis A
The Hangerman's Tree- Maxie (VA) 1914 Davis E
The Gallows Tree- Maxie (VA) 1914 Davis Q
The Hangman's Tree- Paugh (WV) 1915 Cox A
The Hangman's Tree- Paugh (WV) 1915 Cox D
The Gallows Tree- Davis (VA) 1915 Stone/ Davis M
Oh Hangman! - Tatum (VA) 1915 Davis V
Johnny Low- student (NC) 1915 Davis App A
Hangman Song- Crowder (NC) 1915 Hart/Kittredge
The Sorrowful Tree- Hampton (NC) 1915 Brown A
The Gallows Tree- (NC) c. 1915 Rawn/Brown B
The Hangman's Tree- Steele (WV) 1916 Cox B
Down by the Green Willow Tree- Hess (WV) 1916
The Hangman's Tree- Black (WV) 1916 Cox F
High Gallow's Tree- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp A
A Golden Cup- Buckner (NC) 1916 Sharp B
The Willow Tree- Black (WV) 1916 Sharp C
The Gallow's Tree- Chisolm (VA) 1916 Sharp D
The Hangman's Song- (KY) 1916 Wyman
The Hangman- Pine Mt. children (KY) 1916 Wells
My Golden Ball- Pearson (VA) 1916 Davis I
Hangman- Casey (VA) 1916 Fauntleroy/Davis R
Ropeman's Ballad- (MS) 1916 Darnall/ Davis App C
The Golden Ball- Anderson (NY) 1916 Kittredge JAF
Hangman- old woman (VA) 1917 Davis C
The Gallows Tree- Yowell (VA) 1917 Davis D
The Gallows Tree- Sprouse (VA) 1917 Davis H
Hangerman Tree- Texas Gladden (VA) 1917 Davis L
The Hangman's Tree- Pearson (VA) 1917 Davis S
Hangman- banjoist (FL) 1917 Munro/Davis App B
Hangman- Sloan (KY) 1917 Sharp F
Slackman- Short (KY) 1917 Sharp E
Hangman- Donald (VA) 1918 Sharp F
O Jailer- Mitchell (NC) 1918 Sharp H
Little Silver Cup- Jones (NC) 1918 Sharp I
Lord Joshuay- Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp J
Hangsman- Bowyer (VA) 1918 Sharp K
Hangsman- Bradley (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
Mister Hangman- Webb (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
O Hangsman- Grey (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
Dis Gallus Tree- sung by negroes (BA) Parsons 1918
O Hangsman- Long (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
The Gallows Tree- Bentley Ball (OH-NY) 1920 REC
Hangsman- Carpenter (VA) 1920 Davis N
Bya Lover Saved- Staats (WV) 1921 Cox G
Hangman- Joliffe (VA) 1921 Davis O
The Gallows Tree- (NC) c.1921 Sutton/Brown C
My Father Oh No- nurse (SC-NC) c.1921 Brown D
Hangman- Nash (VA) 1922 Davis G
Hangman- Pound (VA) 1922 Stone/Davis U
Hangsman- Wyatt (VA) 1922 Stone/Davis T
Hangman Song- Duncan (NC) 1922 Brown G
The Hangman's Song- Brown (MS) c1923 Hudson
The Hangman's Tree- gullah (SC) 1923 Parsons
Hangman- (KY) 1923 Sharp/Raine bk
To Save Me Body- Williams (JA) 1924 Beckwith
O Hang- Cooper (NC) 1924 Chappell
Hangman- Lucy (VA) pre1925 Scarborough A
Hangman, Slack the Line- Swain (FL) 1925 Scarb B
Hangman- Hoevey (LA) pre1925 Scarborough C
The Game of Coon-Can: W.F.B (MT) 1925 Gordon
The Highwayman- Charlie Poole (NC) 1926 REC
Johnnie Dear- (US-AU) pre1926 Smith/Gordon
My Golden Ball- Stanley (ME) 1926 Barry B
My Golden Ball- Gilley/Stanley (ME) 1926 Barry C
My Golden Ball- Matthews (ME) 1927 Barry D
Hold Your Hands- Lewis (MO) 1927 Randolph A
Stand Back, Stand Back- Lee (NC) 1927 Brown L
Hangman Slacken- Riddle (AR) c1927 Wolf
Hangman- Lengthy (TX-TN) 1927 Sandburg
Slack Your Rope- Caldwell (WV) 1928 Cox II
Hangman, Hangman- Charlie Poole (NC) 1928 REC
The Highwayman- (NC) c.1928 Blaylock/Brown M
The Gallows Tree- Chambliss (MO) 1929 Randolph B
The Hangman's Tree- Bellatty (ME) 1929 Barry A
O Hangman- Clark (NC) 1929 Henry A
Hangman- Hall (AR-TX) pre1930 Randolph C
Highway Man- Stokes (NC) 1931 Henry E
Ropesman- mountain girls (KY) 1931 Jean Thomas
John Hardy Blues- Roy Harvey (WV) 1931 REC
The Hangman's Song- Dills (KY) 1931 Fuson
The Hangman's Son- Callahan (NC) c1931 Scarb A2
Hangman, Hold your Rope- Knight (VA) 1931 Scarb B
Hangman- Gibson (VA) c.1931 Scarborough C
Hangsman's Tree- Gibson (VA) 1931 Knobloch/Davis
Hangman- Humphreys (VA) 1932 Davis AA
O Judges- Schell (NC) 1933 Matteson
Hang Down Your Head- Asa Martin (KY) 1933 REC
The Hangman's Song- (VA-TN) 1934 Cambiaire
Gallis Pole- Leadbelly (NY) 1935 REC
Jimmy Loud- Johnson (NC) 1935 Steely/McNeil A
Hangsman- Lam (VA) 1935 Wilkinson A
Endurance- Nathan Hicks (NC) c.1936 Matteson
The Hangman- Wilson (NC) 1936 Niles A
The Hangman's Song- Adams (VA) c.1936 Henry B
Georgy, Hold Up Your Hands- Ward(NC)1936 Brown E
Hangman- Harvey (MS) pre1936 Hudson C
The Hangman's Song- Clark (MS) 1936 Hudson D
The Hangman's Song- Estes (MS) 1936 Hudson E
Hangman- Stafford (MS-KY) pre1936 Hudson F
Hangman- Havens (TN) 1936 Anderson A
O Hangman- Baker (TN) 1936 Anderson B
The Highway Man- Wright (VA) 1936 Davis DD
Hangman- Dowsett (VA) 1937 Wilkinson B
Slack Your Rope- (TN) 1937 Campbell
The Hangman's Tree- Biggs (TN) 1937 Kirkland
Hangmen- Dickson (NC) 1938 Brown J
The Hangman's Rope- Stowe (TX) 1938 Owens
A Silvery Cup- Frank Proffitt (NC) 1939 Brown P
Hangman's Tree- Webb (NC) 1939 Brown Q
The Gallows Tree- York (NC) 1939 Brown R
The Gallent Tree- Brown (OH) 1939 Eddy A
Ropeman- Farnsworth (OH) 1939 Eddy B
Hangman- (NY) pre1939 Thompson
The Golden Ball- (NC) c.1940 Abrams, Variant 1
Rop'ry- Rohrbaugh (WV) 1940 Boette
A Silver Cup- Church (NC) 1941 Brown N
The Highwayman- Johnson (NC) 1941 Abrams
Ropesiman- Allen (CA) 1941 Todd/Sonkin LOC REC
Hangman, Swing Your Rope- Smith (VA) 1942 Lomax
The Gallows Tree- Walter (NC) pre1943 Brown 4C
Creep-O-Mellow Tree- R. Coffin (ME IN) 1943 Flan B
My Golden Ball- Parrish (IL) 1945 McIntosh
The Highway Man- (LA) 1945 Tallant/Saxon
The Miller's Daughter- Hester (AL) 1947 Arnold
Hangsman- Keener (WV) 1947 Musick
Hangman- J. Mason (TN) 1947 R. Mason
Hangman- Jean Ritchie (KY) 1949 REC Lomax
The Hangman's Tree- Miller (FL) 1950 Morris A
The Sycamore Tree- Simmons (FL) 1950 Morris B
O Jailer- Harn/Miller (FL) pre1950 Morris C
Hangs-a-man: Hall (KY) 1950 Roberts B
The Girl Who Freed Her Lover- Causey (FL) 1950
Hangman- Dave Couch (KY) pre1952 Roberts A
Hang 'er, Oh, Hang 'er- Thomas (AR) 1952 Parler D
Mr. Brakeman- Crymes (AR) 1953 Parler G
Hangman, Hangman- Woolsey (AR) 1954 Parler E
The Highwayman- Engles (KY) 1955 Ritchie
Weep-O-Mellow Tree- Halvosa (VT) 1957 Fland B2
Hangman, Hangman- Brewer(AR) 1958 Parler/Hunter B
The Hangman's Tree- Parker (AR) 1958 Parler B
Beneath the Gallows Tree- Wilburn(AR) 1958 Parler
The Gallows Tree- Burnside (WV) 1959 Gainer
The Hangman's Song- Harry Jackson(WY) 1959 REC
Slack Your Rope- Jimmie Driftwood (AR) 1959 REC
Wait, Hangman - Spencer (AR) 1962 Parler F
Hangman- Shiflett (VA) 1962 Foss/Abrahams
The Hangman Tree- Crow (OK) pre1964 Moores A
Poor Boy- Blue Sky Boys (KY) 1965 REC
John Gould, hangman- Bristol (WI) 1966 Abrahams
Hangman- Foster (TN) pre1966 Burton/ Manning
Hangman- Herrod (TN) 1967 Hunter E
Hang Me, Oh Hang Me- Gilbert (AR) 1969 Hunter C
Hangman- Campbell (OK) 1971 Hunter D
The Highwayman- Asa Martin (KY) 1972 REC Meade
Sailor Girl from Asia- (JA) 1973 Olive Lewin
Hangman- Glen Neaves (VA) 1974 REC
Hangman- Sarah Gunning (KY) 1974 REC Wilson
Hangman- Osterloh (MO) 1975 Hunter F
Hangman- Walker Family (KY) pre1977 McNeil B
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[Notes from Coffin; Ancient Ballads; Flanders 1963. Flanders includes 6 versions of "Derry Gaol/Streets of Derry" under "Maid Freed" (see versions C-G under 95 Appendix) which should be given as an appendix/secondary ballad.]
