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Banjer Days: Song Lyrics

Sunday, October 01, 2006

The song lyrics provided here are for the five songs sung by me on the Banjer Days recording. It should be noted that I might not have listed some of the verses exactly as sung on the recording. This is because I don’t always sing each song the same way every time I perform.

Track 3; Hand Me Down My Old Suitcase, g-CGCD: This was one of my father’s favorite songs; however, he sang only one verse. When laying the banjo down he would invariably comment: “Son, that was Clay Collins’s favorite tune.” Clay Collins was very old when I asked him about the song - he couldn’t remember any additional verses. However, another Knott County neighbor, John Austin, did remember a verse or two. I play this song in a banjo style very close to my father’s style of playing.

Hand me down my old suitcase
And all of my dirty clothes,
Policeman comes ‘round here tonight,
Tell him I’m sleeping out of doors.

If I had listened to what my mother said,
I wouldn’t have been here today,
I wouldn’t have been in this old jailhouse,<
Rotting my sweet life away.

If you see my brother,
Take him a letter from me,
Tell him not to ramble, not to gamble,
Not to leave his happy home.

Hand me down my old suitcase,
And all of my dirty clothes,
Policeman comes ‘round here tonight,
Tell him George is sleeping out of doors.

Track 4; Moonshiner, g-DGAD: I learned a verse or two of this song from John Hall and his son Carl. Carl Hall was an excellent singer and had been taught many of the old songs by his father. I remember Carl singing songs such as Omie Wise and Pretty Polly in front of class when we were in the third grade. John had quit playing banjo and Carl did not play an instrument, so I chose a tuning I thought suited the song and worked out my own version. I did not know that my father played this tune until he was 90 years old. He played the tune in the conventional g-DGBD tuning. His version sounded great; however, I still play the version I learned over 50 years ago.

I’ve been a moonshiner for 21 long years,
I’ve spent all my money on whiskey and beers.

I’ll go to some hollow and set up my still,
And sell you one gallon for a two dollar bill.

I’ll go to some grocery and drink with my friends,
I have no woman to see what I spend.

God bless those pretty women, how I wish they were mine,
Their breath tastes as sweet as the good old moonshine.
(or, as sweetly as the dew on the vine.)

Come all you pretty women and stand in a row,
You look so sad and lonesome, so lonesome I know.

Oh how I love those pretty women, I love them one and all,
But women and whiskey have been my downfall.

Well it’s cornbread when I’m hungry, corn whiskey when I’m dry,
Its pretty women when I’m lonesome and a casket when I die.

The whole world’s a bottle and life’s but a dram,<
When a bottle gets empty, it ain’t worth one damn.

Track 5; PASS AROUND THE BOTTLE, g-CGCD: I learned this song from James Slone, who was seven years older than I. James did something very rare for that time and place: he played old time banjo rather than bluegrass. James learned this song from the Amburgey brothers, Mel and Shade. This song was sung by both sides during the Civil War; however, this version is obviously from the southern side.

The common misconception is that all mountain counties were strongly Union during the Civil War. This was not true in Knott County, Kentucky. Voter registration today is 95% Democratic, and has been since that horrible conflict. Sometimes choosing a side in the war was a matter of protecting your family. I had ancestors that sympathized with the Union cause; however, they all fought for the South. I had a great-great grandfather killed by Union brigands in Knott County.

Pass around the bottle and we’ll all take a drink,
Pass around the bottle and we’ll all take a drink,
Pass around the bottle and we’ll all take a drink,
As we go marching on.

Chorus: Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah,
As we go marching on.

Red pot of pepper on a green potato vine,
Red pot of pepper on a green potato vine,
Red pot of pepper on a green potato vine,
As we go marching on.

Chorus

We’ll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree,
We’ll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree,
We’ll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree,
As we go marching on.

Chorus

Pass around the bottle and we’ll all take a drink,
Pass around the bottle and we’ll all take a drink,
Pass around the bottle and we’ll all take a drink,
As we go marching on.

Track 20; SOURWOOD MOUNTAIN, g-DGBD: I heard Gar Maxie play the banjo once at my father’s country grocery store. Gar was an exceptional player: his playing was fast, clean and dynamic. Sourwood Mountain was one of the songs he played for me. Gar occasionally made and sold moonshine. He said the following to me after he had an altercation with a neighbor: “Son, I believe I am the rudiest man in Knott County.” People in Knott County were very fond of language and often used it in unusual and effective ways. Gar took the word “rude” and turned it into a word that described himself as a most dangerous man.

Sourwood Mountain, I believe, is a song that originated in east Kentucky. Creeks and hollows are the streets and avenues of east Kentucky and all are named. Little Doubles and Big Doubles are the names of two creeks in Knott County. Big Doubles was commonly shortened to “Doubles.” Letcher is the name of the county adjoining Knott, and Beaver is the name of a prominent creek in the area of Knott, Letcher and Floyd Counties. I got the verse about Beaver from Gran Hudson, who had a well developed sense of humor. He would often fashion a rhyme on the spur of the moment. A young couple from Beaver Creek described their marital problems to Gran, who then fashioned this ditty: “Mary and Sam live on Beaver, she won’t go and he can’t leave’er.” (I have changed the names to protect the guilty.). After hearing this rhyme I turned it into a verse for Sourwood Mountain, which Gran thought was most entertaining.

Chickens crowing on Sourwood Mountain,
So many pretty girls I can’t count them,
Ho Ding’a diddle di day.

I’ve got a girl lives in Letcher,
She won’t come and I won’t fetch her,
Ho ding’a diddle di day.

I’ve got a girl that’s a blue eyed daisy,
She won’t work and I’m too lazy,
Ho ding’a diddle di day.

I’ve go a gal in the head of the holler,
She won’t come and I won’t foller,
Ho ding’a diddle di day.

I’ve got a girl lives on Beaver,
She won’t go and I can’t leave’er,
Ho ding’a diddle di day.

I’ve got a girl lives on Doubles,
Lord she causes me lots of troubles,
Ho ding’a diddle di day.

Track 21; BONNIE BLUE EYES, g-CGCD: I heard a verse or two of this sung when I was a boy, perhaps by John or Carl Hall. Most of the verses, however, came from Pap Brewer from Roan Mountain in Tennessee. Pap Brewer has a recording that is sold by June Appal Recording, a division of Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

Hush up my little Bonnie don’t cry,
Hush little Bonnie don’t cry,
For if you cry you’ll spoil those blue eyes,
Hush up little Bonnie don’t cry.

Hush up little Bonnie blue eyes,
Hush up little Bonnie don’t cry,
For I’ve told you more lies than stars in the sky,
Hush up little Bonnie blue eyes.

Goodbye my little Bonnie, Goodbye,
Goodbye my little Bonnie, Goodbye,
I’m going to the west to the girl I love best,
Goodbye my little Bonnie, Goodbye.

Goodbye my little Bonnie, Goodbye,
Goodbye my little Bonnie, Goodbye,
My trunk’s all packed and I ain’t coming back,
Goodbye my little Bonnie, Goodbye.

Hush up little Bonnie blue eyes,
Hush up little Bonnie don’t cry,
I’ll see you again but the good Lord knows when,
Hush up little Bonnie blue eyes.

Last Possum Up Tthe Tree: Song Lyrics

Friday, September 01, 2006

Introduction

It is sometimes difficult to understand the words of a song when listening to a recording. Therefore, I have listed here verses to each of the songs on the Possum CD. Preceding the lyrics is a brief biography and an overview of my sources for the music on the Possum CD.

Biographical Information

I was born May 14, 1938 on Burgey's Creek in Knott County, Kentucky, in a log cabin built ca. 1900 by James Edward "Uncle Ed" Thomas, the first known dulcimer maker in Kentucky. Burgey's Creek is officially known as Little Carr Creek and is a tributary of Carr Creek, which is a tributary of the Kentucky River. My parents were descendants of some of the earliest pioneers in east Kentucky. Settlers brought banjo songs and frolics into east Kentucky well prior to the Civil War. I have found two references to the banjo in Kentucky prior to 1700. Early settlers in the area were mostly from Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

My father, Mal Gibson (1900-1996), learned to play banjo around 1905-10 along with his older sister Flora (1896-1936) and Mel Amburgey (1893-1972), a neighbor from a very musical family. Mel Amburgey told me that he, my father and my father's sister could play over 100 songs in one tuning of the banjo. This was a remarkable feat, for they used many different tunings. My father's younger brother, Bob Gibson, also learned to play banjo, although I never heard him play. My mother, Tishie Hammons Gibson, had several relatives that played banjo.

