Hangman- Sloan (KY) 1917 Sharp F
[My title. Single stanza with music (additional stanzas from Sharp MS) from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; 1932. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp (1859-1924) and Olive Dame Campbell. Edited by Maud Karpeles. Their notes follow.
Additional stanzas from Sharp MS by Mr. and Mrs. Sloan - same date. Bronson 53 does not identify this as Sharp F, rather as Sharp MS.
R. Matteson 2015]
Notes: No. 24. The Maid Freed from the Gallows.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 95.
Texts with tunes:—English County Songs, p. 112. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 121.
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, v., 228. American variants:—American Journal of Folk-Lore, xxi., 56; xxvi., 175. Musical
Quarterly, January, 1916, pp. 10 and 11 (without tunes). Wyman and Brockway's
Lonesome Tunes, p. 44.
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Sharp diary 1917 page 134. Sunday 6 May 1917 - Pineville - Barbourville, Kentucky
Left Pineville at 9.37 and arrived at Barbourville & the Hotel Jones at 10.45. Prospected at once and found omens much more favourable. After lunch I rested while Maud explored in another direction but brought back unfavourable news. After tea we went out again and tried a third direction and about _ a mile from the Hotel struck a nest of singers of the right sort from whom in an hour and a half we take down 11 songs. Delighted at this turn in our luck. Arranged to call again at same place at noon tomorrow. Wrote up book in the evening and wrote long letters to Mrs Storrow & Constance. Hotel fairly comfortable Bath rooms but no hot water! Rather grubby and bed clothes distinctly "off". However, might be worse and so long as we get some songs we can put up with this amount of discomfort.
F. [Hangman] The Maid Freed from the Gallows- Sung by MRS. ALICE SLOAN at Barbourville, Knox Co., Ky., May 6, 1917
Pentatonic. Mode 3 (no 2nd).
1 Hangman, hangman, hold your rope,
O hold it for a while,
I think I see my brother come riding
Many a long mile.
2. O brother, brother, have you brought me gold,
Or gold to pay me free,
Or have you come here for to see me hung
Beneath the willow tree?
3. I neither brought you gold,
Or gold to pay you free,
For I've come here for to see you hung
Beneath the willow tree.
The verses are repeated as above, different relatives being substituted for the brother, and finally the true love appears. The last verse runs thus:
I neither brought you gold,
Or gold to set you free;
I've come here for to marry you
And take you to Tennessee.