The Maid Freed from the Gallows
(Child 95)
"The Maid Freed from the Gallows" has been studied as thoroughly as any Child ballad: perhaps because it is known all over the Western world, perhaps because it is a sort of model folk song with its simple plot, question and answer structure, and incremental repetition. The original story probably involved a girl who was captured by pirates. The brigands, eager for ransom, take her to her father, mother, brother, sister, and so forth, seeking gold. They all refuse, until finally her sweetheart (or husband) says he'd rather lose all his wealth than lose her. Later, when her father, mother, brother, etc., die, she dresses in gaudy colors, saying only her sweetheart is worthy of black. This plot is usually much abridged in Britain and America, and the scene is shifted to a gallows tree where the girl is to be hung for an unknown crime or for losing a golden comb, key, or ball that some scholars have associated with her virginity. In these versions, a judge or hangman is addressed at the opening, and the "gaudy colors for mourning" portion is left out. Erich Pohl's monograph in FFC, No. 105, l-265, gives a detailed history of the song, as does Iivar Kemppinen's Lunastettasa neito (Helsinki, 1957). For other interesting articles, see Child, II, 346f ., where the European analogues are summarized; Sager's essay in Modern Philology, XXVIII , 129 f.; Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads, Cambridge, Mass., 1928), Chapter 8; Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of the Negro Folk-Song (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 35 t.; Lucy Broadwood's remarks in JFSS, V, 231: George Lyman Kittredge's remarks in JAF, XXX, 319; Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 210-213; and Belden, 66. The famous treatment of the song by Kittredge in the one-volume Cambridge Edition of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston and New York, 1904), xi-xxxi, is a museum piece also worth noting.
The ballad, though quite consistent throughout its many travels, has been used in a number of different ways-as a lyric, a game, a drama, a play-party dance, a cantefable, a folktale. Coffin, 98-99, opens a fairly extensive list of references for each of these developments. He also treats the plot oddities (the man at the gallows, the mother's rescue of her son, the hanging of the maid, etc.) that have occurred in America. The Flanders texts of the song are rather unusual. The normal opening: "Hangsman, Hangsman, hold your rope awhile," known all over America, was not collected for the Archive, although Barry, op. cit., 206, gives an example from Maine. The A text, from Ireland, is of course of much the same general sort as Barry's find, as may well be the Mid-western variants B1 and 82 with their "mellow tree" burden. B1 and 82 are quite typical of the most common New World forms in all except the burden. The golden ball, mentioned in A, is not extremely unusual in America (see Barry, op. cit., 207), but is more popular in Britain and in the west Indian cantefables. The C-G series, called "James Derry," or "The Streets of Derry," is listed by Barry, op. cit., 389-393, as a "secondary form" of child 95. This is an Irish re-writing of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" that may be connected to the uprisings of 1798. It is a fine example of balladry and well worth inclusion in the extensive canon
of the famous plot.
For bibliographical material on the texts of Child 95, refer to Coffin,96-99 (American); Dean-Smith, 86, and Belden, 66 (English). References to European analogues can be had through the citations in Child, the FFC monograph, Kemppinen's book, and the Modern Philology article mentioned above. see also Paul Brewster, Ballads and, songs of Indiana (Indiana University Publications, Folklore series, No. 1, 1940), I25 (Hungarian); NYFQ, II, 199 (Italian); and SFQ, V, 25 (Rumanian). A fragment from a "Derry" text is given in JAF, XXVI, 175.
The eight tunes for Child 95 can be divided into one large group (Hayes, Luther, Robie, Finnemore, and possibly Halvosa) and three separate, apparently unrelated ones Sullivan, Coffin, Merrill). Even though many tunes for Child 95 are included in the standard American collections, it is difficult to find tunes related to those in this collection.
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[Barry and all's texts and notes, 4 versions, mention of others]
BRITISH BALLADS FROM MAINE p. 206
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child 95)
Form I. The Hangman's Tree
From Miss Helene Bellatty, Ellsworth, who took this down from the dictation of her father, Capt. W. C. Bellatty, who followed the sea for more than sixty years and was master of the last Ellsworth-owned coaster.
1 "Hangman, hangman, hold the rope,
Hold it for awhile,
For I think I see my father now,
Riding many a mile.
"Father, father, have you gold,
Gold to set me free ?
[Or have you come to see me hanged
Upon a gallows tree?"]
"No, my daughter, I have no gold,
Gold to set you free,
But I have come to see you hung
Upon a gallows tree."
"The same conversation takes place with the mother, sister, brother; then comes the sweetheart."
4 "Hangman, hangman, hold the rope,
Hold it for awhile,
For I think I see my truelove now,
Riding many a mile.
5 "Truelove, truelove, have you gold,
Gold to set me free,
[Or have you come to see me hanged
Upon a gallows tree?"]
6 "Yes, my love, I have gold,
Gold to set you free,
And have not come to see you hung
Upon a gallows tree."
Mr. Alden Mace, Southwest Harbor, said, Sept. 12, 1928, that he had heard "Hangman, hangman, stay thy hand," but did not know it. The question was asked of nearly everyone with whom we conversed about the old songs during September, and no one could give a line of it, or the air, although several had heard it sung years ago.
Form II. The Golden Ball
There is another form of the Hangman Song, characterized by the maid who is to be hanged having lost a golden ball, which must be returned if she is not to suffer the penalty. This also was once known upon the Maine coast, and we have recovered a few fragments but have been unable to find anyone who could sing the air to it.
A. Recited, September 3, 1926, by Mrs. Nancy (Gilley) Stanley, Big Cranberry Island, who said that her father, Joseph Gilley of Baker Island, used to sing it.
1 She look-ed over the hills for many a day
And saw her grandmother coming.
2 She said: "O grandmother,
Have you found my golden ball?
Or have you come to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hung
Upon the greenwood tree?"
3 "I haven't found your golden ball,
I haven't come to set you free,
But I have come to see you hung
Upon the greenwood tree."
B. Written down, upon request, by Mrs. Phebe J. (Gilley) Stanley, Baker Island, elder sister of the preceding, as what she remembered of her father's song.
1 She look-ed over the hills for many a day
And saw her father coming'
She said: "O father,
Have you found my golden ball?
Or have you come to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hanged
Upon the Linden Tree ?"
"I haven't found your golden ball,
I haven't come to set You free;
But I have come to see You hanged
Upon the Linden Tree."
2 She look-ed over the hills for many a day
And saw her mother coming,
She said: "O mother,
Have you found my golden ball?
Or have you come to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hanged
Upon the Linden Tree ?"
"I haven't found your golden ball,
I haven't come to set you free,
But I have come to see you hanged
Upon the Linden Tree."
(The stanzas for the brother and sister are similar.)
3 She lookid over the hills for many a day
And saw her grandmother coming.
She said: "O grandmother,
Have you found my golden ball?
Or have you come to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hanged
Upon the Linden Tree?"
"Yes, I have found your golden ball,
So I have come to set you free;
I have not come to see you hanged
Upon the Linden Tree."
C. Fragment, taken down, October, 1927, from the recitation of Mrs. Frank Matthews, Eastport.
"Have you found my golden ball ?
Have you thought of me?
Have you come to take me off
This dreadful willow tree?"
"I've not found your golden ball,
I've not thought of thee,
I've not come to take you off
This dreadful willow tree."
(The girl's brothers and sisters say the same thing, and finally her lover comes to her assistance.)
3 "Yes, I've found your golden ball,
I have thought of thee,
I have come to take you off
This dreadful willow tree."
Three of Joseph Gilley's daughters, Mrs. Nancy Stanley, Mrs. Phebe Stanley, and Mrs. Harriet Taylor, aged, respectively, when interviewed, seventy-four, eighty-four, and eighty-eight years, all recalled some part of this old song; but the only other textual fragment found is that of Mrs. Matthews. Yet Mrs. Archie S. Spurling of Islesford could remember having heard it sung, and Mrs. Fred W. Morse of Islesford said that she had heard an old wandering beggar man in Ireland sing "The Golden 8all." Several persons along the border could also recall having heard it long ago.
"The Golden Ball" is related most closely to Child F, G, H (II, 353-354). Of these, F was "sung in Forfarshire. . . by girls during
the progress of some game," while H, of which Child gave two forms, was part of a cante-fable. The view first put forward by Child, and lately reaffirmed by Prof. Reed Smith (South Carolina Ballads, p. 44), that the game-song and the cante-fable represent the last stages in the deterioration of this ballad, is not to be taken unqualifiedly.
