Historical Black American English
English
A, B, C, Doubled Down D (Nursery Rhyme)
Bat! Bat! Come Under My Hat (Nursery Rhyme)
Bedbug (Nursery Rhyme)
Cooking Dinner (Nursery Rhyme)
Deedle, Deedle, Dumpling! My Boy, Pete! (Nursery Rhyme)
The Old Hen She Cackled (Folk Song)
There Was a Little Grasshopper (Nursery Rhyme)
Don't Sing Out Before Breakfast (Superstition)
Frog in a Mill (Nursery Rhyme)
I'll Get You Rabbit (Nursery Rhyme)
Johnny Bigfoot (Nursery Rhyme)
Mommy Went Away, She Told Me to Stay (Lullaby)
Mama Don't You Cook No More (Freedom Song)
Mr. Buzzard, Don't You Fly So High (Nursery Rhyme)
One for the Money! (Nursery Rhyme)
Peggy, Do You Love Me Now? (Work Song)
Pretty Little Butterfly (Nursery Rhyme)
Rabbit in the Briar Patch (Slave Song)
Rain, Rain, Rain All Around (Kids Song)
Rose's Red, Violet's Blue (Nursery Rhyme)
Shoo! Shoo! (Nursery Rhyme)
Snail! Snail! Come Out of Your Shell (Nursery Rhyme)
Sugar in the Coffee-o (Nursery Rhyme) 
The Elephant (Nursery Rhyme)
The Last of Jack (Nursery Rhyme)
Two Times One (Nursery Rhyme)
Uncle Abraham (Slave Song)
Walking in the Parlor (Folk Song)
You Love Your Girl (Nursery Rhyme)
KEY TO SYMBOLS
- - this song has a Video recording
Here are some of Mama Lisa's recent posts about the music, culture and traditions of Historical African American:
Brer Rabbit (Brother Rabbit) is a trickster figure in folktales from the South of the US. The character of the trickster, be it rabbit, spider (like anansi) or something else, has its roots in African stories. Brer Rabbit can be found in Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus stories. Uncle Remus is a collection of African... Read more »
American children’s folk singer Ella Jenkins released a new cd earlier this year. It’s called A Life of Song. Ella’s music is a lovely way to introduce kids to American folk songs and spirituals. She actually sings some of the songs with children on this cd. The cd starts out with Pick a Bale of Cotton. ... Read more »- I just posted “Mamy don’t yo’ cook no mo’” from the Work Projects Administration’s Slave Narratives. For that project, the government sent out interviewers to talk with and write down the memories of ex-slaves, many of whom were still alive. Thanks to this, today we can read about their lives in their own words.... Read more »
In the 1930’s, the US government did a series of interviews with former slaves. Project Gutenberg, just posted some of the interviews from Texas from 1936-1938. They’re called Slave Narratives. Wes Brady I pulled out some excerpts that revolved around songs that some of the former slaves remembered singing. Some were kids songs, some dancing songs,... Read more »- The US government did a series of interviews with former slaves in the 1930’s. Project Gutenberg, has posted some of the interviews from Virginia. They’re called “Slave Narratives – A Folk History of Slavery in the United States – From Interviews with Former Slaves”. I found some songs in one of the the... Read more »