My grandfather, George W. Gibson, and his first cousin, Dan Gibson, were playing banjo in Knott County by the 1890s. Dan was a noted banjo player and square dance caller. Dan Gibson is well known in Kentucky for his resistance to strip mining. The Ballad of Dan Gibson is a song that describes Dan's involvement with strip mining. It was written by Gurney Norman and is published in Guy and Candie Carawans' book, Voices from the Mountains.

Dr. Josiah Combs, from Hindman in Knott County, collected early versions of Ground Hog and Poor Ellen Smith from Dan Gibson and Tom Kelley ca.1915. Combs also collected several square dance calls from Dan Gibson.

The banjo tradition and its supporting culture in Knott County began collapsing by World War II. It was difficult to find people who still played the old music in 1950, when I began learning to play banjo. Most of the dances at local schools had ceased during the 1940s. I left Kentucky early in the 1960s with a Kay five-string banjo and a Vega Whyte Laydie guitar banjo. I continued to play some of the old songs, perhaps as a way of connecting with a past that I had glimpsed very briefly. I am the last person playing the traditional banjo music of Burgey's Creek. I am the last possum up the tree.

Notes on Tunings

My father used many different tunings while playing the banjo in a pitch lower than today's standard. I have always done the same. I very seldom had occasion to play with other people; consequently, I never used a capo on the banjo. In 1994, when I was asked to be guest of honor at the Florida Old Time Music Championships, I began to document the tunings I used, and purchased a tuner so I would know the pitch to which I tuned. This is most often two frets below standard. All the tunings below are listed as if I were tuned to standard pitch. To get the actual tunings used, however, strings should be pitched two frets lower. I used a 1924 Gibson guitar-banjo on two of the songs on this CD. I usually tune the guitar-banjo to standard pitch and capo at the second fret.

Track 1; LAST GOLD DOLLAR, g-CGCD: I was playing this song before I heard Gran Hudson (1911-2004) sing it. I only knew one or two verses. Gran sang a version that ended with all of the verses that are commonly sung to Mole in the Ground. When I asked Gran if his version might be two songs, he became a little testy and said "That's the way my daddy sung that song, and that's the way it's supposed to be sung." I didn't sing all those verses here, and I apologized to Gran for not doing so. Gran was a fine banjo player and balladeer, as was his father, Steve Hudson. I believe I was picking a version of Last Gold Dollar without singing when I first met Gran. He said "Son, if you can't sing it don't pick it." I never heard Gran pick a tune without singing.

The verse that references going west has a historical context. People in the Knott County area were migrating west from the days of earliest settlement. There was an increase in this migration after 1900 when the logging industry began to decline. Many people in Knott County have relatives in western states. Cowboy songs were found in the Knott County area very early, most likely brought back by people visiting or returning from the west.

Oh, my last gold dollar's gone,
Oh, my last gold dollar's gone,
Well my board bill's due, my whisky bill too,
And my last gold dollar's gone.

She's a darling little girl I know,
She's a darling little girl I know,
She's a coming down the stair,
Combing back her curly hair,
She's a darling little girl I know.

Oh darling when I had you,I laced up the shoes you wear,But now I'm bound in the walls of jail,Your little feet must go bare.

She's dodging from the frost and snow,She's dodging from the frost and snow,Her little feet are bare 'cause she has no shoes to wear,She's dodging from the frost and snow.

Oh darling six months ain't long,No darling six months ain't long,Six months ain't long for me to be gone,No darling six months ain't long.

Well I'm going to the west this fall,Oh I'm going to the west this fall,I may do well and I may catch hell,But I'm going to the west this fall.

Track 2; KENTUCKY MOONSHINER, g-DGAD: This is a Kentucky song. I learned a verse or two from John Hall, who had quit playing banjo. I chose the above tuning for the song. I didn't hear my father play this song until he was ninety years old. He picked up the banjo one evening and played the song in the relative tuning g-DGBD, and sang one or two verses. His version sounded very close to the version I play.

I've been a moonshiner for twenty-one long years,I've spent all my money on liquor and beer,I'll go to some hollow and set up my still,And sell you one gallon for a two dollar bill.

I'll go to some grocery and drink with my friends,I have no woman to see what I spend,God bless them pretty women, how I wish they were mine,Their breath tastes as good as the good old moonshine.

Come all you pretty women and stand in a row,You look so sad and lonesome, so lonesome I know,God bless those pretty women, I love them one and all,But women and whisky have been my downfall.

Well it's cornbread when I'm hungry, corn whisky when I'm dry,It's pretty girls when I'm lonesome, and a casket when I die,The whole world's a bottle, and life's but a dram,When a bottle gets empty, it ain't worth one damn.

Track 3; A LITTLE ABOUT MYSELF (Spoken)

Track 4; LITTLE BIRDIE, e-CGAD:Little Birdie was a popular dance tune on Carr Creek in Knott County. One old gentleman said "I wore out a new pair of shoes one night while dancing to Little Birdie." My father said he learned to play the tune when he was about seventeen (in 1917) after hearing his uncle, Nord Gibson, whistle the tune. My father then remarked that he could play any tune that he could whistle. Once in a while he would tune for Little Birdie, play a stroke or two before laying the banjo down. I subsequently learned that the tune was the favorite of his only sister, Flora Gibson Morton, who learned to play banjo at the same time he did - Flora died in 1936. I heard Gar Maxie, a neighbor who was an excellent banjoist, play this tune. I cannot recall from whom I actually learned the verses. I do know that I was playing it not long after I traded for my first banjo. The verses below are those I sang on the Possum CD; however, I do know, and occasionally sing, other verses.

Little Birdie, Little Birdie, what makes you fly so high,
Don't you know Little Birdie that life will pass you by.

Little Birdie, Little Birdie, come sing to me your song,We've
a short time to be here and a long time to be gone.

Used to be a little boy, and I played down in the sand,Now
I am a great big boy, trying to make myself a man.

Married woman, married woman, just see what you have done,You've
cased me for to love you, and now your man has come.

Little Birdie, Little Birdie, come sing to me your song,We've
a short time to be here and a long time to be gone.

Track 5; EAST VIRGINIA, f-FGCD: Elmer Slone and McKinley Everage were the first people I heard play and sing this banjo song. East Virginia dates back to the migration from east Virginia to the North Carolina frontier, which began in the eighteenth century. This song most likely originated with African Americans. Early settlers in the Knott County area, including my Hammons, Gibson and Adams ancestors, had previously moved to the mountains of North Carolina from east Virginia. This migration included enslaved African Americans, whose ancestors brought the banjo from Africa.

I am from old east Virginia
To North Carolina I did go,
There I met a fair young maiden,
Lord, her name and age I did not know.

Oh her hair was a dark brown curly,
And her cheeks were a rosy red,
On her breast she wore white linen,
There I'd love to lay my head.

I'd rather be in some dark hollow,
Where the sun don't never shine,
Than to see you with some other,
And to know you'd never be mine.

I must leave old North Carolina,
I must leave you all alone,
I'm going across that rocky mountain,
East Kentucky will be my home.

Track 6; COLONIAL JONES EXPLAINS MOONSHINE (Spoken): A few months after the Possum CD was released I got a call from Indiana. The caller asked if the story I told about his father was true. After I told him it was, he told me where Colonial Jones had his moonshine still. He said, "Dad wouldn't let us drink moonshine, but he would sometimes let us drink still beer." Colonial Jones had his still in an old coal bank in a number four coal seam. The old coal openings were developed to provide coal for household use, and usually contained good water.

I am glad I did not use the correct location and name for the man who traded his wife for a mule. A call from one of his descendants might not have been pleasant.

Track 7; WILD BILL JONES; DADGAD:This tune is played on a 1923 trap door Gibson guitar banjo with a 14 inch head tuned to standard pitch with a capo at the second fret. The sixth string is a second D string, tuned in unison with the fourth, which gives the instrument a droning sound. I traded for my first guitar banjo when I was about fifteen. It was a Vega Whyte Laydie, a very unusual and expensive instrument for the area. Willard Collins told me he had a guitar when he was a boy. When I asked how he tuned it, he said "Aw, just ever which a way." I don't know exactly when I first learned this song. I do remember that one of Shade Amburgey's sons played it for me not long after I started learning banjo.

I went out on one day, just walking around,
When I met up with that Wild Bill Jones,
He was walking and talking with my own true love,
And I bid him for to leave her alone.