A common feature of the "Golden Ball" versions, whether as ballad, game, or cante-fable, consists in the placing of the heroine in such a situation, that the failure to produce some precious article, --golden ball, golden key, golden cup, silver cup, etc.,--entrusted to her keeping, involves, either directly or indirectly, death on the gallows. Thus in Child H b, the golden ball is the property of a rich woman, who obliges her maid to clean it every day. The maid loses it in a stream, and is sentenced to be hanged. The best forms of the cante-fable, however, have been recorded from the tradition of American Negroes.
In Yoodoo Tales (pp. 185 ff.), collected by Miss Mary A. Owen from Negro tradition in Missouri, we have "De Tale ob de Gol'en Ball." The content of this tale is as follows:
An old beggar, hospitably received by a Negro family, gives the daughter a golden ball, the possession of which transforms her to a white girl, with hair "straight ez cawn-silk," and "yalleh ez de ball." An Obeah woman poisons the girl's mother, marries the father, and cuts the string on which the ball hangs from the girl's neck. With the loss of the ball, the girl becomes a Negro,
--she is charged by her stepmother with killing the white girl, and sentenced to be hanged.
"De po' brack gal, she cry an' cry.
Huh daddy come.
She call at 'im--
'O daddy, fine dat gol'en ball, ur yo' see me hang 'pun de gallus-tree!'
Father, stepmother, beau, however, all pass by unheeding.
"Ole beggeh-man, he bline, he lame. He stop. He say, 'I save dat gal. I save huh fum de gallus-tree.'
Beggeh-man hole out de gol'en ball.
She won't die on de gallus-tree."
The beggar-man denounces the stepmother, who is hanged. The girl, white once more, repulses the advances of her lover, and refuses to go home with her father.
"Beggeh-man change, he putty, now (he had become beautiful), an' oh! he save huh fum de gallus tree."
The girl goes away with the transformed beggar-man.
"De hill, hit open good an' rvide. Dev bofe go thu dat big wide crack.
Dey done fegit de gallus-tree.
De hill, hit shet closte up ergin."
With this form of the tale, may be compared a Jamaican version (W. Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story, pp.58 ff.).
There was a man have two daughter. One of the daughter belongs to the wife, an' one belongs to the man. An' the wife no love for the man daughter,
so they drive her away.
An' she get a sitivation at ten shillings a week, an' the work is to look
after two horses, an' to cut dry grass for them.
An' every night she put two bundles of dry grass in the 'table.
An' the mother was very grudgeful of the sitivation that she got.
An' one night she carry her own daughter to the pastur' an' they cut two
bundles of green grass. An' they go secretly to the horse manger, an' take out
the dry grass, an' put the green grass in its place.
So the horse eat it, an' in the morning they dead.
An' the master of that horse is a sailor,
The sailor took the gal who caring the horse to hang!
An, when he get to the 'pot a place to hang her, he take this song, (At this point the ballad is introduced.)
A third Negro version of the cante-fable is printed by Mrs. E. C. Parsons in Folk Tales of Andros Island's, PP. 152-153:
Now dis was a king had one daughter. He sen' her to school in anoder countree, an' enchanted lan'. He (she) been d'eah to school. Fall in love wi' a schoolboy name of Jack. Jack belongin' to dat same place' After get through her edication, she went back ho*"] Now, she become a beeg woman, time become engaged. De princess son want to be engaged to her' she won't accep' to her (him). All de high majorities she oofdrr' accep' to none, one d'ay more 'n all, she went out for a walk. In walkin' she pick up a gold watch. She turn back home, she say "O mommer ! look what a beautiful present I picked up !" So her mother didn't stan'. She make de alarm' She say d'at she steal it. Dat de revenge l"uor" she wouldn't cote (court) none of dese high people. In dose days dey don' put you in jail for stealin' dey hang. Day make de gallows ready to be hung. Dey took her down where dey hail de gallers rig. And deah she stud up. (At this point in the story, the ballad is introduced.)
If we may venture to read between the lines of this text, the conclusion is perhaps not too far fetched that the mother and the rejected lover were in collusion, and had placed the watch where the girl might find it, and be accused of the theft.
In South Carolina Ballads, pp. 89-90, Professor Smith quotes the last two of these versions, but not the first, to show that as a cante-fable, this ballad is on "the road downhill." We must not, however, overlook the fact that the cante-fable, in general, is not necessarily a late product. The game-song version, of several ballads do represent a stage of decay; in the present instance at least, however, the folk-tale and cante-fable have preserved. relics of a stage of development which is even older than the ballad.
The earliest record of a romantic theme conforming to the situation in the foregoing Negro cante-fables, as well as in the "Golden Ball" form of "The Maid Freed from Gallows," is found in the ninth century Irish tale of the "Distressed Handmaid." According to one account, there was a certain bard who gave a precious object of silver into the keeping of his handmaid. His wife stole it, and threw it into the sea.
When the bard learned of his loss, he made ready to kill the handmaid. She appealed to St. Brigid, by whom the lost article was miraculously recovered in the inside of a salmon. (Thesaurus Palaeohi, bernicus, II, 345.) Another form of the tale made the bard to have been enamored of the girl. The loss of the treasure, stolen by him intentionally, and thrown into the sea, w&s to be compensated for with her honor. (Acta Sanctoruna, I Feb., p. 139.) In the form in which it has come down to us, the Irish story has been used but as a tag on which to hang a, commonplace hagiographic miracle. Only a dim memory of the romantic element has survived. Yet it serves to corroborate the explanation of the theme of "The Golden Ball" quoted by Miss Dorothy Scarborough (on the Trail, of Negro Folk-Songs, p.38) that "the story is all allegory, -the golden ball signifying a maiden's honor, which, when lost, can be restored to her only by her lover."
In the modern cante-fable, we have, for instance in Child H b, and in the Jamaica version, the heroine described as a servant. This detail of the tradition has in the Missouri version become affected by the motif of the "loathly lady," made intelligible for Negro habits of thought by picturing the girl as changed into a Negro by the loss of the golden ball. The jealous wife of the Irish tale, who throws the entrusted jewel into the sea to encompass the death of the handmaid, has in the Negro versions become a jealous mother or stepmother. The Missouri version, however, in which the story has been crossed with the theme of "Hind
Horn," has retained at least one motif, which connects it indubitably with Celtic mythology. The magician and the girl go together to the magician's home, through an opening in the side of a hill, which closes up behind them. That is, the magician is a Fairy Prince, one of the sid-folk, a supernatural race of Celtic romance, who were believed to inhabit the sid, or barrows.
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[Notes/texts from Smith, South Carolina Ballads, 1928. Reed Smith wrote an article (one chapter of his book) titled, Five Hundred Years of the 'Maid Freed from the Gallows.' (see Recordings & Info page). ]
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95)
Campbell and Sharp give four texts and four tunes; Cox gives seven texts; Sharp gives one text with tune. For additional American references, see Cox's head-note, p. 115; and for English references, Sharp, Notes, pp. xxiv, xxv. The usual American title for this ballad is "The Hangman's-Tree," or "The Ropeman." For an account of its extended career in oral tradition, see above pp. 80-94.
"The Hangman's Tree." Communicated by Reed Smith, who heard the ballad in West Virginia in the summer of 1902. He was working with a surveyor's crew ten miles from the railroad in the mountains. One night, he heard one of the axemen singing a peculiar minor air. This man could neither read nor write and had lived in McDowell county all his life. As minors always have a strange fascination for amateur musicians, the young surveyor hummed the tune over several times till he learned it. It look no special effort to remember the words; they practically "learned themselves." Several years later, he found that this song, picked up so casually and accidentally in West Virginia, is an excellent American variant of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows."
[music]
"Slack your rope, hangs-a-man,
O slack it for a while;
I think I see my father coming,
Riding many a mile.
"O father have you brought me gold?
Or have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanging
On the gallows-tree ?"
"I have not brought you gold;
I have not paid your fee;
But I have come to see you hanging
On the gallows-tree."
4. "Slack your rope, hangs-a-man,
O slack it for a while;
I think I see my mother coming,
Riding many a mile.
5. "C mother have you brought me gold?
Or have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanging
On the gallows-tree? "
6. "I have not brought you gold;
I have not paid your fee;
But I have come to see you hanging
On the gallows-tree."
(And so on for brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.)
7 "Slack your rope, hangs-a-man,
O slack it for a while;
I think I see my truelove coming
Riding many a mile.
8 "O truelove have you brought me gold?
Or have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanging
On the gallows-tree ?"
9 "Yes I have brought you gold;
Yes, I have paid your fee;
Nor have I come to see you hanging
On the gallows-tree."
B. "The Scarlet Tree." Communicated by Mr. W. R. Dehon, of Summerville, S. C., in 1913. Mr. Dehon learned it from the singing of a colored nurse many years ago. "The name of the nurse was Margaret," he writes. "She belonged to my Uncle, the Rev. Paul Trapier, then rector of St. Michael's Church, Charleston, who was living then, about 1856 or 1857, in my Great-Grandfather's house, known as the 'N. R.' house on Meeting Street next south of the Scotch Church. It was when visiting at this house that we as children used to hear Margaret recite 'The Hangman's Tree'."
1 "Hangman, hang man, hold your hand
A little longer still;
I think I see my father coming
And he will set me free.
2. "Oh father, father, have you brought
My golden ball and come to set me free,
Or have you come to see me hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree?"
