Flora Dean- Aunt Molly Jackson (KY) 1930 Lomax REC
[AFC recording 19390122555A recorded by Alan Lomax in 1930. From Kentucky Alan Lomax Recordings, 1937-1942.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/AFC19390122555A
See Sharp's 1917 version A from Kentucky in EFSSA. The recording volume is too low to make
R. Matteson 2016]
These recordings of Aunt Molly Jackson (1880-1960) were made by Alan Lomax in New York City, May 1939 when Molly was about 59. Her songs and stories were rooted in her life experiences in eastern Kentucky’s Clay, Laurel, Bell, and Harlan Counties. Born Mary Magdalene Garland, she was a coal miner's daughter, married a miner (Bill Jackson) and became a mother, midwife, labor activist, and songwriter. She was once jailed in Harlan County for union organizing activities. In December 1931, she traveled to New York City to support and raise money for striking Harlan coal miners.
Flora Dean- as sung by Aunt Molly Jackson, May 27, 1930 in New York City, recorded by Lomax.
I fell in love for all to see[1],
With a girl named Flora Dean.
She was the best Kentucky girl,
That I have ever seen.
Her father he persuaded me
To take Flora for my wife;
The devil he persuaded me,
To take poor Flora's life.
I went up to her father's house,
At nine o'clock at night,
I asked her to take a walk with me
While the moon and stars were bright.
We walked down to the river side
Till we got to level ground,
I reached down and picked up a club
And knocked poor Flora down.
She fell down upon her bended knees,
For mercy she did cry:
"Oh Johnny dear, don't murder me,
For I'm not fit to die."
Don't speak to me, don't speak to me,
Don't speak no more to me I say,
And then I knocked her down;
I drug her to the riverside,
And plunged her in to drown.
About nine or ten o'clock next day,
Poor Flora Dean was found
Came floating by her father's house,
Who lived in Knoxville town.
Then the sheriff he arrested me,
And locked my up in jail;
No one come here to save me
Or take me out on bail.
Then I sent for old man Dean [2]
And to him I confessed:
"Sir, I drowned your daughter,
And I hope her soul's at rest."
Now I'm going to end my life
And bid you all farewell
For drowning little Flory Dean
I'll send myself to hell.
1. The recording is very soft here so I'm guessing at what she's singing for the first lines-- maybe some day I'll get a better computer :)
2. Transcribed quickly- hard to hear.