8/2/2023 0 Comments Battle cry of freedom choir![]() ![]() "Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau - part of the way they were understood as great writers was their use of symbolism," he says. Stauffer says Howe wasn't necessarily looking to write an anthem she was keen to make the kind of capital-A art that would put her in the ranks of the more respected authors of her time. Sparky Rucker and his wife Rhonda perform a medley of the various incarnations of the "Battle Hymn," from the original religious song to the version sung by black Union soldiers. Make that song richer for a kind of educated audience." Her minister, Stauffer says, pushed her to rewrite the song they'd been singing - "rewrite it and elevate it. As they did so, Confederates attacked - but the Union soldiers defended, and impressed Howe. African-American units picked up the melody and added their own spin: " We're done with hoeing cotton, we're done with hoeing corn / We're colored Yankee soldiers just as sure as you were born."Ī few years later, a well-to-do, highly educated poet from New York named Julia Ward Howe came to Washington, D.C. More importantly, it glorified the righteous fight against slavery. For one, the simplicity of the lyrics and melody made it easy to sing, and to remember. "John Brown's Body" became super-popular among Union soldiers for a few reasons. Though their impromptu rewrite was inspired by a regular soldier, the ghost of the abolitionist loomed large - and a marching song called " John Brown's Body" was born. "So when they start making up songs to pass the time, comrades needle him and say, 'You can't be John Brown - John Brown's dead.' And then another soldier would add, 'His body's moulderin' in the grave,' " Stauffer explains. Stauffer, who co-authored the book The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song that Marches On, says the soldiers were making up new lyrics to the tune of an old hymn, "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us." To be clear, he's not talking about the famous abolitionist, who was executed before the war even began this John Brown was just a regular soldier. "One of the members of the singing group is a Scottish immigrant named John Brown," Harvard professor John Stauffer says. Union soldiers are sitting around a campfire, goofing off, singing songs - and they're ribbing on this one guy. It's really about supporting whatever your perspective is - about freedom or liberation, and having God as the person who's ordaining what we're doing.Ī quick bit of history: It's the middle of the Civil War. And in fact, that flexibility is part of its design. In other words, Johnson says, this anthem is all about what you bring to it. "For example, your white nationalists digging deep into heavy patriotism messages - they bring up things like 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and the 'Battle Hymn' and it becomes their battle cry, just as easily as it could become the battle cry for Ebenezer in Atlanta." "How people relate to patriotism is kind of how they come into the 'Battle Hymn,' " says professor Brigitta Johnson, an ethnomusicologist at the University of South Carolina who teaches in the schools of Music and African-American Studies. made his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, which he ended by quoting the song's first line: " Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." His home church, Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist, took up the song after his death as an anthem to him and the civil rights movement. On the flipside, the day before he was killed in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. During the 1964 presidential race, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater had to disown a campaign film that posed the election as a choice between two Americas - an "ideal" America, where the tune of the "Battle Hymn" scored images of the founders and the Constitution, and a "nightmare" America, featuring black people protesting and kids dancing to rock music. ![]() Anita Bryant, the singer and conservative activist, used to perform the song at anti-gay rallies. It really gets your blood going that you can slay dragons."ĭragons are relative, however. A folk singer and historian who performs a show of Civil War music with his wife, Rucker says the "Battle Hymn" rallies with its rhythm: "It's just the right cadence to march along, if you're marching at a picket line or marching down the street carrying signs. ![]()
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