3. "I have not brought your golden ball,
Or come to set you free;
But I have come to see you hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree."
(So on through the family till the lover comes.)
3 "I have brought your golden ball;
I come to set you free;
I have not come to see you hung
Upon the Scarlet Tree."
C. "The Hangman's Tree." A variant from Richland County, S. C.
D. "The Sorrow Tree." A variant from Greenville County, S. C.
E. "The Ropeman." Communicated by Mrs. Iola Cooley King, of Williamston, S. C., in 1913.
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[Notes from Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. Davis give version A-V and three more from other states in an Appendice.]
27. THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95)
THE first American text of this ballad to be printed came from Virginia (via North Carolina). Miss Backus, who transmitted it to Professor Child describes it as " an old English song, in the Yorkshire dialect, brought over to Virginia before the Revolution." Child includes it in V, 296, and Professor Kittredge has made it widely known by including it and discussing it in his Introduction to the one-volume edition of English and Scottish Popular Ballads, pp. XXVI. It is this version that, except for its Yorkshire dialect, most of the Virginia variants resemble. In language they most resemble Child B, though their quite universal use of the term "hangman" would link them to the Child fragment G, where alone does the term appear in Child. There is no trace among the Virginia variants of the strong ending of the Scottish version (Child I), in which the released prisoner turns upon her heartless relatives and flays them with curses. At least five Virginia texts (E, F, G, H, and I) are like the version of Child III, 516, in that the prisoner is a man, not a maid.
Child suggests that "this may be a modern turn of the story, arising from the disposition to mitigate a tragic tale." And three Virginia texts (I, J, and K), like Child F, G, and H, give a suggestion of the offense for which the prisoner is in danger of hanging. But despite these other affiliations, the main resemblance is with the Child Y, 296, version. The thirty-one texts and five melodies collected in Virginia show the popularity of the ballad in the state, where it is generally known as "The Hang- man's Tree," or "The Gallows Tree," or "Hangman," or "Freed from the Gallows," or "The Maid Saved," and by various Negro and other perversions of these titles, such as "The Hangerman's Tree," "Hangsman," and " Hanger-man Tree," as well as by its Child title. The ballad is a special favorite among the Negroes, who have all but appropriated it to their own uses. Not only do they sing it; they act it as well.
Several records of its dramatization in Virginia are in the files of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society. Possibly the best account is found in a letter from Miss Mary I. Bell, formerly a teacher in the State Normal School of Harrisonburg, Va., dated May 27, 1913. The performance was at Scottsville, in Albemarle County, only some twenty miles from the University of Virginia:
It was a long time ago- probably twenty-five years - at the Colored school-house, as a part of the closing exercises of the school. We young people always attended these exercises if possible, because we were sure of being highly entertained. This particular play I remember better than any other I ever saw there because we thought it so very funny, though plainly intended to be so very sad. They had on the stage a rather rude representation of the upper part of a scaffold. A rope the size of a man's wrist was thrown over the cross-beam, one end being tied around the neck of a most dejected looking girl and the other end held in the hand of a middle-aged man of sternest aspect. She alone did any singing. The apparently endless procession of relatives recited their parts very glibly until at last when her "true love" arrived he sang his part and then the lovers ended the play with a joyous duet. I did not know then that it was a ballad.
The Negroes use the ballad as a game also. Mrs. Robert R. Morton, wife of the former executive of Hampton Institute, wrote to Dr. Smith, Dec. 2, 1915, saying: "when I was a child in Gloucester county, they used it as a game. And Mr. Stone reports of one of the tunes of the ballad (M), "The old time Negroes used it as the music to one of their games. Three instances of this kind were found in Nelson County." The words of some of the Negro versions, such as E and K, are highly entertaining. Dr. Smith attributes the popularity of this ballad among the Colored folk to "the adaptability of the theme and the easily remembered framework of the stanzas, qualities that mark the intersection of the ballad proper and the Negro camp-meeting song as types." For a fuller consideration of its use among the Negroes of the South, see Scarborough, Chap. II, pp. 34-43. Through the courtesy of Dr. Smith, Miss Scarborough presents a good deal of Virginia material in her discussion.
But white people as well as Negroes are known to have used the ballad as a play and as a game in Virginia. Mrs. James A. Otey writes from Montgomery County., February 21, 1916: "The apple- tree still is here at Walnut-Spring where the white children acted and sang this ballad as I have taken it down - about the- year 1867, they think. It was given to me by two old scholars of the private school here. They never saw it in print." (See Virginia J.) compare Child F, which is a children's game.
The wide currency of this ballad in Continental literature has been pointed out by Child, as has the fact that most of the English versions are defective and distorted in comparison with the European. Seldom is any explanation given of the danger in which the heroine (sometimes hero) finds herself (himself). In many versions in other languages, however , "a young woman has fallen into the hands of corsairs; father, mother, brother, sister,"refuse to pay ransom, but her lover, in one case husband, stickles at no price which may be necessary to retrieve her," says Child. "Another tradition," says Miss Scarborough, " holds that the story is all allegory, the golden ball signifying a maiden's honor, which when lost can be retrieved to her only by her lover. [Gilchrist 1915]. That would explain the sentence of death; for, in old times, death by burning or hanging was the penalty for unchastity on the part of a maid, or wife." Miss Scarborough gives also a more dialetic Negro interpretation, involving a lost golden ball and various magician's tricks. Of the three Virginia texts which attempt any explanation (I, J, and [), one has the sub-title, "The Girl to Be Hanged for Stealing a-Comb," the second also contains the inquiry whether the golden comb has been found, the third introduces the golden ball and the contributor attempts a fuller reconstruction of the story, as follows:
"A man received a golden ball and promised never to part with it. Later he gave it to his sweetheart, but when questioned refused to tell what he did with it. He is to be hanged for this and is saved by his sweetheart who returns the golden ball."
As a guide to the variants following, A to D are normal but interesting Virginia texts; E-to I reverse the sexes of the prisoner and rescuer; I to K give some explanation or inkling of the prisoner's offense; L to O are comprised but complete variants; P to V continue the series A to D, of normal Virginia texts with interesting variations. Nine variants have been excluded as adding little or nothing to the material included. They may be described as normal texts without significant variations from those included.
As appendices, for purposes of comparison, are given three texts which drifted in to the Virginia Folk-Lore Society from three other Southern states (Appendices A, B, and C). A is a quite different version, in which the victim is rescued by the mother; B has interesting verbal changes and a man as victim; C addresses the hangman as "Ropeman," and has other verbal changes. They are from North Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi, respectively.
For other American texts, see Barry, No. 25; Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-6; 8-10; Campbell and Sharp, No. 24 (Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia); Child Y, 296 (Virginia via North Carolina), 417 (North Carolina, melody only); Cox, No. 18; Hudson, No. 15 (and, Journal, XXXIX, 105; Mississippi); Journal, XIX, 22 (Hutchinson, Virginia, from English and Scottish, Popular Ballads. Sargent and Kittredge, p.xxv); XXI, 56 (Kittredge, West Virginia); XXIV, 97 (Barry, melody only, reprinted from the Hudson MS. No. 355); XXVI, 175 (Kittredge, Massachusetts, fragment); XXX, 319 (Kittredge, New York, Missouri, text and melody, North Carolina); Pound, Ballads, No. 131 Sandburg, p. 72 (South Carolina); Scarborough, pp. 35 (Virginia), 39 (Florida, text and melody), 41 (Louisiana); C. A. Smith, pp. 6 (North Carolina), 10 (Virginia, fragments); Reed Smith, No. 10; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 10; Wyman and Brockway, p.44. For additional references, see Cox, p. 115; Journal, XXXI 318. For a recent consideration of this particular ballad, see Reed Smith, Ballads, Chapter VIII, "Five Hundred Years of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows.' "
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[Supplemental article on Leadbelly's Gallis Pole]
Art in Negro Folksong
by Russell Ames
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 222 (Oct. - Dec., 1943), pp. 241-254
Listen: Huddie Ledbetter
"The Gallis Pole," as sung by Huddie Ledbetter,[7] is a cante fable version of "The Hangman's Tree," having its fullest version in the Sicilian "Scibilia Nobili," known in England as "The Maid Freed from the Gallows," and found in the British West Indies in cante fable form also. It has a clear analogue in an Irish legend about a girl who is "framed" by a married man who wishes to
blackmail her into sexual submission. This ballad has been transformed, now by Ledbetter, so that we have a young southern Negro man in danger of hanging. Stanza form and diction have been much altered; allusions are thoroughly American. The main dramatic scene, however, and its method of presentation- the fine question and answer method incrementally applied to
parents, friend, and sweetheart-has been adopted with a sure feeling for folksong technique. A version sung about one hundred years ago by an English nursemaid asks the first question thus:
Oh hast thou brought me silver or gold
Or jewels to set me free?
Or hast thou come to see me hung?
For hanged I shall be.
Ledbetter sings the first question in this way (and the reader should not allow phonetic spelling to suggest a crudeness in these verses; the subtle rhythmic line of the song creates a powerfully insistent and tragic mood):
Father, did you bring me any silvo?
Father, did you bring me any gold?
What did you bring me, dear Father,
To keep me from the gallis pole?
Yas.
What didya? Yas.
What didya?
Whadya bring me
To keep me from the gallis pole?
Here repetition is used symmetrically through several stanzas, as in the Child ballads, to advance the story; but the stanza structure, the phrasing, the background of the scene-all are completely changed. The main situation and the main technique were not given by any sources at any time but were taken by later singers and adapted wholesale to their own art, thought, and emotion.