Oh he said my age is a twenty-two,
Much too old to be controlled,
I drew my revolver all from my side,
And destroyed that poor boy's soul

Oh he fell to the ground, and gave one dying moan,
Said oh darling I will leave you alone.

Well get out your long necked fifth
And we'll all get on a spree,
For today was the last of that Wild Bill Jones,
And tomorrow will be the last of me.

Track 8; PLAYING OVER THE TELEPHONE (Spoken): My father told me he played over the telephone with Simeon Ward at the head of Little Doubles Creek in 1916. I had this confirmed by William Aspinall Bradley in his book of poetry, Singin' Carr. Bradley stayed at the Hindman Settlement School in 1916. While there he walked to Carr Creek and described people listening to music over the telephone. Bradley elected the term "Singin' Carr" for his book of poetry because he was impressed by the number of people on Carr Creek who sang folksongs and ballads.

Track 9; CACKLING HEN, g-CGCE: I learned this tune from my father. He played this without singing, which was very rare. I immediately picked up the banjo after he left the room to find his tuning for the instrumental. I never asked my father how he played a tune or anything about his tunings. (See the article, Learning to Play Banjo: Emulation vs. Imitation, on this web site.)

When picking a banjo I hear words rather than notes. I am so attuned to listening for words that it is difficult for me to learn an instrumental. This is most likely the result of the way I learned to play.

Track 10; ONE MORNING IN MAY, g-CGCD: I learned this song from James Slone (1931-2007); he said he learned it from either Mel Amburgey or his brother Shade ( b. 1899). Gran Hudson's wife, Anne Hudson, said Shade often played for dances at the Buffalo Creek School. Don Amburgey said he played sitting in a chair with one leg crossed over the other and appeared to be "double-jointed." It was typical for a lone banjoist to play for a dance in that area of Kentucky – the tune most often played for dances was Hook and Line. I never had the opportunity to hear Shade play. Shade's wife, Sara, also played the banjo. I was told she played in an up-picking style by brushing down then picking up with her first finger. Shade played in a stroke style.

One morning, one morning, one morning in May,
I spied a young couple upon the highway,
One was a maid, and a maid so fair,
The other a soldier and a brave volunteer.

Good morning, good morning, good morning to thee,
Oh where are you going my pretty laydie,
Oh I am going to the banks of the sea,
To hear the rivers a gliding, the nightingale sing.

They had not stood there but one hour or two,
When out from his knapsack a fiddle he drew,
And the music he played made the mountain to ring,
With the rivers a gliding, the nightingale sing.

Pretty soldier, pretty soldier, will you marry me,
Oh no kind maid that can never be,
Got a wife down in Texas and kids two or three,
And a wife in the army is one too many for me.

Pretty soldier, pretty soldier, oh please take my ring,
If you ever return let it be in the spring,
For I'd rather hear your fiddle or the touch of one string,
Than the river's gliding or the nightingale sing.

Track 11; WIFE AND MULE SWAP (Spoken): This is a true story. When I discussed this with Dad he remarked that Sid must have just got out of the pen (penitentiary), because he had been locked up for making moonshine. I told Dad that he was probably still making some, for he had his saddlebags full. I did not use Sid's full name, for obvious reasons. My father took Sid to town the day he had his trial, and as Sid phrased it, "proved in a court of law that he swapped his wife for a mule."

The writer, James Still, and my father were friends and often traveled to the local stock sale in Ison, Kentucky, on Saturdays. I once asked James if he knew Sid. James said he did and said that Sid often went to the stock sale. James said Sid referred to the coffee in the eatery at the stock sale as "penitentiary coffee" because it was very strong and black.

Track 12; OLD SMOKY, g - DGCD: My mother told me that her mother said that the word "have" was pronounced to rhyme with "grave" when she was a girl. Her mother, Cordelia Pugh Hammons, was born in 1861 in Floyd County, Virginia. My grandfather, Archelous Hammons, met her in Wise County, Virginia. He hauled goods by wagon across the big Pound Mountain between Kentucky and Virginia at a time when trees were sometimes cut and tied to the back of a wagon on the down side of the mountain.

My paternal grandfather, George W. Gibson, also hauled goods by wagon across the Pound Mountain. He sold farm produce in the Virginia coal camps. He was kidnapped ca. 1900 in the Pound Gap by a group of "bad men." A sister who had accompanied him walked back to Knott County to get help in retrieving his body. However, those going for his body met my grandfather before they had traveled very far - he had escaped from the kidnappers. I once asked my grandfather how he escaped. He said, "Son they got me in a room and I bantered them for a fight. When one stood up I hit him and then his heels hit the ceiling; when his heels hit the ceiling I jumped out the window and outrun them all."

I got some of the verses for Old Smokey from a neighbor, John Hall, and some from my mother, and then assembled them in the order shown below. I had never heard the song played on a banjo, so I chose a tuning that seemed to fit the melody. My mother told me that I played and sang it very much the way she remembered hearing it as a girl. I recently learned a different and haunting melody for this tune from Tom Bledsoe. Tom learned the tune from his father, who lives in southwest Virginia.

I gave these verses to a neighbor, Don Carlos Amburgey, in the early 1960s. He said he needed them for a project he had in a class at college. He had the verses published in the Kentucky Folklore Record in 1963. He also published a short version of Careless Love he collected from my father.

Way down on old Smoky,
Where it's covered in snow,
I lost my true lover
By courting too slow.

It's raining it's hailing,
The moon gives no light,
My horses can't travel
This dark stormy night.

Go put up your horses,
And feed them some hay,
Come sit down beside me
For as long as you stay.

My horses ain't hungry,
And won't eat your hay,
I'll ride down in Georgia
And feed on my way.

I'll ride down in Georgia
And write you my mind,
My mind is to marry
And leave you behind.

Now courting is a pleasure
And parting is a grief,
A false hearted true love
Is worse than a thief.

A thief will but rob you
And take what you have,
But a false hearted true love
Will lead you to the grave.

Track 13; HIGH TOP SHOES, g-CGCE: Railroads and mining camps came into the counties surrounding Knott ca. 1900. This is, I believe, a song from that era. I generally refer to this type of song as a mining camp tune. This was one of the favorite songs of my uncle, Cullen Morton, who died in the 1960s. He was married to my father's sister Flora. Both were reputed to have been fine banjoists and balladeers.

Oh where did you get those high top shoes,
And the dresses you wear so fine,
Well I got these shoes from a railroad man,
Dress from a driver in the mine,
Dress from a driver in the mine.

Oh you need not mind my high top shoes,
Nor the dresses that I wear,
There's coming in a man on that west bound train,
Gonna buy me a brand new pair,
Gonna buy me a brand new pair.

Oh I don't like a gambling man,
Lord he won't work in the mines,
And a gambling man will kill you if he can,
Drink up your blood like wine,
Drink up your blood like wine.

Oh where have you been my pretty little miss,
Oh where have you been all the day,
Lord I've been 'round the bend and come back again,
Rolling in my sweet babe's arms,
Rolling in my sweet Babe's arms.

Track 14; MORPHINE, g-DGBD: The only people I heard sing this song were James Slone and Mel Amburgey. James said he learned the song from Mel and his brother Shade. Mel and Shade were both balladeers and banjoists, as was James. Mel and Shade are both deceased. James moved to Indiana in the 1960s. After moving to Indiana he began to make and play fiddles.

I believe this is the first song I learned to play on the banjo. General D. Moore, a neighbor my age, showed me some of the notes to pick. General's father had made him a small fretless banjo and he was just beginning to play. His family later moved to Indiana, and General now lives in Texas. He recently told me he never continued with old time banjo, but instead became a bluegrass banjo player. People my age and older ca. 1950 who were interested in banjo began playing bluegrass.

Gran Hudson said his father, Steve Hudson, sang this song. Gran said his father always sang "I took it in a hell of a way," instead of "I took it in that morphine way," so I sometimes sing it this way. Also, James would intone in a speaking voice "Ain't that a scandal and a shame" after the line "And I didn't have one penny to my name." Banjo Bill Cornett from Hindman, Kentucky, sang a version of this song in which he used the line, "I didn't have a brownie to my name."

Many soldiers became addicted to morphine as a result of medication during the Civil War. For years thereafter it was a legal substance. I suspect this song originated, however, ca. 1900 when railroads were being built in the counties surrounding Knott.

I took morphine last Saturday night,
Lord I took it in that morphine way,
If the Doctor hadn't come just as he did,
Lord I'd a'been in my grave today.

