America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets

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The pieces collected in America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets reflect the attitudes of songwriters and their audiences. Throughout much of the nineteenth century, song sheets provided America with lyrics to new songs and popular standards performed in music halls and private homes. Songwriters often used these pieces to comment on contemporary issues and historic events. Topics in this collection include immigration, nativism, the Civil War, temperance, and women's rights. Please note: Many of these songs contain dialects, derogatory terms, and ethnic stereotypes that reveal racial attitudes within nineteenth-century American culture.

1. The Civil War

The popularity of song sheets reached its peak during the second half of the nineteenth century and a large portion of this collection relates to the Civil War. Searches on terms such as Union, Confederate, and Lincoln, yield songs recruiting and rallying troops on both sides of the battlefield. "Hurrah for the Union" announces, "Our ship's the Constitution, and good patriots at the helm / Will bring us into action, and our foes we'll overwhelm" while "Hurrah for the South! Hurrah" declares, "The genius of old Liberty . . . has cast / The tyrant's might away." Confederate songs such as "Old Mr. Lincoln" and "The Retreat of the Grand Army from Bull Run" chronicle victories over the Union army and President Lincoln's dismay with choruses such as "Poor old Abe Lincoln! / Your power over the South / Indeed is played out!" Other songs such as "The Old Union Wagon" profess faith in the Union and encourage the nation to "Stick to the . . . Old Union Wagon, / The triumphant wagon, Abe Lincoln's bound to ride."

Illustration from "The Union Volunteer."

• What types of imagery appear in these songs?
• How did Union and Confederate songwriters portray their positions in terms of liberty, constitutionality, treason, and tyranny?
• How did both sides describe the attitudes and actions of their opposition?
• Do you believe that these were accurate portrayals? Why or why not?
• Do you think that these songs were helpful in rallying either troops or volunteers? Why or why not?
• How is Abraham Lincoln described in both Union and Confederate songs?
• Why do you think that Lincoln and his policies were an important topic in many songs?

A search on the term, battle, produces songs detailing specific conflicts. Battlefield victories are represented from very different perspectives in the Union song, "Battle of Bull Run" and the Confederate piece, "Battle of Belmont".

A search on terms such as soldier, wounded, and home, produce songs describing the tragedy of war from the perspective of soldiers. For example, "Soldier's Dream" describes the morbid calm that arises in the wake of a battle: "Our bugles sang truce--for the night-cloud had lower'd / And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky, / And thousands had sunk on the ground overpower'd / The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die." Meanwhile, "Let Me Die at Home," commemorates the death of Charles Wendell but portrays the story of many soldiers who died on the battlefield:

Illustration from "Soldier's Dream."

Soon now I'll pass death's stormy tide, Most calmly now I swoon; Now fallen in my country's cause, I'll rise ot heaven my home. My last battle I have fought, With me the storm is o'er Farewell, dear mother and my friends, Charles Wendell is no more.

• How do these songs depict the horrors of war while portraying a sense of honor and nobility?
• How do accounts of battles differ in Union and Confederate songs?
• How do these songs compare to rallying songs such as "Hurrah for the Union" and "Battle of Bull Run"?
• What purposes might these songs have served for the war effort?
• How do you think that veterans or families of soldiers might have responded to the songs written from a soldier's perspective and to the songs detailing specific battles?

2. Nativism and The American Party

A wave of Irish immigration in the 1840s and 1850s sparked the nativist policies of the American Party. Also known as the "Know Nothings," for their staunch denial of participating in anti-immigrant activities and secret societies, the group rallied under the slogan, "Wide Awake." Searches on the terms wide awake and know nothing, produce songs such as "Wide Awake Jordan," which describes a victory over "the mickeys of New Orleans" and "Wide Awake Yankee Doodle," which offers a variation on the "Original Yankee Doodle."

• How do these songs characterize the threat of immigration in America?
• Who is the American Party referring to with the phrases, "mickeys of New Orleans" and "popish snake"?
• Why do you think that the American Party targeted these immigrants?
• What do you think is the significance of writing a variation of "Original Yankee Doodle" to rally a nativist organization?
• Considering that these songs were most likely written by and for descendants of European immigrants, why do you think that the American Party rallied against new immigrants?
• What types of people do you think qualified as "Americans" to the American Party?

3. Temperance

Temperance was an important social reform movement in nineteenth-century America. Laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol were established throughout New England and the Midwest in the 1850s. Courts repealed or struck down many of these laws but they marked a step toward the national prohibition of alcohol in the early twentieth century.  

Searches on the terms temperance and drunkard produce songs such as "The Drunkard's Lone Child," which describes the hazards of drinking through the eyes of a starving child.