7 Musicraft Album 31, #227. He is commonly known as Lead Belly.
8 Child (95).
9 In a recent Victor album of prison songs, The Midnight Special.
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[Notes by Kittredge 1917 JAFL]
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS (Child, No. 95).
The first American copy to be printed was published by Child (5 :296), - "The Hangman's Tree," from Virginia by way of North Carolina. Others have appeared in JAFL 21 : 56 (West Virginia, Reed Smith); 26 : 175 (from an Irish servant in Massachusetts); 127 : 64 (South Carolina, Reed Smith); and Miss Wyman and Mr. Brockway have included still another (with the music) in their "Lonesome Tunes," I : 44-48 ("The Hangman's Tree," from Harlan County, Kentucky). See also Reed Smith (JAFL 27 : 59-63; 28 : 200-202); F. C. Brown, p. 9; Cox, 46 :359 (JAFL 29 : 400). For England see Broadwood and Fuller Maitland, "English County Songs," pp. 112- 113 ("The Prickly Bush"); Sharp, "Folk Songs from Somerset," 5: 54-55 ("The Briery Bush"); Sharp, "One Hundred English Folksongs," No. 17, pp. xxiv-xxv, 42-43; "Journal of the Folk-Song Society," 2 : 233-234; 5 : 228-239.
Professor C. Alphonso Smith reports several Virginia variants, with specimens, and gives an extremely interesting account of the performance of the piece among the negroes of Albemarle County as "an out-of-door drama" some twenty-five years ago.[2] An account of a similar performance in England may be found in the "Journal of the Folk-Song Society," 5 : 233-334.? Compare the first version printed below. Professor Smith also reports a variant from Tennessee ("Summer School News," July 31, 1914 (I : I, No. 12, Summer School of the South).
1 Barry prints a tune from Ireland in JAFL 24: 337 (Hudson MS., Boston Public Library, No. 121).
2 Ballads Surviving in the United States, reprinted from the January, 1916, Musical Quarterly, pp. 10-12. See also the Bulletin of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society, No. 2, p. 5; No. 3, p. 8; No. 4, P. 7; No. 5, p. 8. 3 Here reference is made to Mary A. Owen's Voodoo Tales (published in England under the title of Old Rabbit the Voodoo), New York, 1893, pp. 185-189, especially pp. 188-189 (also in Philadelphia ed., 1898, Old Rabbit's Plantation Stories, same pages).
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There a re a number of "Hangman Blues"; including Blind Lemon Jefferson and Brownie McGee. See also:
"Bertha 'Chippie' Hill: Complete Recorded Works 1925-1929 In Chronological Order" Document Records: DOCD-5330; Hill, Bertha "Chippie" (Charleston, SC)
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Ancient Themes and Characteristics Found in Certain New England Folksongs by Helen Hartness Flanders (see this version in my collection) The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 77, No. 303 (Jan. - Mar., 1964), pp. 32-38.
Now note the patterned repetitions in the latter-day form of Child 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows," a reiterating pressing way of narration in both cases. This is as sung by Mrs. Peggy Coffin Halvosa of Barre, Vermont, learned from her father, the poet Robert P. Tristram Coffin.
WEEP-O-MELLOW TREE
"O mother, mother, bring me gold
For to set me free
For today I'm going to be hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"O Johnny, no, I've brought no gold
For to set you free.
I have come to see you hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"0 father, father, bring me gold
For to set me free
For today I'm going to be hung
Under the weep-o-mellow tree."
"O Johnny, no ..."
and so on through the family.
--------------------------------
[Alfreda Peel collected a version of "Maid Freed" from Texas Gladden for Davis in 1917. Whether she learned some or part of the ballad from Peel is unknown. However Gladden's "Riddle's Widely Expounded" version was she learned from Peel. This article explores Gladden's version of Mary Hamilton which Peel collected.]
On Child 76 and 173 in Divers Hands
by A. H. Scouten
Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 64, No. 251 (Jan. - Mar., 1951), pp. 131-132
Readers of Professor Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia will recall that Miss Alfreda M. Peel of Salem, Virginia, contributed a large number of ballad texts and tunes. In fact, one of her important "finds" was three stanzas of Child I73 ("Mary Hamilton").
In the spring of 1922 she secured two versions from Mrs. Marion Chandler and in November 30, 1923, she obtained the tune as well. From her interest demonstrated in connection with these texts, one might assume that Miss Peel had sent to the Ballad Society all the stanzas she could find; indeed Mr. Davis quotes her as saying this about her findings:
"... which I believe are all that have been found in this country." (p. 48.) Meanwhile Miss Peel had recorded Child 95 ("The Maid Freed from the Gallows") from the singing of Mrs. Texas Gladden on May 27, 1917, in Salem. This entry is the only one in Davis's book that derives from Mrs. Gladden. But in 1941 Alan Lomax was able to secure for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress a recording in Salem from Mrs. Texas Gladden of Child 173, in ten stanzas. Since the singer apparently did not know this ballad in 1917 or as late as I923, one's curiosity is stirred. But the question is easily resolved for us in the printed sheet issued for this recording (AAFS32B) by the editor, Dr. B. A. Botkin. In the introduction to the text, Dr. Botkin tells us that the singer "learned the song from Miss Alfreda M. Peel, of Salem." Here a new query arises concerning
where Miss Peel learned the version that she taught Mrs. Gladden. In turning to the text of Mrs. Gladden's version, the reader will find that the words bear a remarkable similarity to Child's "A" recension. The chief difference is that most of the Scotch
dialect has been removed. Otherwise, her stanza I is Child's A I; stanza 2 is A 4, with the distinguishing phrase "old Queen"; stanzas 3 and 4 are A 6 and 7; stanzas 5, 6, and 7 are a blend or condensation from A Io, 8, 9, and 12. Then in stanza 5 interesting evidence appears: Mrs. Gladden sings "Cannogate," whereupon the editor inserts "Canongate" in brackets; but "Cannogate" is precisely the reading of Child A o1. In stanzas 8 and 9 appear the first intrusions; here Mrs. Gladden sings "Oh, tie a napkin o'er my eyes, / And ne'er let me see to dee." Now these two lines are from one of the two versions contributed
by Miss Peel to Mr. Davis and the Ballad Society in I922. And the other lines extraneous to Child A ("And carried her to her bed" and "The Gallows hard to tread") are, respectively, Davis A 3, lines 2 and 4.
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[Notes from Davis: More Traditional Ballads from Virginia 1960. ]
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95)
The widespread European popularity of this ballad is emphasized by Child, who devotes most of his five-page headnote to a summary description of versions in the following languages: Sicilian, Spanish, Faroe, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, German, Esthonian, Wendish, Russian, Little-Russian, and Slovenian. The usual story of the ballad, both in northern and southern Europe, is thus summarized by Child: "A youug woman has fallen into the hands of corsairs; father, mother, brother, sister, refuse to pay ransom, but her lover, in one case husband, stickles at no price which may be necessary to retrieve her." By comparison with these texts, Child finds the English versions "defective and distorted" and they are so in the sense that they seldom give any explanation for the maid's plight but present only the final conversational drama and its happy resolution, with the resulting release of tension. In any other sense, one would find Child's adjectives unduly harsh, in view of the known tendency of ballads to reduce antecedent action to a minimum and to concentrate on the crucial situation. Such simplification and concentration do not suggest inferiority. On the contrary, whether or not all of our curiosity about the situation is satisfied, the ballad is a superb example of ballad compression, dramatic presentation, objectivity of narrative method, and incremental repetition.
A few English and American texts do offer some explanation of the girl's plight: she has lost or stolen a golden ball, comb, key, or cup. Miss Lucy Broadwood and others following her have suggested that the golden ball represents virginity. See Coffin, pp. 95-99, for detailed references.
Since the time of Child, the ballad has been widely collected in many versions in England and the United States, but not in Scotland or in Canada. TBVa prints twenty-two of thirty-one available texts, and five tunes. More recently, four additional items, with two tunes, have been recovered from Virginia. All four and both tunes have been found worthy of inclusion here.
In a sampling of recent American collections, the ballad is represented as follows: Cox, seven texts and no tune: Barry, four texts and no tune; Sharp-Karpeles, ten texts (or partial texts) and ten tunes; Belden, one text and one tune; Randolph, six texts and four tunes; Brown, thirteen texts and eight tunes ; and so on. Belden (p. 66) lists fourteen American states in which the ballad had been found before 1940, and Brown (II, 143) adds four more states recently heard from. Coffin (p. 96) gives an impressive list of references.
In America the somewhat ponderous Child title is more often "Hangman," "Hangman's Tree," "The Gallows Tree," of some such title. The sex of the victim is sometimes changed from a girl to a man, sometimes left in doubt. The "golden ball" form of the story or other explanation of the girl's predicament is rare. Occasionally, the ballad is acted as a play or used as a game, especially by Negroes, to whom the ballad's simple dramatic form and repetitive stanzaic pattern (the latter so closely akin to their own spirituals) seem to have appealed. In this connection, note Kittredge's use of a version of this ballad (incidentally, a version which was brought over to Virginia before the Revolution) to illustrate the portibility of a qualified form of so-called "communal composition," in his Introduction to the one-volume edition of Child (pp. xxv-xxvii). But let us not revive ancient controversy!