Well it's peaches honey, Rye, Rock and Rye,
Oh baby let me tell you my dream,

I dreamed last night had a pocket full of money,
And a quarter in a big dice game.
But when I awoke, it was only a joke,
And I didn't have one penny to my name.

I took morphine last Saturday night,
Lord I took it a Hell of a way,
If the Doctor hadn't come just as he did,
Lord I'd a'been in my grave today.

Well it's peaches honey, Rye, Rock and Rye,
Oh baby I'll love you 'til the day I die.

Track 15; GENERAL MORGAN PLAYS A STOLEN FIDDLE (Spoken)

Track 16; MORGAN'S MARCH, g-DGBD: I learned this tune from Horace Dixon, a Knott County banjo player. It is one of the few instrumental tunes I learned in Knott County. Horace said he learned the tune from his grandfather, Samp Combs. Horace said his Grandfather hid his horses and cattle when General John Hunt Morgan was raiding in Letcher County during the Civil War. He forgot his fiddle, which Morgan's raiders stole. Horace said when his Grandfather slipped up to the raider's campfire hoping to steal the fiddle back, Gen. Morgan was standing by the campfire fiddling this tune. Horace's Grandfather didn't get his fiddle back, but he did remember the tune, which he called Morgan's March. I added another part to the tune, but did not play it on this occasion.

Contrary to popular history, all mountain counties were not for the Union. It is my belief that support for one side or the other in eastern Kentucky was swayed mostly by the brigands who claimed to be Union or Confederate. Knott County was strongly for the Confederacy, and voting registration today is over 95% Democratic, a heritage of the Civil War. All my ancestors that I know about fought for the Confederacy, although I know some were Northern sympathizers. Many in Knott County did not favor going to war for either side, but were forced to do so to protect themselves and their families. The war in eastern Kentucky was particularly vicious; consequently, there has been less glorification of this conflict there than in areas where the fighting was less partisan.

Track 17; BIG JOHN HENRY, f# - DF#AD: I learned this song from Stu Jamieson. It was a favorite of Rufus Crisp, a banjo virtuoso recorded by Stuart Jameison and Margot Mayo in 1946. Big John Henry is a truly wonderful song, and is probably from the era when railroads were being built in Floyd County. Rufus played a fretless banjo and used numerous tunings. He lived in Floyd County, which adjoins Knott. I learned a similar song in Knott County from Foster Collins, a neighbor on Buffalo Creek, that I called Totin' All 'Round this World - I sing this song to the melody I learned for Totin' all 'Round this World. Foster Collins, as many in the area did, moved to Michigan and I never saw him again, for I also left Kentucky in the early 1960s.

Digging on that new railroad, mud up to my knees,
Digging on that new railroad, mud up to my knees,
Working for Big John Henry, and he's so hard to please,
I've been all 'round this world.

Used to have the big white hat, hoss and buggy fine,
Used to have the big white hat, hoss and buggy fine,
Used to court them pretty girls, I used to call them mine,
I've been all 'round this world.

Once I had a big gray hoss, and Darrow was his name,
Used to have a big gray hoss, and Darrow was his name,
They caught me making liquor and I had to leave their plain,
I've been all 'round this world.

Well single boy, single boy, I know you see a good time,
Single boy, single boy, I know you see a good time,
Wait 'til you get married, you'll work 'til the sun goes down,
I've been all 'round this world.

Single girl, single girl, the dress you wear so fine,
Single girl, single girl, the dress you wear so fine,
Wait 'til you get married, you'll work 'til the sun goes down,
I've been all 'round this world.

Digging on that new railroad, mud up to my knees,
Digging on that new railroad, mud up to my knees,
Digging for Big John Henry, and he's so hard to please,
I've been all 'round this world.

Track 18; CHIGGER BILL'S STILL (Spoken)

Track 19; BELL CONIE KNOB, g – DGCD: I was given the words to this song over thirty years ago by Mrs. Alfie Gibson, the wife of Bud Gibson, a first cousin of my father. I had the words but no melody until recently. I met Glenn Thomas, a fine musician living in Edgewater, Florida, and told him about the song. Glenn, a relative of the early dulcimer maker James Edward Thomas, is from a musical family. He is from Knott County, and once lived on Steerfork, a branch of Carr Creek. His neighbor was Mel Amburgey. Glenn said Mel made a fretless banjo that had a sassafras neck and a groundhog hide for a head. Bell Conie was one of the songs he sang and played while sitting on his front porch. I gave Glenn the words to Bell Conie and he sang it using a guitar for back up. I also recently heard Herman Gibson, a first cousin of my father, sing the song unaccompanied. I believe, therefore, that the melody I play here is very close to the original. The song was written by Malcolm Vance, a half-brother to my Aunt Dora, the widow of Bob Gibson. It recounts an actual event and pokes fun at some of the participants. My father, Mal Gibson, cut up a community still located on the Bell Conie Knob, a high peak between Buffalo and Big Doubles Creeks. He is referenced in the song.

The "dairy feed sack" referenced in the fifth verse refers to a sack in which one hundred pounds of cattle feed was sold. My father sold these in his country grocery store. Some had pretty patterns and were used by local women to sew various items. The "chalk eyes" referenced in the sixth verse was a local name for the errand boy around a still. Making moonshine was hard work, and required a lot of drudgery. The chalk eyes were often paid in liquor which was usually not the best of the run.

Jim Wess, Harrison, John and Rob,
Set up a still on the Bell Conie Knob.

For days and weeks they made their beer,
They didn't know the officers were near.

They heard the officers coming, and thought it was Clark Day,
Harrison gave the signal and they made their get-away.

Talk about their running as they left the still,
The bushes were all broken where they fled down the hill.

They left a gallon of liquor in a dairy feed sack,
It looked as if it were taken off some man's back.

Or they had it sacked up just ready for to start,
By the looks of the liquor it was the chalk eyes part.

It happened that Mal Gibson was passing back through,
When there by the path he saw Martha's old shoe,

And out a piece farther, about the fence I guess,
Hanging in the bush was a piece of Eva's old dress.

Track 20; Pretty Polly, DADGAD: I used a ca. 1924 Gibson Guitar banjo, capoed at the second fret, with a D string replacing the sixth, which gives the banjo a more droning sound. Pretty Polly was one of my father's favorite tunes. I sometimes play it on the banjo in a stroke style similar to the way he played it. More often, however, I use a two finger picking style on the banjo and a three finger style on the guitar banjo.

Over yonder stands Pretty Polly, over yonder she stands,
Over yonder stands Pretty Polly, over yonder she stands,
Gold rings on her fingers and lily white hands.

Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, come go along with me,
Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, come go along with me,
Before we get married, some pleasure to see.

Oh he led her over mountains and valleys so deep,
Oh he led her over mountains and valleys so deep,
Then Polly, Pretty Polly, she began to weep.

Saying Willie, Oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways,
Saying Willie, Oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways,
I'm afraid you will lead my poor body astray.

He led her a little farther and what did she spy,
He led her a little farther and what did she spy,
But a newly dug grave with a spade lying by.

Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, you guessed just about right,
Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, you guessed just about right,
I dug on your grave the most part of last night.

Oh she fell to her knees and pleaded for her life,
She fell to her knees and pleaded for her life,
Said let me be a single girl for the rest of my life.

He stabbed her to the heart and the heart's blood did flow,
He stabbed her to the heart and the heart's blood did flow'
Into the grave Pretty Polly did go.

He through a little dirt over her and started for home,
He through a little dirt over her and started for home,
Leaving nothing behind but the wild birds to mourn.

Now a debt to the devil old Willie must pay,
A debt to the devil old Willie must pay,
For killing Pretty Polly, then running away.

Track 21; Old German War Introduction (Spoken)

Track 22; OLD GERMAN WAR, f# - GDAD: I believe this is the tuning Mel Amburgey used for this song, which he sang about World War I. He was a veteran of that war, and by the time I heard him play the song, we had already suffered another German war. I do remember that Mel had tears in his eyes when he sang this for me. I also heard James Slone play this song, which he had learned from Mel. This song is derived from Texas Rangers, which was a popular tune on Carr Creek. A version of this song was also sung by Banjo Bill Cornett, from Hindman, Kentucky.

Come all you good people wherever you may be,
I hope you'll pay attention and listen to me,
My name is nothing extra, the truth to you I'll tell,
I am a brave volunteer, and I'm sure I wish you well.

At the age of sixteen I joined that army grand,
We left old Kentucky and sailed for a foreign land,
Our Captain he informed us, and I know he thought it right,
Before the morning comes boys, I'm sure we'll have to fight.