We were so happy--till father drank rum: Then all our sorrows and troubles begun; Mother grew paler, and wept every day; Baby and I were too hungry to play-- Slowly they faded, and one summer's night Found their sweet faces all silent and white-- And, with big tears slowly dropping, I said: Father's a drunkard, and Mother is dead!

Illustration from the Anti-Temperance Song, "I Likes a Drop of Good Beer."

Some songs were more lighthearted in addressing the evils of alcohol. For example, "A Parody on 'Uncle Sam's Farm'" declares, "The drunkard is so foolish that he will money waste, / On liquor, when there's water more pleasant to the taste; / The water is much cheaper, and much more healthy too, / And never makes a man a fool--which liquors often do."

Other pieces satirized the temperance movement as being hypocritical or irrelevant. "Pop Goes De Weasel" explains, "De Temperance folks from Souf to Maine, / Against all liquor spout and strain, / But when dey feels an ugly pain" while "Go It While You're Young" celebrates the pleasures of alcohol: "The Temperance cause is up, liquor's bottle up and down, / For if you take too much, it flies right up into your crown; / Good liquor's a good thing, and plenty can be bought, / Drink when you feel dry, for certainly you ought to."

• How does the tone of the song differ with its perspective on the issue of temperance?
• How do these songs try to convince people to stop drinking?
• Which arguments do you think are most persuasive? Why?
• Why do you think that the story of a child might be effective in convincing someone not to drink?
• Who might be the audience of such a song?
• How do these pieces compare to contemporary social efforts to alter behaviors such as drinking, smoking, or using illegal drugs?
• How do songs that are critical of temperance describe the movement, alcohol, and moderation?

4. Women's Rights

William Lloyd Garrison was extremely invested in the abolition movement but he also spent time campaigning for equal rights for women. His lyrics to "Human Equality" announce that women are equal to men in "all that makes a living soul."

Criticism of the women's rights movement, however, is represented in a variety of styles. "Eliza Jane" features puns on abolition and suffrage.

Illustration from "The Husband's Commandments."

This is emancipation year, the woman movement's on; Eliza plans to be a man, 'tis sad to think upon. She thinks she needs the ballot now her freedom to enhance, She wants to pose in papa's clothes; it is for this she pants. Other pieces opposed to equal rights for women include an excerpt from Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," which is identified as "The Wife's Duty to Her Husband" and "The Husband's Commandments," which features the declaration, "Thou shalt not go to Women's-Right meetings, neither to speak thyself or to hear others speak."

• What types of arguments does William Lloyd Garrison present in support of equal rights for women?
• Do you think that Garrison makes an effective argument? Why or why not?
• How do Garrison's arguments compare to calls for abolishing slavery?
• What techniques does "Eliza Jane" use to critique the women's movement?
• What is the double-meaning of the song's phrase, "it is for this she pants"?
• What does the song imply will happen to women if they receive the right to vote?
• Do you think that these results are a valid reason to oppose women's rights?
• Who do you think are the intended audiences of these pieces?
• Why do you think that opponents to equal rights invoked works such as the Ten Commandments and Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew"?

5. Historic Commemorations

Songs often provide a means to observe and celebrate important events in a nation's history. For example, a search on the phrase, Bunker Hill, produces accounts of the 1775 battle including two versions of the same song entitled, "Battle of Bunker Hill."

Illustration from "A Song Composed by the British soldier..."

One version of the song is attributed to a British officer on the day after the battle while an 1825 edition describes the historic importance of the conflict: "'Tis fifty years since on these heights, / The British were repulsed, / By freedom's sons who swore their rights / Should never be insulted." Meanwhile, the 1843 song, "Bunker-Hill Battle" announces, "We shall not undertake in verse / To sketch the facts in full, / But merely some few deeds rehearse." This song chronicles events leading up to the battle such as the Stamp Tax and conflicts with the British at Lexington and Concord.

A search on the term, birthday, produces a song celebrating the 133rd anniversary of Thomas Paine's birthday and works commemorating George Washington's birthday in both 1815 and 1864.

For additional examples, search on the names of specific historical events or figures or simply browse the Title Index.

• Why do you think that people celebrated these specific events and figures?
• What types of images appear in these songs to create excitement about the past?
• What is the prevalent attitude in the songs describing the Battle of Bunker Hill?
• What is transpiring in the nation in both 1815 and 1864?
• Why do you think that Washington was an important figure to invoke during these times?
• How do these songs use historic events to discuss contemporary issues?
• Is there a modern-day equivalent to song sheets that plays the same role in commemorating past events?