The ballad has been much written about, especially as to its currency among Negroes, who also make use of the story as a combination of ballad stanzas and interpolated narrative or folk tale closely related to the form known as cante-fable. (Several of Child's texts also approach the cante-fable form) Chapter 8 of Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads traces "Five Hundred Years of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' " (pp. 80-94). Miss Dorothy Scarborough writes delightfully and informatively of her encounters with this ballad in On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs (pp. 35-43). versions of the cante-fable form current among the Negroes of Jamaica and the Bahamas are given in Walter Jekyll's Jamaican Song and Story (pp. 35 tr.), by Elsie Clews Parsons in "Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas," Memoirs of the American Folk Lore Society, XIII (1918), 152-54, and by Miss Martha M. Beckwith in "The English Ballad in Jamaica," PMLA, XXXI), (June, 1924), 475-76. Miss Beckwith's cante-fable text from Jamaica is reprinted in The Ballad Book (1955) of MacEdward Leach as his version C (pp. 298-99), and also in The Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English, Speaking World (1956) of Albert B. Friedman as his version C (pp. 134-36).
The four items here presented-three new texts and two new tunes-add something to the very full record of this ballad in TBVa. AA follows the usual pattern of the ballad in America in addressing the "hangman" rather than the "judge" usually found in British texts. It has an unusual final stanza, appropriate enough but obviously imported from a later song. BB is a recently recovered tune for a text which was printed in TBVa without tune. The full text (not here reproduced) reveals that the prisoner is a man. CC is an interesting fragment in which the compressed third stanza of the cycle of three is not spoken directly by the relative but is indirectly reported by the prisoner, who is apparently the speaker throughout the ballad.
DD adds a new type of version to the Virginia collection. It is called "Highway Man," and represents a crossing of the old ballad with a more recent badman ballad or convict song generally known as "Poor Boy," "Gambling Man," or "The Roving Gambler." The "maid" has become a highwayman who is saved from hanging by his girl. The first two stanzas and refrain of first-person emotive depression are imported from the more recent song' but with the third stanza the pattern of the old ballad takes charge, to continue through stanza 11. The final stanza with its "I love that highway man" reverts to the newer song. It is an interesting but not a unique patchwork version. Coffin cites three examples as his Story Type F, from Mississippi (Hudson), North Carolina (Henry), and Kentucky (Fuson). Henry (pp. 94-95) prints a long letter from Phillips Barry commenting on the ballad and rightly urging its printing as an actual version of the old ballad, not as an appendix. Since that time Alton Morris has presented a fragmentary text in Folksongs of Florida (1950), pp. 298-99, and the Brown Collection (1952) prints a seven-stanza text from North Carolina (pp. 148-49). The latter text is reprinted in Friedman's recent (1956) "Anthology, pp. 136-32. The present Virginia text of twelve stanzas plus refrain is the fullest text of this version so far recovered, and includes interesting verbal variations. Other versions include only the coming of the girl in addition to the emotive stanzas. In the Virginia text, mother, father, and girl appear, making nine stanzas from the old ballad as against four from the newer one. It will be noted that the prisoner's appeal is to "Mr. Judge" (the usual English form), not to the hangman.
To be added to the references of Coffin and others is an eight-stanza Louisiana text of "The Highway Man," published in Saxon-Dreyer-Tallant, Gumbo Ya-Ya (Cambridge, Mass., 1945), p. 444. There is no tune. The book is a collection o{ Louisiana folk tales and other folklore brought together by the Louisiana Writers Project.
Barry's letter to Henry draws attention to the fact that "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is also found in combination with two versions of "Mary Hamilton" printed by Child, "in which the heroine is not hanged in Edinburgh town, but is ransomed by her lover" (Henry, p. 94). This may be a more respectable liaison than that with the highwayman, but it represents the operation of the same process in oral tradition.
The two tunes here given seem relatively undistinguished but add something to the musical record of the ballad in America.
_________________________
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
95. THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
Texts: American Speech, I, 247 / Anderson, Coll Bids Sgs, 48 / Barry, Brit Bids Me, 206, 381 / Belden, Mo F-S, XV, 66 / Boletin Latino Americano de Musica, V, 281 / Botkin, Treasry Am F-L, 822 / Brown Coll / Bull U SC# 162, # 10 / Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 15 / Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 35 / Child, V, 296 / Cox, F-S South, 115; Cox, Trd Bid W Va, 29 / Cox, W. Va. School Journal and Educator, XLV, 297 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 360 / Downes and Siegmeister, Treasry Am Sg, 44 / Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 77 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 62 / Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 118 / Fuson, Bids Ky Hghlds, 1 13 / Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 146 / Grapurchat, East Radford (Va.) State Teachers College, 8 25 '32 / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 99 / Henry, Beech Mt F-S, 18 / Henry, F-S So Hghlds, 96 / Hummel, Oz F-S I Hudson, F-S Miss, in / Hudson, F-T Miss, 19 / Hudson, Spec Miss F-L, #15 / Jeckyll, Jaw SgStry, 58 / JAFL, XIX, 22; XXI, 56; XXVI, 175; XXVII, 64; XXX!, 319; XXXIX, 105;XLII, 272; XLVIII, 312; LVI, 242 IJFSS, V, 231 / Kittredge, Cambridge Ed. Child 95 Blds, xxv / Kolb, Treasry F-S, i6/Lomax, Cowboy Sgs Frntr Bids, 159 (another song)/ Mason, Cannon Cnty, 20 / Minish Mss. / Morris, F-S Fla, 444 / Musical Quarterly, II, i I4ff. / N.J. Journal of Education, XV, #6, #7 / Ozark Life, VI, #2 / Owens, "studies Tex F-S, 26 / Parsons, F-T Andres Is, 152 / Parsons, F~L Sea Is, 189 / Perry, Carter Cnty, 154, 304 / Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 143 / Sandburg, Am Sgbag, 72 / Scarborough, On Trail N F-S, 35ff. / Scarborough, Sngctchr So Hghlds, 196 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, 4^24 / Sharp K, Eng F-S So Aplchns, 1, 208 / Reed Smith, SC Bids, 144 (see Chapter VIII also) / Smith and Rufty, Am Anth Old Wrld Bids, 37 / SFLQ, II, 71 / Speculum, XVI, #2, 236 / Thomas, Devil's Ditties, 164 / Thompson, Bdy Bts Bnchs, 397 / Va FLS Bull, #s 26, 8 10 / Wyman and Brockway, Lnsme Tunes, 44.
Local Titles: By a Lover Saved, Down By the Green Willow Tree, Hangman Hold Your Rope, Hold Your Hands Old Man, O Judges, The Gallows Tree, The Gallis Pole, The Gallant Tree, The Golden Ball, The Hangman (Hangerman, Hangsman), The Hangman's Son, The Hangman's Song, The Hangman's Tree, The Maid (Girl) Freed from the Gallows, The Scarlet Tree, The Sycamore Tree, The True Love Freed from the Gallows, True Love.
Story Types: A: A girl, at the gallows, is about to be hung. She requests the hangman to stop the proceedings as she sees a member of the family (usually the father) coming. She asks her father if he has gold or fee, etc. to set her free. He says he has not; he has come to see her hung. This sequence of questions and answers goes on through the girl's relations (usually mother, brother, sister; sometimes, uncle, grandmother, cousin, etc.) until the sweetheart comes and replies that he has brought the fee to free her. In a few texts he has a knife to cut the rope.
Examples: Barry (I), Davis (A), Smith (A).
B: The sequence of events is similar to that of Type A, but an offense of which the girl is guilty is hinted at. This usually connects with golden ball- virginity legend.
Examples: Barry (II), Davis (K), SharpK (B).
C: The usual story is told, but the sex of the prisoner is male.
Examples: Belden, Davis (E), Randolph (D).
D: Dr. Maurice Gallagher of the Romance Language Department at the University of Pennsylvania recalls having heard a text sung in Texas in 1916 in which a man waited in vain for the usual rescue and was eventually hung.
No examples.
E: The story is the same as that of Type A, except the fate of the girl is uncertain and there is a touching plea to the lover in the last four lines.
Examples: Eddy (A).
F: There are a few texts where badman ballads have taken over the Maid Freed from the Gallows motif. In one, a man sees his sweetheart through a train window (probably with another man), commits murder, and is sentenced to hang. In another, a similar, but not identical situation exists, and the girl rescues her lover from the gallows. In the third, the conventional "Fve killed no man, robbed no train, and done no hanging crime" prefaces the ballad.
Examples (in order): Hudson, F-S Miss (D); Henry, F-S So Hghlds (E); Fuson.
G: This type contains stanzas directed by the girl at the Saviour, who does not answer, complaining that her golden lands will be taken when she is in Eternity and that no one loves her. The true-love, Edward, appears. She says, and he-repeats, that he has no gold; nevertheless, he loves her and will set her free. The lovers then forgive the parents, but hope the brother is hung.
Examples: Haun.
Discussion: There are detailed discussions of the history of this ballad in Reed Smith, SC Bids, Chapter VIII and in Scarborough, On Trail N F-S, 35 ff. Consult also Erich PohTs article in FFC, $105, 1265. Child, II, 346ff. and Sager, Mod Phil, XXVII, I29ff. discuss the whole European tradition and the German parallels respectively Child, II, 346 expressing the opinion that the English versions are all "defective and distorted". See Child, IV, 482 for further references. Also consult NTFLQ, II, 139 for an Italian version beginning "Sailors do not drown me" and SFLQ, V, 25 for a discussion of a Rumanian analogue.