I saw them Germans coming, I heard them give their yell,
My feelings at that moment no human tongue can tell,
I saw their shining rifles, and their bullets 'round us flew,
Now all my strength it left me and all my courage too.

We fought the whole day through before the battle was done,
The dead and the dying lay under a bloody sun,
And when the battle was o'er, and the Germans had fled,
We lay down our rifles and counted up our dead.

Now all of us were wounded, our noble Captain slain,
The sun it was setting all across a bloody plain,
And then I thought of mother, who begged me for to stay,
And not to go with strangers and sail so far away.

I've been in the midst of battle, I know its hardships well,
I've been across that great ocean, and rode down streets of hell,
I've lived a life of misery, and been where death it roams,
I'll tell you from experience boys, you had better stay at home.

Track 23; OLD REUBIN, f# - DF#AD: This is the tuning used for Reuben by both Gran Hudson and my father. It seems to have been widespread throughout the Appalachian Mountains, which suggests an early origin. My father called this tune Eight Hundred Miles. Gran called the tune Old Reuben, and I usually sing his version, as I did here. Betsy Layne was at one time a bustling coal town in east Kentucky. Stu Jameison said Rufus Crisp also used Betsy Layne in his version of Reuben.

Old Reuben had a train, ran from Hell to Betsy Layne,
And I'd like to been a driver on that line.

The longest train I ever saw ran down that Brown Cove line,
And the fastest train I ever saw carried away that woman of mine.

That freight train wrecked last Saturday night, and killed that woman of mine,
They found one lump of her coal black hair, and her body has never been found.

Pretty girls don't you weep, pretty girls don't you moan,
Pretty girls don't you leave your home.

Oh you caused me to weep and you caused me to moan,
And you caused me to leave my home.

And the day I left my mother's house was the day I left my home,
And the day you turned your back on me was the day you lost a friend.

Me and my woman had a little falling out, she bundled up her clothes to leave,
When she stepped on that two o'clock train, then I stepped on the three.

If you say yes, we'll get married I guess, but if you say no,
I'll railroad no more, I'll sidetrack my train and go home.

Them long steel rails, them short cross ties,
I'm walking my way back home.

Track 24; CLUCK OLD HEN, g – DGCD: Cluck old hen was a banjo tune popular in Knott County and throughout the mountains. Like many banjo songs it is also a fine dance tune. Often a lone banjo player would play for a frolic in the home, or for a square dance in a more formal setting. Banjo players needed to play loud and lay down a beat for dancers to follow. I call this type of lick the square dance shuffle. Rufus Crisp called this lick his "double shuffle."

There is a version of Cluck Old Hen by Knott County banjo player Banjo Bill Cornett on the CD Mountain Music of Kentucky. He was one of the finest banjo players in the mountains. The CD also features Granville Bowling, another wonderful banjo player from Knott County. Locally, Granville was known as "Bad Eye." Glenn Thomas played with Bad Eye in the 1940s and said he played in the down stroke style as well as the driving two finger thumb lead style that is recorded on Mountain Music of Kentucky. I never heard Bad Eye play. He moved his family to Dayton, Ohio around 1950.

The Oven Fork Baptist Church, established in 1820 in Harlan County had ten written prohibitions for church members. The ninth was "Frolics not permitted in the home of members of the church." Most Baptist church members were in their middle ages or older, and did not approve of banjo playing and dancing. Young folks, however, managed to play the banjo and dance in spite of this prohibition.

Sources For Banjo History

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Following is an outline of essential reading for those seriously interested in the general history of the banjo. It is difficult to find much personal information in written history about the classes that played the banjo: slaves, freed slaves, indentured servants, wage earners, backwoodsmen; all people of limited means. One quickly realizes that history, for the most part, was not written by or for these people. History was written by elites for the upper economic classes. The upper classes scorned the banjo as an instrument of the lower classes. This attitude can be documented from Colonial America to twentieth century Appalachia. Unfortunately, the upper class view of the banjo is often cited as if it represented the view of all classes. It is used to argue that no Americans, excluding slaves and freed slaves, played the African American banjo until almost 200 years after its introduction in Colonial America. This elitist view of history defies logic, but can be found in many articles and books and on the Internet.

Africa and the Americas: Slaves brought the banjo to the Americas from Africa in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The primary book for descriptions of the banjo in the Caribbean and Colonial America is Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War by Dena J. Epstein, published by the University of Illinois Press, 1977.

Black banjo playing in the mountains: There was a black 5-string banjo playing tradition in America that persisted in some areas into the twentieth century. African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, by Cecelia Conway, published by the University of Tennessee Press, 1995, is an in depth study of some twentieth century black banjo players in North Carolina.

The banjo from Africa to the Appalachians: My article, Gourd Banjo: From Africa to the Appalachians, can be found on this web site. This article provides an overview of 300 years of banjo history. It begins with Africa and the introduction of the banjo to the Caribbean and Colonial America in the seventeenth century, and follows the banjo to twentieth century Appalachia.

Appalachian and Kentucky banjo history: Listed below are those articles and books that should be read by anyone interested in Appalachian and Kentucky banjo history.

The Folk Banjo and Clawhammer Performance Practice in the Upper South: A Study of Origins, by William Tallmadge, was published in The Appalachian Experience, Proceedings of the 6^th Annual Appalachian Studies Conference; edited by Barry M. Bruxton and published by the Appalachian Consortium Press in 1983. This article is well researched and should be read for an understanding of one means by which the banjo entered the Appalachian frontiers of Kentucky and West Virginia.
Sang Branch Settlers: Folksongs and Tales of a Kentucky Mountain Family by Leonard Roberts; published for the American Folklore Society by the University of Texas Press in 1974. This book is essential for understanding how deeply the banjo was rooted in eastern Kentucky culture.
Folk-Songs of the Southern United States by Josiah H. Combs; edited by D. K. Wilgus and published by the University of Texas Press for the American Folklore Society in 1967. This book is essentially the doctorial dissertation that Dr. Josiah Combs, from Knott County Kentucky, wrote for the University of Paris in 1925. Dr. Combs discusses black banjo songs and provides lists of those that entered Kentucky both before and after the Civil War. He discusses blackface minstrelsy and the tendency of mountaineers to adopt songs from minstrelsy and other sources. He collected songs from Banjo Bill Cornett, Dan Gibson, Tom Kelley and others in Knott County well before 1925. There are two versions of Whoa Mule in the appendix that he collected from Cullie Williams in 1902. Cullie Williams was an African American banjo player in Knott County born ca. 1880.
Ballad Makin’ in the Mountains of Kentucky by Jean Thomas; published by Henry Holt and Company in 1939. Devil’s Ditties by Jean Thomas; published in Chicago in 1931 by W. Wilbur Hatfield. Jean Thomas has been dismissed by most folklorists because she subscribed to an Elizabethan ancestry for all things Appalachian, including music. She was, however, a very acute observer who recorded many interesting details of Kentucky folk life. For instance, she describes in more than one place the practice of making banjos from gourds.

Notes On Black Musicians in East Kentucky

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

NOTES ON BLACK MUSICIANS IN EAST KENTUCKY

My research of banjo history in Knott County, Kentucky, and the surrounding area is on-going. Listed below are a few notes regarding African American musicians in east Kentucky.

Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes by Jeff Todd Titon, published in 2001 by the University Press of Kentucky. This book contains information about Manon Campbell, a Letcher County fiddler:

"Manon Campbell, who was born in 1890, recalled Will Christian, an outstanding African American fiddler of his father’s generation who played for dances in southeastern Kentucky."

W. M. Christian was 48 (born ca 1872) in the 1920 Knott County census. He lived in the African American community at Redfox. Noah Christian of Redfox was 8 in the 1920 Knott county census. Preacher Clarren Williams of Redfox said Noah played banjo "a little bit."

African Americans from Redfox in Knott County compiled a genealogy that includes a black lady born ca. 1885 in Perry County, Kentucky. She is described as being able to play the banjo "til the cows come home."

Early Letcher County census records indicate these African American musicians all had ancestors in Kentucky well prior to the Civil War.

Josiah Combs, in Folk-songs of the Southern United States describes Cullie Williams as being a "great banjer picker." Cullie Williams was 40 (born ca. 1880) in the 1920 Knott County census, and lived in Redfox. He killed his wife sometime in the 1920s and was sentenced to life in prison, but was later pardoned. I learned a song about Cullie killing his wife when I was a boy. At that time I did not know that Cullie was African American, or that he was a banjo player.

