"We'll Sing to Abe Our Song": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War, from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana

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Go directly to the collection, We'll Sing to Abe Our Song": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War, from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

For a better understanding of the sheet music industry, refer to other American Memory collections, such as Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets, African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920, Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920, and Music for the Nation, 1870-1885. The essay, "How Did These Songs Reach the Public" within the Special Presentation, "A Decade of Music in America, 1870-79," from Music for the Nation, 1870-1885 may be of particular interest.

1) The Presidential Campaign of 1860

Although there were three prominent political parties in 1860 (Republican, Democratic, and the new Constitutional Union), the presidential election became a four-way race when the Democrats split over the slavery issue and both John Breckenridge and the more moderate Stephen Douglas (who had lost a bid for the Senate to Abraham Lincoln two years earlier) stayed in the race. Honesty seemed to be the best policy for the Republican campaign. A search on honest yields songs from Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign including "Honest Old Abe", and "Old Honest Abe for Me", which exclaims:

Cover Image from "Honest Old Abe."

2) The Presidential Campaign of 1864

Once more noble Chieftain we hail thee so true,
Our nation's great hope and her pride,
You have gallantly stood by the Red, White and Blue,
And you check'd the rebellious mad tide.

Public confidence during Lincoln's 1864 campaign was reinforced by public support for Union general Ulysses S. Grant. A search on Grant shows a clear link between the president's popularity in 1864 and Grant's military success. The chorus of "Abraham the Great and General Grant his Mate" proclaims:

I think Uncle Abes the man who an other term can stand, The Rebs and Copper-heads with their scorning, And in eighteen sixty five we'll elect him if alive, For he'll bring us all out right in the morning. The relationship between military victories and success in the political arena also is reinforced in "U.S.G.", which declares: "He dug a trench at Vicksburg and sure as you're alive; He'll dig one more, 'Round White-house door in eighteen sixty five."

Cover Image from "U.S.G.: A Song for the Times."

• How do campaign songs reflect the interests of the year in which they were run?
• Where did Lincoln's real opposition come from in his bid for re-election?
• How did Grant help to "dig a trench" around the White House for the Republicans?

3) Union Draft Songs

Lincoln's call for volunteers to join the Union army was answered in James Sloan Gibbons' 1862 poem, "We Are Coming Father Abraham" a piece originally published in the New York Evening Post. A search on hundred thousand yields many examples of how this poem became the basis for a number of musical pieces that supported the Union cause. One of the variations on Gibbons' poem is the Union draft song, "600,000 More" and its declaration:

"Abraham's Draft" provides another example of how Lincoln's call to arms was reinforced, affirming, "Six Hundred Thousand is the cry." Searches on soldier and Union yield war-related songs, but a number of Union songs are available in this collection only when searching on Abraham. "Abraham's Tea Party" announces "We're going down to Dixie, boys," while "Abraham's Covenant" is based on Lincoln allegedly telling some Union soldiers "We're going to fight in earnest boys." Support for Lincoln's Union is also expressed in minstrel pieces such as "Abraham's Daughter" and "We'll Fight for Uncle Abe."

Cover Image from "We'll Fight for Uncle Abe."

• What do these songs suggest about how people thought and felt about the draft and about answering its call? What are the motivations for answering the call?
• What is Abraham Lincoln's relation to the Union in these songs?
• Why is Lincoln central to these Union draft songs?
• How is Lincoln's relationship to the public depicted in these pieces?
• Why do you think that so many songs were based on a poem published in the New York Evening Post? What does this suggest about the poem and The Post?
• What are the similarities and differences between how songwriters sought to persuade in campaign songs and draft songs?

4) Regional Tensions: The Depiction of the South

When Union songwriters weren't celebrating Lincoln, it seems they were disparaging their opposition. A search on rebel provides songs such as "Rebellion's Weak Back" and "Starved in Prison", an indictment of the treatment of Union prisoners of war: Had they died in ward or sickroom, Nursed with but a soldier's care, We should grieve, but still be thankful That a human heart was there-- But the dear boys starv'd in prison, Helpless, friendless and alone, While the heartless rebel leaders Heard unmov'd each dying groan.

Cover Image from "Starved in Prison."

• Why are Southerners depicted in such a violent way?
• Why would someone write a song like "Jeff's Last Proclamation"?
• Do these songs accurately represent the South?
• Is there historical documentation to support the claims made by these songwriters?
• What type of reaction are the song intended to draw from their audience?
• How does the cover art of these works contribute to that reaction?
• How might you expect sheet music produced in the South to depict Lincoln?

5) The Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the United States. Songs from the collection reflect the reaction to this historic and contentious act. A search on emancipation provides celebratory songs such as "Emancipation Hymn" and "Emancipation," which proclaims in its chorus: As brothers all, then follow the call, For Freedom and Emancipation; A man is a man, deny it who can, It shall be so at least in this nation.

Cover Image from "Emancipation Hymn."

• What aspects of, or reactions to, the Emancipation Proclamation appear in minstrel pieces that do not appear in other types of songs?
• How do narrative devices such as dialect and first-person perspective contribute to these songs?
• Why might the date of the Emancipation Proclamation be more prevalent in minstrel songs than in other pieces about the Proclamation?

6) Minstrel Songs

Although they may be considered offensive to a modern audience, minstrel shows provided a comic and critical voice for songwriters in nineteenth-century America. Some songs for Bryant's Minstrels railed against the Union debt (and the Legal Tender Act of 1862 that led to the issuance of $150 million in federal paper money, or "greenbacks") while simultaneously satirizing the "hundred thousand more" sentiments of the draft in "Greenbacks" and "How Are You Green-backs," which declares: We're coming, Father Abram, One hundred thousand more, Five hundred presses printing us from morn till night is o'er; Like magic, you will see us start and scatter thro' the land To pay the soldiers or release the border contraband, With our promise to pay, "How are you Secretary Chase"? Promise to pay, Oh! dat's what's de matter.

Cover Image from "Greenbacks."

Cover Image from "Young Eph's Lament."

A search on Young Eph is another example of how songs provided a medium for critical discourse. Just as the hundred thousand more pieces elicited a response in "How Are You Green-backs," "Young Eph's Lament, Or, Oh Whar Will I Go If Dis War Breaks De Country Up… . " sparked a debate between songwriters with its complaint: Oh I wish dat de white folks ob dis great confederation, Would only quit dar quarrells and dar fight, And stop dar cannonading, marching, shooting and bombarding, And be willing for to use each oder right. "That's What the Niggers Then Will Do" and "Young Eph's Jubilee" directly responded to "Young Eph's Lament" with claims that African Americans benefitted from the Civil War and especially from the Emancipation Proclamation:

Oh! de mighty deed am done and de Union battles won,
And de darkey gins to find just whar to go:
Massa Lincum's Proclamation saved dis great and glorious nation:
While it hustled old secession down below.

• How do songwriters reinforce or undermine Union attitudes in these song?
• Do these songs adequately represent African Americans?
• How do these songs reinforce or undermine white attitudes about African Americans?
• How do these songs compare to newspaper editorials?
• What aspects of these songs depend on racial stereotypes?
• How does the minstrel stage provide a forum for ideas? What are the limitations of this forum?
• How do the minstrel songs in this collection compare to pieces in the Music for the Nation, 1870-1885 collection that feature black characters nostalgic for the era of slavery? (Search slavery, plantation, massa, Dixie, and South).