In Europe the song invariably centers about some variation of a theme concerning a girl's capture by corsairs or a hero's imprisonment. In Britain and America the antecedent action, if mentioned at all, ties up with a crime the conventional loss of a golden ball, key, or comb, possibly representing virginity. See Broadwood, JFSS, V, 231; Kittredge, JAFL, XXX, 319; Scarborough, of. cit., 38. Belden, Mo F-S, 66 notes this song's importance in the study of ballad origins. Many of the forces of variation have worked on it, although its incremental repetition (see Kittredge's edition of Child's Ballads, xxv) has served to keep the framework intact.
The American story types, usually with a hangman (Child G) instead of a judge, are large in number, although the structure of the song has remained amazingly constant. Type A tells the usual British story, and Type B seems to illustrate the manner in which a ballad can contact popular tale (see Child G, H). The Type C "sex reversal" is most likely a sentimental mitigation of the tragedy. If so, in Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, B this change in mood is carried one step farther. There the mother rescues her son, because mother love is stronger than "sweetheart love". See Duncan, op. cit., 76. Such "sex reversals" are the rule in the Slavic countries and in America occur most often in the South. Type D does not follow the tradition of the story and in its failure to reverse the progression possesses a dramatically weak conclusion, while Type E (which could result in Type D if reconstructed by the folk) is simply incomplete. The Type F degenerations ally themselves with the Lomax, Cowboy Sgs Frntr Bids, text which is a curious adaption of The Maid Freed from the Gallows motif to the life of the West called Bow Down Tour Head an' Cry. Type F is discussed in some detail by Barry and Henry in the latter's F-S So Hghlds, See also Morris, F-S Fla, 449, D version. Type G, which allies itself with the Scottish Child I text in the lack of gold and the curse on the brother, is treated at length by Haun in Cocke Cnty, 31. The Thompson, Bdy Bts JSrtchs, 397 text shows some affinities with this story type.
The story itself has taken a number of forms in America. It is, particularly with negroes, popular as a drama (Davis, ?rd Sid Fa, 361, Scarborough, op. A 9 39; Reed Smith, op. cit., 85 ff.) and is also found as a children's game (Davis, op. cit., 361; JAFL, XXX, 319; Botkin, Am Play Party Sg, 62; Smith, op. cit., 88 ff. See also Child F). It exists as a prose tale in the United States and West Indies and upon occasion has been developed as a cante-fable. (See Smith, op. cit., Chapter VIII). These stories vary widely. Parsons, F-2" Andros Is, 152 prints a cante-f able where a girl goes away to school, falls in love against her stepmother's wish, is falsely accused of theft, and is sentenced to hang. Beckwith, PMLA, XXXIX, 475 prints a Jamaica version in which an engaged princess breaks a family rule and is to be hung. Her future husband comes with a great chariot, smashes the gallows, and rescues her. (For more Jamaican texts, see Jeckyll, Jamcn Sg Stry, 58 ff.) And Mary Owen, Voodoo Tales, 185 ff. found the song material used as a part of a Missouri story of a negro girl with a magic golden ball that made her white. Barry, Brit Bids Me, 2103 disputes the idea that the cante-fable and game stages are the last steps in the song's deterioration, and Russell Ames (JAFL, LVI, 242) discusses Leadbelly's version which the latter has developed from cante-fables.
Barry, op. cit., Sgff. prints three secondary versions of this song from Maine. Hudson, F-S Miss, 113 maintains his E version, which contains a borrowed stanza at the end, to be a parody. The text is fragmentary, however.
For studies relating this ballad to negro songs, see Reed Smith, SC Bids, Chapter. VIII and Musical Quarterly, II, H4ff
_____________________________
"THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS" by Paul G. Brewster, 1941 SFQ. Although it can lay claim to first place neither in point of age nor in number of versions recovered, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child, No. 95) is one of the most interesting of English ballads. So far as plot is concerned, the ballad story is a simple one. In fact, its extreme simplicity of plot, an equal simplicity in structure and style, and the inevitableness of the progress of the story led Professor Kittredge to use it as an illustration of how communal composition may easily have been responsible for the making of the ballads of this type[1]. Of more interest than the plot of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is its wide distribution.
____________________________
03 HANGMAN
The Hangman Song, © 1965 Jean Ritchie for the Ritchie Family, KY (cf. Wells KY version 1916)
guitar tuning: key of C#major; 6:low C#; 5: low G#; 4-1, as in normal
guitar tuning; play as if in C
Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder and I seen Pa coming
Coming for many a mile.
Say Pa, say Pa, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
No sir, no sir, brung you no gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've just come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.
Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder and I see Ma coming
Coming for many a mile.
Say Ma, say Ma, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
No sir, no sir, brung you no gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've just come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.
Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder, seen my true love coming
Coming for many a mile.
True love, I stretch my hand to thee
No other help I know;
If you withdraw your hand from me
O whither shall I go?
True love, true love, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
Yes sir, yes sir, brung you some gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've not come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.
It's hard to love, hard to be loved,
Hard to make up your mind;
You've broke the heart of many poor girl
True love, but you won't break mine.
The headnote in Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads lists Faroic, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, German, Estonian, Spanish, Wendish, Sicilian, Russian, ... Not always is it a ballad, however.
--------------------
The Ballad of America, John Anthony Scott pages 14-15 [traditional? source?]
"The Sycamore Tree"[26]
The Sycamore Tree Over the centuries, this song has achieved an extraordinary popularity on both sides of the Atlantic particularly among children. During slavery days, Negro people in the South appropriated it as their own (see pp. 207-8)
Oh, hangman, hangman, slacken your rope,
And wait a little while;
I think I see my father a- coming,
And he's traveled for many a long mile.
O father, O father, have you brought me money,
And money to pay my fee?
____________________________________________________
Ballads Surviving in the United States, Volume 147 (Published also in Trad. Ballad of Virginia Davis , 1929)
By Charles Alphonso Smith 1916
Neither is the version here given of The Hangman's Tree a final version, though in all versions "sweetheart" or "true love" must come last, just as "Jesus" or "my Jesus" comes last in many of the similarly built negro songs.
The Hangman's Tree, by the way, which survives in England as The Prickly Bush, seems to have become peculiarly the property of negroes, at least in Virginia. This is due, I think, to the adaptability of the theme and the easily remembered framework of the stanzas, qualities that mark the intersection of the ballad proper and the negro camp-meeting song as types. In a variant received from a negro girl in Gloucester County, who "learned it from her grandmother," it is a golden comb that has been lost and it is the true love that finds it. The first triad runs:
0 hangman, hold your holts, I pray,
O hold your holts awhile,
1 think I see my grandmother
A-coming down the road.
O have you found my golden comb?
And have you come to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hanged
On the cruel hangman tree?
1 have not found your golden comb,
Nor have I come to set you free,
But I have come to see you hanged
On the cruel hangman tree.
In another variant from Franklin County it is not a maid who is freed but a man, the terminal true love being the maid. The first line is inimitable:
0 hangerman, hangerman, slack on your rope,
And wait a little while;
1 think I see my father a-coming,
And he's traveled for many a long mile.
0 father, O father, have you brought me money,
And money to pay my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanged
Upon this hangerman's tree?
O no, my son, I've brought no money,
No money to pay your fee;
Yes, I have come to see you hanged
Upon this hangerman's tree.
But the most remarkable discovery in connection with this ballad, which is Finnish, Esthonian, Russian, and Sicilian as well as British, is that it is popular among the negroes of Virginia, and among them alone so far as reported, not only as a ballad but as an out-of-doors drama. Of three letters received, the following from a teacher in the State Normal School of Harrisonburg, Virginia, is the most detailed. It is dated May 27, 1913. The place where the ballad was enacted was Scottsville, on the southeastern edge of Albemarle County:
It was a long time ago—probably twenty-five years—at the colored school-house, as a part of the closing exercises of the school. We young people always attended these exercises if possible, because we were sure of being highly entertained. This particular play I remember better than any other I ever saw there because we thought it so very funny, though plainly intended to be so very sad. They had on the stage a rather rude representation of the upper part of a scaffold. A rope the size of a man's wrist was thrown over the cross-beam, one end being tied around the neck of a most dejected-looking girl and the other end held in the hand of a middle-aged man of sternest aspect. She alone did any singing. The apparently endless procession qf relatives recited their parts very glibly until at last when her "true love" arrived he sang his part, and then the lovers ended the play with a joyous duet. I did not know then that it was a ballad.
___________________________
A.L. Llyod's comments again:
In earlier forms of the ballad, the girl is condemned to die for the loss of a golden ball (or golden key, either signifying the girl's honour which, when lost, can only restored by her lover). There is a folk tale, once well-known in England, in which a stranger gives a girl a golden ball. If she loses it, she is to be hanged. While playing with the ball she does lose it. At the gallows, her kindred refuse to help, but the lover recovers the ball after terrible adventures in the house of ill-omen where it had rolled. It seems that verses from The Prickly Bush (also called The Maid Freed from the Gallows) were sung in the course of telling the story. The losing of the golden ball and the subsequent scene at the gallows used to form a children's game in Lancashire in the 19th century, again accompanied by the song.
The below version was from Lloyd - Sandy Paton - 1959 to Judy Collins as the 1961 "The Prickilie Bush" found on the album "Maid Of Constant Sorrow":
Pricklie Bush
Chorus: Oh the prickly bush
it pricks my heart full sore
and if ever I'm out of the prickly bush
I'll never get in it any more.