Coy Morton of Whitesburg, Kentucky, is a relative by marriage. He has played banjo for more than 70 years. He described a family of African American musicians playing near the jail in Whitesburg, Kentucky, ca. 1929. He believes this family included a father, mother, son and a daughter. He remembers the family playing banjo, guitar and fiddle. It was a tradition at one time for musicians in the mountains to play near the courthouse and jail during special events.

Leonard Roberts, in Sang Branch Settlers, quotes Tom Couch (b. ca. 1860, d. 1956), a Harlan County banjo player, saying that one of his forbears started the tradition of picking and singing by making himself a banjo from an old gourd. The banjo playing Couch family members do not mention African Americans in regard to the banjo. However, the Couch family folktale # 143 in Sang Branch Settlers is about Sambo and Golder, who were slaves. Sambo and Golder were sent out horse hunting by their King:

"And he had him a gourd and he made him a banjer out of it. Well, when the [King] sent Sambo to hunt for Golder he found him under a rock pickin' on that old banjer and a-singin' ..."

Doris Ullman photographed a young black fiddler at or near the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County ca. 1930.

The liner notes to the Addie Graham LP, Been a Long Time Traveling, June Appal Recording 020, describes her encounter with an African American banjo player in Magoffin County, Kentucky. This fine LP will hopefully be reissued as a CD in the near future.

A Banjo Essay

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Allan M. Trout was a columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal. His column was the first item I read in the Courier-Journal ca. 1950. This essay is included in Greetings from Old Kentucky, a collection of his columns published in 1947 by the Courier-Journal.

Mr. Trout's columns describe events in a world and time in Kentucky prior to strip mining, black water spills, polluted water wells, polluted streams, decapitated mountains, oil and gas wells, and pipelines.

The location of the incident described in the following essay is McKee in Jackson County, Kentucky. It was a tradition at one time in Kentucky for musicians to play in the county seat near the courthouse or jail during special events.

Ah, the Glory of the Mountains!

Talk about the glory of the mountains! Ah, friends, it lies deeper than bright sunshine on corn in the shock. It lies deeper than the soft carpet of leaves nature weaves, then gently spreads in the cove and up the hillside. It lies deeper than the red of bittersweet, the scarlet of sumac, or the gold of pretty maples.

On one morning of October 29 I was sitting on the back row in the circuit courtroom in McKee. Up front, Congressman John M. Robinson, of Barbourville, the tall sycamore of the Cumberlands, was making a political speech. Mr. Robinson was talking about the God-blessed privilege of living in the mountains, where the air is clean and friends are true.

I looked out of the window, toward the jail in the corner of the courthouse yard. I saw an old man sitting on the front bumper of an automobile parked at the curb. He was picking a banjo and patting his foot, picking a banjo and patting his foot for the boys in the Jackson County jailhouse. In that old man's foot I suddenly saw the glory of the mountains. And in the sad little tune from his banjo I heard the glory of the mountains. Because I knew the old minstrel with his lay was proclaiming the God-blessed privilege of living in the mountains with more eloquence than Mr. Robinson, I left the courtroom and descended to the courtyard.

Uncle Laney Gibson, 74, of Green Hall, showed two front teeth encased in gold when he smiled at me. He had on an old green hat, a rumpled gray suit, and a hickory shirt. He held forth his banjo for me to admire. It was a square box made at home, with the bottom of a lard can tacked on for a head.

"I wouldn't swap hit to ary banjo I ever saw," Uncle Laney said. "Hit makes the sweetest music of ary box I ever undertook to pick."

Uncle Laney said he was feeling puny that morning, but came to town because he heard there was a speaking and he allowed a little music would help out. He said he allowed it would cheer the boys up a little if he walked down to the jailhouse and played a few tunes for them while the speakers were at it in the courthouse.

Yes, friends, the glory of the mountains is that the soul of a man is free. Because a mountain man minds his own business, he is at liberty to come and go by his own leave.

If there is music in his heart, a mountain man is free to pat it out through his feet, or clap it out through his hands. He is free to sit under the jailhouse window and pick it out of a homemade banjo for the boys inside. That is what Uncle Laney Gibson did that morning of October 29 up there at McKee, in the friendly valley of Indian Creek in the headwaters country of Rockcastle River.

A Banjo Poem

Thursday, July 01, 2004

James Still (1906 – 2000) was a friend of my family for over fifty years. He published his first book of poetry, Hounds on the Mountain, in 1937. He shared the Southern Writers Award with Thomas Wolfe (You Can’t Go Home Again) after the publication of his novel, River of Earth, in 1940.

Still's Wolfpen Poems was published in 1986 and contains a poem entitled Banjo Bill Brewer. I knew after reading the poem that it was written about Banjo Bill Cornett. I asked James about this, and he confirmed that the poem was indeed about Banjo Bill. James got to know Banjo Bill quite well when they worked together on a project in Knott County during the 1930s. James titled his poem Banjo Bill Brewer because Banjo Bill was alive when the poem was written. I encouraged him to title the poem Banjo Bill Cornett, and am pleased that it is so titled in his posthumous poetry collection, From the Mountain From the Valley, published in 2001 by the University Press of Kentucky.

James also gave me permission to quote the poem in its entirety in my article, The Banjo in Appalachia, in the October 2000 issue of the Banjo Newsletter. James Still’s poem captures the essence of Banjo Bill Cornett’s relationship to his music, and helps explain why he continued playing his old-time music after the culture that supported the music had collapsed.

BANJO BILL CORNETT

Singing he goes, wrapped in a garment of ballads,
And his songs are his own, and his banjo shaped
By his own skilled hands. This is his own true love
He grieves, these his winding lonesome valleys
Blowing with perished leaves and winds that starve
In the chestnut oaks, and these the deaths he dies.
His voice is whispering water, the speech of a dove.

The banjo is a part of him, his waking and his sleeping;
It is his bread and meat. Here his heart’s peace lies.
It is his tongue for joy, it is his eyes for weeping.

Banjo Bill Cornett was a well known banjo player in Knott County, Kentucky. He was a candidate for the Kentucky State Legislature in 1956, the year I first voted. I promised Banjo Bill I would vote for him if he played a banjo tune or two for me. He did – I voted for him – and he won the election. Banjo Bill was a conscientious legislator. He did a good job for Knott County and for Kentucky.

About this Site

Sunday, June 01, 2003

This web site is devoted to banjos and banjo history. The banjo was brought to America by African slaves and was eventually adopted by people of Anglo-European ancestry. Numerous web sites, books and articles have information regarding banjo history; however, many contain information that is inaccurate. Minstrel banjo tutors being printed today are a particularly poor source for banjo history. Unfortunately, popular myths about the banjo have been circulating for well over 100 years, and most persist today.

Persistent myths have developed regarding the career of Joel Walker Sweeny, who played 5-string banjo in circuses beginning in the 1830s. He was one of the early blackface banjo performers on the minstrel stage and helped popularize the banjo as a stage instrument. Unfortunately, many people assume that Sweeney and the minstrels were primarily responsible for popularizing the banjo as a folk instrument. My research has revealed, however, that stage minstrels had little influence on the folk banjo tradition in Kentucky.

The banjo music of Sweeney and the stage minstrels did have an indirect influence upon the popularity of the banjo among both men and women of the upper classes, beginning in the latter part of the 1800s. A few stage minstrels adopted a more European style of music for the banjo beginning after 1860 and by the 1880s S. S. Stewart of Philadelphia and other banjo makers were marketing banjos to members of the upper class. During this period there was an effort to “elevate” the banjo by divorcing it from its African origins. This was done by claiming that Sweeney, who died ca.1860, invented the banjo. It was claimed that Sweeney did this by adding a fifth string or by building the first wood frame banjo. We know Sweeney did not invent the banjo. Additionally, there is no proof that he added a fifth string to the banjo or was the first to build a banjo with a wood frame. The Sweeney myths are not supported by serious banjo historians. Dena Epstein, a respected banjo historian, concluded the following in The Folk Banjo: A Documentary History:

"...the documents already presented, and those cited in the table below, should lay to rest a number of myths that have been widely published, although it is hard to believe that they were ever taken seriously: that the banjo was ‘invented’ by white men in the United States, that it was popularized primarily by minstrel troupes..."

