The Hangman's Song- Clark (MS) 1936 Hudson D
[From Arthur Palmer Hudson, Folksongs of Mississippi 1936. His notes follow.
This is a hybrid version combining "The Highwayman" (1926 Charlie Poole) with "Maid Freed."
R. Matteson 2015]
THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS
(Child, No. 95)
Six texts of this ballad have been recovered for the present collection. Two and a note on a third were published in my "Ballads and Songs from Mississippi," Journal, XXXIX, 105 ff. For a general discussion of the ballad in Mississippi, see p. 55. For other American variants, see Brown, p. 91 Campbell and Sharp, No. 24; Cox, No. 18; Davis, No. 27 (who notes that in Virginia the ballad has been used as a game and has also been dramatized); Pound, No. 13; Reed Smith, No. 10; Scarborough, p. 35; Wyman and Brockway, p. 44; Barry, No. 21.
D. "The Hangman's Song." Text given me by Mr. T. D. Clark, Louisville, who obtained it from Miss Wilma Clark, Louisville. Miss Clark said that she learned it from young associates in a rural consolidated school. This text is unique so far as the Mississippi variants, and so far as any other American variants that I have seen, are concerned, in being prefaced by stanzas common to a number of outlaw and bad man ballads of recent dates.
1 I went down to the old depot as the train was passing by;
I looked into the windows and saw the girl I loved best'
2 "The judge found me guilty, and the clerk wrote it down,
And juried me over to the sheriff, and I'm penitentiary bound.
3 "O Mr. Hangman, won't you wait a little while?
For yonder comes my daddy dear, he has come many a mile.
4 "O dear old daddy, have you brought me any silver or gold,
Or have you come to see me hung to the hangman's pole?"
5 "O I haven't brought you any silver or gold;
I have come this long, long way to see you hung to the hangman's pole."
[repeat with relatives]
15 "O my purse is lined with silver, and my pockets are filled with gold,
For I have not come this long, long way to see you hung to the hangman's pole."