Hangman, oh hangman
Hold your rope awhile
I think I see my father, over yonder stile
Father did you bring me gold or have you brought any fee
for to save my body from the cold, clay ground
and my neck from the gallows tree
No I didn't bring you gold nor have I brought any fee
but I have come to see you hung upon the gallows tree
Hangman, oh hangman
Hold your rope awhile
I think I see my brother, over yonder stile.
Brother did you bring me gold or have you brought any fee
for to save my body from the cold, clay ground
and my neck from the gallows tree
No I didn't bring you gold nor have I brought any fee
but I have come to see you hung upon the gallows tree
Chorus
Hangman, oh hangman
Hold your rope awhile
I think I see my sister,
over yonder stile
Sister did you bring me gold or have you brought any fee
for to save my body from the cold, clay ground
and my neck from the gallows tree
No I didn't bring you gold nor have I brought any fee
but I have come to see you hung upon the gallows tree
Chorus
Hangman, oh hangman
Hold your rope awhile
I think I see my lover,
over yonder stile
Lover did you bring me gold or have you brought any fee
for to save my body from the cold, clay ground
and my neck from the gallows tree
Yes I brought you gold
yes, I brought you fee
and I've not come to see you hung
upon the gallows tree
_______________________
The Viking book of folk ballads of the English-speaking world - Page 136; Albert B. Friedman - 1956 Version of "The Highwayman":
1 As I went down to the old depot
To see the train roll by,
I thought I saw my dear old girl
Hang her head and cry.
2 The night was dark and stormy; etc
_____________________________________
Missing versions:
ROPEMAN
Source Bush, Folk Songs of Central West Virginia 3 pp.95-97
Performer Emerson, Rita
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Cox's Mills
Collector Bush, Michael E.
HANGMAN HANGMAN SLACK THE ROPE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version h)
Performer Rakes, Mrs. Carrie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Ferrum
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
HANGMAN HANGMAN SLACK YOUR ROPE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version g)
Performer Bevins, John W.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hylton, James M.
HANGMAN HANGMAN SLACK YOUR ROPE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version i)
Performer Quinn, Hattie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Ferrum
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
HANGMAN O HANGMAN HOLD YOUR ROPE
Source Combs, Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (1967) p.205 item 28(a)
Performer Lowden, S.E.
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Gilmer County
Collector Combs, Josiah H. / Woofter, Carey
HANGMAN OH HANGMAN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version b)
Performer King, John Henry
Place collected USA : Virginia : Woolsey
Collector Morton, Susan R.
HANGMAN SLACK THE ROPE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version j)
Performer Wagoner, Mrs. Alice
Place collected USA : Virginia : Endicott
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
HANGMAN SLACK YOUR ROPE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version d)
Performer Kilgore, Miss Etta
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
HANGMAN SONG
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version c)
Performer Bentley, Mrs. Cordelia
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
HANGMAN SONG
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version f)
Performer Fields, Mrs. Hester
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
HANGMAN SONG, THE
Source List, Singing About it (1991) pp.298-302 (+ accompanying cassette)
Performer South, Garland (Jack)
Place collected USA : Indiana : Bloomington
Collector Meade, Guthrie T.
HANGMAN SWING YOUR ROPE
Source Rounder CD 1799 ('Blue Ridge Legacy')
Performer Smith, Hobart
Place collected USA : Virginia : Saltville
Collector Lomax, Alan
HANGMAN'S SONG, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version a)
Performer Fuson, Harvey H.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
HIGHWAYMAN, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version k)
Performer Pool, Charley
Place collected USA : Virginia : Franklin County
Collector Sloan, Raymond H.
JOSHUA
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version e)
Performer Wells, Joe
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
O ROPEMAN ROPEMAN STOP YOUR ROPE
Source Combs, Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (1967) p.205 item 28(b)
Performer
Place collected USA : Kentucky?
Collector Combs, Josiah H.
ROPEMAN
Source Gwilym Davies Collection
Performer Emerson, Rita
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Glenville
Collector Davies, Gwilym
ROPEMAN ROPEMAN SLACK YOUR ROPE
Source Combs, Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (1967) p.205 item 28(c)
Performer Chapman, Berlin B.
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Webster County
Collector Combs, Josiah H. / Woofter, Carey
ROPESMAN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.869 (version l)
Performer Kilgore, Lenore C.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
Source Library of Congress recording 481 B2, 482 A1
Performer Monroe, Jane
Place collected Bahamas : Nassau
Collector Lomax, Alan / Mary Elizabeth Barnicle
MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
Source Library of Congress recording 1387 A2 & B1
Performer Browning, Bradley
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Arjay
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
MAID SAVED FROM THE GALLOWS, THE
Source Library of Congress recording 388 B3
Performer Thurston, Gertrude
Place collected Bahamas : Cat Island : New Bight
Collector Lomax, Alan / Mary Elizabeth Barnicle
YOUNG MAID SAVED FROM THE GALLOWS
Source Library of Congress recording 204 A2
Performer Baker, James (Iron Head)
Place collected USA : Texas : Sugarland
Collector Lomax, John A. & Alan
HANG ME HANG ME ON THAT TREE
Source West Virginia Folklore 5:2 (Winter 1955) pp.24-26
Performer Glasscock, Mrs. Howard
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Wetzel County
Collector Musick, Ruth Ann
MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS, THE
Source Buford, Folk Songs of Florida and Texas (1941) pp.7-9
Performer Spann, Mrs. S.R.
Place collected USA : Florida / Texas
Collector Buford, Mary Elizabeth
GALLOWS TREE, THE
Source Rainey, Songs of the Ozark Folk (1976) pp.64-65
Performer Peebles, Ann
Place collected USA : Arkansas : Poughkeepsie
Collector Rainey, Leo
HANGMAN'S SONG
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.75-81 (version a)
Performer Snyder, Mrs. Elizabeth
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Soddy
Collector Duncan, Ruby
HANGMAN'S SONG
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.75-81 (version b)
Performer Brackett, Mrs. C.A.
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Sale Creek
Collector Duncan, Ruby
HANGMAN'S SONG
Source Duncan, Ballads & Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County (1939) pp.75-81 (version c)
Performer Morgan, E.C.
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Knoxville
Collector Duncan, Ruby
MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS, THE
Source Haun, Cocke County Ballads & Songs (1937) p.99
Performer Haun, Mrs. Maggie
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Cocke County
Collector
MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS, THE
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.154, 304
Performer Pierce, Mr. / Pierce, Mrs.
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County
Collector
MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS, THE
Source Mason, Folk Songs and Folk Tales of Cannon County, Tennessee (1939) p.20
Performer Mason, Mrs. W.F.
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Stones River
----------------------------
Hangman, Hangman- performed by Saul Broudy; From "Cowboy Songs" 1976
https://soundcloud.com/alsoedglenn/hangman-hangman-performed-by
Hangman hangman slack your rope,
Slack it for awhile
I think I see my mother coming,
She's riding many a mile.
Mother Have you brought me silver,
Have you brought me gold
or have you com to watch me haning,
On the gallows pole.
I have not brought you silver,
Have you brought you gold
I've just come to watch you hanging,
On the gallows pole.
[Same for Father, then sweetheart]
Yes I've brought you silver,
Yes I've brought you gold
No I've not come to watch you hanging,
On the gallows pole.
------------------
Peggy Seeger first recorded this song in 1957 on Peggy Seeger: Folksongs and Ballads (RLP12-655, 1957), and she remains remarkably faithful to that version almost fifty years later. Peggy says she doesn't remember where she got the song but the tune and lyrical structure are similar to the version above by Jean Ritchie. Ritchie learned the song from her father, Balis W. Ritchie, who was born in Knott County, Kentucky in 1869.
Peggy Seeger -- Hangman, Hangman (text not proofed with 1957 recording). This apparently is a cover of Jean Ritchie's version or they are from the same source. There are minor difference in text but the melody is the same.)
[guitar]
Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder and I saw Pa coming
Coming for many a mile.
Say Pa, say Pa, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
No maim, no maim, I've brung you no gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've just come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.
Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder and I see Ma coming
Walking for many a mile.
Say Ma, say Ma, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
No maim, no maim, I've brung you no gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've just come for to see you hung
All on the gallows line.
Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope
Slack it for awhile
I look over yonder saw my true love coming
Coming for many a mile.
True love, true love, have you brung me no gold,
Gold to pay my fine?
Yes maim, yes maim, I've brung you some gold,
Gold to pay your fine,
I've not come for to see you hanged
All on the gallows line.
It's hard to love, it's hard to be loved,
Hard to make up your mind;
You've broke the heart of many poor girl
True love, but you won't break mine.
---------------------
MAID AND THE RUFFIAN, THE. Sung by Miss Patterson. Danbury, NC, August 1937.
MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS. Sung by Mrs. Ollie Aslinger. Sale Creek, TN, 1938.
--------------------------
Koerner, Ray and Glover. Blues, Rags and Hollers, Elektra EKL 240, LP (1963), trk# A.04
-----------
Wrinkle, Melvin. Rackensack. Volume 1, Rimrock LP 278, LP (1972), trk# B.08 (Slack Your Rope (Hangman))
Melvin Wrinkle. Slack Your Rope, Hangman Dobro – Kenneth GosserPercussion [Tub] – Kenneth CrymesVocals, Guitar – Melvin Wrinkle Ozark Folk Center, Mountain View, Ark.