There is also a wide spread myth that white Appalachians did not have a banjo tradition prior to the Civil War, but obtained the banjo and banjo playing styles from minstrel banjoists after 1860. This myth was spread by academics with little knowledge of mountain history or culture. There was an African American banjo tradition on the frontier and in the mountains. Many people in southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee, eastern Kentucky and other areas of Appalachia have some mixture of Anglo-European, African American and Native American ancestry. Folk life in the mountains is a mixture of folkways from all three groups. These groups have been mixing since early Colonial days, and there is no reason to assume that the exchange of musical ideas did not also begin very early. I knew mixed race banjo players in Knott County, Kentucky, when I learned to play banjo ca. 1950.

I have articles on this site that I hope will help to dispel some of the myths regarding banjo history. It is also my hope that the banjo history contained on this site will lead to further research by others. There is a need for serious students of folkways to fill in some of the large gaps in our knowledge of the role music played in the folk life of backwoods settlers, beginning in the Colonial era.

Stringed Instrumnets and Ephemera

Stringed instruments, including banjos, mandolins, dulcimers, guitars and fiddles, will be posted on this site from time to time. Some will be clearly marked for sale, while others will be for display only. Also included from time to time will be banjo related ephemera, some of which will also be for sale.

Museum Display of Banjo History

I have had a banjo history exhibit at the non-profit Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum at Renfro Valley in Kentucky for the past few years. This exhibit tracks the history of the banjo from Africa to ca. 1900. The exhibit contains numerous instruments and related ephemera. It is my intention to photograph the exhibit as it is dismounted, and then display the exhibit on this web site in a sequence that follows the time line of the evolution of the banjo.

Recordings

I have recordings for sale on this site. They are also available from other sources. It is my intention to donate all the money from the sale of these recordings to WMMT-FM Radio in Whitesburg, Kentucky and to the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School in Letcher County, Kentucky.

WMMT-FM radio employs many volunteer programmers, and has been instrumental in providing a variety of music, news and information to people in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. The station’s programmers play a wide variety of music, including both bluegrass and old-time. WMMT-FM broadcasts over the Internet and can be found at www.appalshop.org/wmmt/.

The Cowan Creek Mountain Music School’s primary mission is to teach old time music to young people in east Kentucky. People from other sections of the country, however, have enjoyed classes at the school. The School’s web site can be found at www.cowancreekmusic.org.

Learning To Play Banjo: Emulation vs. Imitation

Sunday, December 01, 2002

Introduction

I hope I can shed light on differences between current and older banjo playing styles by explaining the method by which most older mountain banjoists learned to play, and then contrasting this with the way most people learn to play today. Diversity in old time banjo playing styles is being lost and the different learning methods help explain why this is occurring.

The role of the banjo in mountain culture is not well known today. Also, some people do not know that there were a variety of old-time banjo playing styles in the mountains. I was at Augusta in Elkins, West Virginia, in August 2001, and was considerably taken aback to learn that students were being taught banjo as an adjunct to the fiddle. Many students viewed the banjo as an instrument for playing fiddle tunes, and felt this had been its historical role.

Some of the students were considerably surprised that I sang with most of the tunes I played. However, this is what most old-time banjo players did in East Kentucky. I suspect this might have been true in other areas of the mountains. Dr. Josiah H. Combs said the following about East Kentucky banjo players in Folk-Songs of the Southern United States, which is an edited version of the doctorial dissertation Combs wrote for the University of Paris in 1925:

"The banjo is the musical instrument that accompanies him, and he seldom picks it without singing."

I do not maintain, however, that old-time banjo players in East Kentucky did not play with fiddlers – they certainly did. When playing with fiddlers, however, old-time banjo players in East Kentucky usually sacrificed notes for brush strokes to provide a solid rhythm for fiddle tunes. It was also not uncommon for an East Kentucky fiddler to sing with some of their tunes.

Learning by Emulation

Old timers in East Kentucky learned to play by emulation; that is, they duplicated the sounds they heard by listening, by casual observation, and without formal training. Learning by emulation was probably prevalent at one time throughout the mountains. It stemmed from a strong cultural bias that prevented young mountaineers from questioning their elders closely about a task or skill. Children were expected to learn by listening and observation. For instance, I was putting gears on a team of mules and plowing by the age of twelve. I never asked my father how to do this – it was something I was expected to learn on my own.

Stuart Jamieson, who recorded Rufus Crisp in 1946, said Aunt Liz Hill of Floyd County was a talented banjoist who played a stroke style with the banjo lying in her lap. He also described the playing of Blind Hobart Bailey of Hippo, Kentucky, who sounded the fifth string by picking up with his thumb. Stuart was surprised to learn that I knew of other people who used this technique for picking the fifth string – he thought Hobart’s move was unique and developed only because he was blind. Picking up with the thumb is a result of learning by emulation, and occurs when a casual observer of stroke playing mistakenly thinks the fifth string is picked as the thumb moved up.

Learning by emulation produced a wonderful diversity of styles. Wiley and Little Monroe Amburgey, two brothers close in age, played very dissimilar styles: Wiley played a conventional stroke style, while Little Monroe played a very unusual two-finger style. They learned by emulation from their father, Jasper Amburgey, a banjo maker who played dulcimer as well as banjo.

I learned songs and tunings ca. 1950 from my father, Mal Gibson, but I did not imitate his style of playing banjo. I learned by emulation and my playing style differs considerably from his; however, we produced some of the same sounds by using different playing techniques.

Although playing styles varied among old timers in East Kentucky, there were common elements in the sounds they produced. Most used different tunings, and many of those tunings were commonly used throughout the area. Many players used left hand techniques that helped provide a fuller sound for both singing and playing for dances. Also, quite a few players used more than one playing style.

Learning to play by emulation requires a cultural support system in which playing banjo is a normal activity, and which does not include people who have nominated themselves as experts on the "proper" method of playing banjo. The cultural support system for this type of learning has vanished in East Kentucky, and probably in most other mountain areas as well.

There are many recordings of mountain banjo players that give one an appreciation of different playing styles. There is a listing of some of these recordings at the end of this article.

Learning by Imitation

People who play old time banjo today rarely have neighbors with the same interest. For instance, I do not know anyone in my town, or in the county where I live in Florida, that plays old-time banjo. I know of no one that has continued playing old-time banjo on Burgeys Creek in East Kentucky, where I was reared. Old time banjo players live in dispersed communities today, and are connected by the telephone, the computer, and gatherings at festivals and colleges, where old-time music is played and taught.

The lack of a cultural support system and the wide dispersion of old time banjo players makes it necessary for most people today to learn banjo by imitation; that is, the playing style they are learning is broken into discrete steps by a teacher, and the student learns to play the style almost exactly as taught. Gifted players who learn by imitation are more likely to excel and improve the style they are taught. I believe this is demonstrated by the outstanding technical expertise of banjo players today in both the bluegrass and old time communities. A result of learning by imitation, however, is the tendency towards a standardization of playing styles.

Many people who teach banjo at colleges and festivals today learned by imitation from other teachers. The original teachers learned from a very few older people in the mountains and elsewhere. Over the last few decades playing styles from North Carolina and West Virginia have become popular, with the playing style from North Carolina the most ubiquitous. It is rare to hear someone at a festival today that does not play one of these styles.

THE PHILADELPHIA BANJO STYLE

My introduction to one particular style of banjo playing began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I lived for several years. I had brought a few banjos with me from Kentucky and thought I was one of the few people left playing old-time banjo. The culture had crashed in Knott County, Kentucky, where I learned to play ca. 1950, and old-time banjo players there had mostly ceased playing.

I discovered Fred Oster's Vintage Instrument shop not long after arriving in Philadelphia, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Fred and some of his young customers played old-time banjo. I was puzzled, however, because they all played a similar stroke style. The people from whom I had learned, of course, had styles that varied. When I asked Fred about this, he said, "We learned from the same teacher."

Somewhat later a nephew, who worked at Appalshop, took me to one of their old-time concerts in Whitesburg, Kentucky. There I saw a member of a string band playing banjo in a style I recognized. I confidently told my nephew that the banjo player had to be from Philadelphia, because he was playing in the "Philadelphia style." I later learned that this person had indeed gone to college in Philadelphia.

After moving to Florida, I attended a festival that featured old-time music. I saw a gentleman demonstrate the Philadelphia stroke style for a young man. He said very earnestly: "This is the way all mountain people play banjo." I was astonished that anyone would think all mountaineers played one style of banjo; however, most of the banjo players whom I saw play at this festival played the Philadelphia stroke style.

ROUND PEAK STYLE

I learned, after quite a bit of research, that the "Philadelphia" stroke style was in fact the style known today as "round peak." Round peak is the most widely imitated style in the old time banjo community. This style was copied from a few local banjo players who participated in the fiddlers’ conventions in Galax, Virginia, and Mt. Airy, North Carolina. These affairs were very popular with early revival musicians, some of whom later taught banjo.

