The Gallows Tree- (NC) c.1921 Sutton/Brown C
[From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore, II, 1952 and Volume IV, music. Listed as 30. The Maid Freed from the Gallows (Child 95).
Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
For preceding records of this ballad and its relation to theories of communal origin, see BSM 66, adding to the references there given New Hampshire (NGMS 117-18), Kentucky (BTFLS in 95), Tennessee (SFLQ XI 129-30), North Carolina (FSRA 35-6), Florida (FSF 295-9), Arkansas (OFS I 146-8), Missouri (OFS I 143-4, 145), Ohio (BSO 62-4), Indiana (BSI 125-7), and Michigan (BSSM 146-8 — this last being the "golden ball" form, rare in this country). In only half of the North Carolina texts is it a woman that waits to be freed from the gallows ; in versions B C E K L it is a man, and in D the sex is indeterminate. D is the only one of our texts in which the song has been turned into a play.
C. 'The Gallows Tree.' Contributed by Mrs. Sutton, but she does not say which of her many mountain singers furnished this particular text. "I've heard it down in Caldwell, in Buncombe, in Avery, Mitchell, and Burke." Once she heard it " 'on the road.' The long red road from Cranberry to Plumtree, and the singer was a lovelorn damsel whose lover had recently been in trouble. . . . She looked as if the heroine's solution of her problem had its appeal for her, and her mother said, 'Lulu's been singin' too many lonesome tunes sense her trouble.' " And of the tune, as sung by a Mrs. Walter, Mrs. Sutton says: it "is very weird, high and rather different from most ballads. She sang it in a nasal tone and so very strained that my throat ached in sympathy." As a typical version this text is given in full.
1 'Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope,
Oh slack it up for awhile.
I've looked over yonder and I see Pap a-comin';
He's walked fur many a mile.
2. 'Oh Pap, oh Pap, have you brought me any gold,
Any gold fur to pay my fee ?
Or have you come to see me hanged,
Hanged high on the gallows tree?'
3. 'Oh Boy, oh Boy, I've brought you no gold.
No gold fur to pay your fee.
But I've just come fur to see you hanged,
Hanged high on the gallows tree.'
4. 'Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope,
Oh slack it up for a while.
I've looked over yonder and see Mam a-comin';
She's walked fur many a mile.
5. 'Oh Mam, oh Mam, have you brought any gold,
Any gold fur to pay my fee?
Or have you come fur to see me hanged,
Hanged high on the gallows tree?'
6. 'Oh Boy, oh Boy, I've brought you no gold.
No gold fur to pay your fee;
I've just come fur to see you hanged.
Hanged high on the gallows tree.'
7. 'Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope.
Oh slack it up fur a while.
I've looked over yonder and I see Sis a-comin';
She's walked fur many a mile.
8. 'Oh Sis, oh Sis, have you brought me any gold,
Any gold fur to pay my fee?
Or have you come to see me hanged.
Hanged high on the gallows tree?'
9. 'Oh Boy, oh Boy, I've brought you no gold,
No gold fur to pay your fee,
I've just come fur to see you hanged,
Hanged high on the gallows tree.'
10. 'Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope,
Oh slack it up a while.
I've looked over yonder and seed Sweetheart comin';
She's rode fur many a mile.
11. 'Sweetheart, Sweetheart, have you brought me any gold,
Any gold fur to pay my fee?
Or have you come fur to see me hanged,
Hanged high on the gallows tree?'
12 'Oh yes, oh yes, I've brought you some gold.
Some gold fur to pay your fee ;
My own true love shall never be hanged,
Hanged high on the gallows tree.'