The round peak banjo player who most influenced revival musicians was Tommy Jarrell of North Carolina - he was also an outstanding old-time fiddler. Tommy was very hospitable and generous with his time. A lot of revival musicians spent time with him and a few learned his style of playing. There are several CDs and at least one video featuring Tommy Jarrell playing banjo and fiddle.

There is an emphasis in round peak on playing fiddle tunes note for note. This "fiddle" style probably developed after the introduction of the guitar and string bass. I call East Kentucky banjo the "singing" style since there is more of an emphasis on filling notes with the left hand to create a fuller sound for both singing and dance. When playing with a fiddler, East Kentucky banjo players tended to sacrifice notes for brushes to provide a solid rhythm for the fiddler.

Unfortunately, some people who play the round peak style today think they are playing a style used by most mountaineers, when in fact it was used by very few. Many round peak players pick notes with the middle finger instead of the pointer finger - I have seen a book that states that this is the proper finger to use when playing stroke style. In fact, most people are more adept using their pointer finger. I recently had a very discouraged banjo student come to me because his teacher insisted he use his middle finger, which he found very awkward. I told him he should pick with the finger he felt most comfortable using. This is what a good teacher should tell a student. A good teacher should also give a student some freedom to develop their own style.

CONCLUSION

The diversity of old-time banjo playing styles is being lost because many people today are learning a very few styles by imitation from teachers, books, and videos. These styles are spread by festivals and colleges where old-time music is played and taught. I wish more people were knowledgeable about banjo styles that differ from their own. I also wish more people had a better understanding of the cultural role of the banjo. Unfortunately, many who write banjo articles today mistakenly ascribe the cultural role of the banjo in one family or one area to everyone in the mountains. A symptom of this is the assumption that a particular style of banjo was played everywhere, when in fact it might have been a local style.

There were once many different styles of playing old-time banjo. Some styles were downright eccentric; however, all were wonderful to hear. The old-time banjo is a personal instrument that sounds good when played alone or with a group, unlike the bluegrass banjo, which sounds best as an ensemble instrument. I wish more people today were singing with the banjo and playing in more diverse styles.

RECORDINGS

The recordings listed here should give one a good appreciation of the different banjo playing styles in the mountains. Some excellent liner notes provide insight into the culture that supported the banjo, and to the history of the banjo.

Rounder CD 0439/40 – The North Carolina Banjo Collection
This outstanding 2 CD set was produced by Bob Carlin. The notes are excellent, and give the reader an appreciation of the role of the banjo in North Carolina folk life. Several of the featured performers have CDs of their own. I especially like Ola Belle Reed and Bascom Lamar Lunsford, both of whom have CDs at Smithsonian Folkways.

Smithsonian Folkways – Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia
This compilation of black banjo players recorded between 1974 and 1997 was produced by Cece Conway and Scott Odell, and is extensively annotated with notes about performers’ tunings, lyrics and life histories.

Yazoo 2200 – Kentucky Mountain Music
This 7 CD set is a must for all who love old-time music. Included in the recordings are several Kentucky banjo players playing in different styles. Rufus Crisp is not featured in the recordings, but his CD can be found at Smithsonian Folkways. Pete Steele and Reverend Buell Kazee, who are featured on the recordings, also have CDs at Smithsonian Folkways.

JA OO77 D, June Appal – Banjer Days
This recording has several modern performers playing in different styles, including Will Keys in a wonderful two-finger style and Odus Maggard in a bluesy old-time three-finger picking style.

Note: An abridged version of this article was published in the Banjo Newsletter in February, 2002.

Mellungeons and Myth

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

INTRODUCTION

This article was published originally in the December 2002 issue of the Appalachian Quarterly, a genealogical magazine in southwest Virginia. Mountain people were at one time described as pure Anglo-Saxon. This was, of course, pure nonsense. Today some writers seem obsessed with describing mountaineers as mostly Celtic or Scots-Irish. The truth is that the mountain people have a varied ancestry, as do many people in America. I grew up among Gibson and Collins families in Knott County, Kentucky. Some members of a few families were very dark, with a distinctive Indian appearance, while some members had a more African American appearance. There were other local families that were said to have African American or Indian ancestry. Through genealogical research I have established that a very talented Knott County family of banjo players had a grandfather that was described as Mulatto in census records.

Gibson and Collins are common surnames among some remnant Indian populations. They are also the most common surnames among mountain families that are today described as “Melungeon.” There has been a lot of romantic nonsense written about Melungeons in various places, including the Internet. The Gibson and Collins families described today as Melungeon came originally from east Virginia to the border counties of Virginia and North Carolina. From there they migrated to southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee, eastern Kentucky and to other areas. I have found that several other families in eastern Kentucky also followed this general migration path. It was through this migration path, I believe, that banjos and banjo songs entered Knott County.

MELUNGEONS AND MYTH

I grew up in Knott County, Kentucky. I learned at an early age that there were two groups of Gibson families: one group was described as black, the other white. I remember my father telling me about an elderly Gibson that lived near his grandfather. Dad said this Gibson was "black," but claimed to be Portuguese. I have since learned there is a record of families in northeast Tennessee who claimed to be Portuguese.

My father''s statement was unusual enough that I have remembered it for over fifty years. I was reminded of this recently when I visited a Baptist Minister in Kentucky. We were discussing our families when he remarked in a matter-of-fact manner: "You know, your family is from the old xxxxx Gibson set, but the xxxxx Gibson set were mulattoes." I am not using first names, because this is still a sensitive subject for some people. I have since researched and found that my Gibson ancestors were neighbors of the ancestors of the "black" Gibsons in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee, so I suspect there was some relationship between the families. I have always been curious why some people, whom others defined as mulattoes or Indian, should claim to be Portuguese.

I have read books about Melungeons in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. Gibson and Collins are the most common names among these people. Gibson and Collins, of course, are names common in east Kentucky, particularly in Knott and Letcher Counties. I feel the Melungeon label has been used as a broad brush to include different families and groups of people that may have had differing origins. None of the people now so labeled ever claimed to be Melungeon. This was originally a derisive term used in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee to describe people with darker skins.

The minutes of the Stony Creek Baptist Church (1801-1814) in Scott County Virginia provide a wonderful window into the past. These minutes have been of interest to me because the most common name in the Church was Gibson. Some of the Gibson members were likely among my ancestors. The disparaging reference in the minutes to a member harboring "Melungins" has generated a lot of comment. The "Melungins" being harbored were probably a different group of people who had moved in, or were passing through the area. These people must have had some obvious differences with the local population. These differences most likely included a darker skin.

The most interesting aspect of the Stony Creek minutes for me, however, was the presence of black members in the church. Black and white people socialized together in early Colonial America and on the early frontier. The increasingly repressive laws regarding free blacks and slaves, especially prior to the Civil War, helped create divisions between black and white neighbors. These laws were coupled with a view, perpetuated by some Northerners and many Southerners, that people with African American ancestry were somewhat less than human. A few Baptist churches in the mountains, however, treated slaves and free blacks with more respect than they received elsewhere. The Stony Creek Baptist Church was one of these. The following question was posed in the minutes for February 26, 1809:

"A query to the church concerning a Black brother or Sister should be taken for a witness against a white Sister or Brother. The church answers, yes."

This statement is a wonderful testament to the members of this church, especially considering the treatment blacks were receiving in other areas of both the North and the South.

James F. Gibson, my great, great grandfather, left Scott County Virginia in the 1860s and moved to an area of Letcher County Kentucky that later became Knott County. He preached at the Old Carr Regular Baptist Church in the 1880s. This church had black members who later formed their own church at Redfox, Kentucky. The Little Home Old Regular Baptist Church at Redfox has always had both black and white members, although most of the pastors have been black. Loyal Jones, in Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands, discusses the fraternization of black and white members in the Little Home Church.

I have been researching the history of the banjo, which came originally from Africa. I have therefore been reading extensively about early slavery, both in Africa and in America. Richard Jobson documents his travels in Africa in The Golden Trade, "Set down as they were collected in traveling part of the yeares 1620 and 1621." Jobson traveled to the Gambia in Africa acting as a scout for London merchants. Jobson was preceded to Africa by George Thompson, who sailed from England in 1618. Thompson''s ship, however, had been taken from him on the Gambia River. The ship was taken, according to Jobson, by "...a few poore dejected ‘Portingals'' and Molatos, whom they gave free recourse aboord, being only banisht people, and for the most part runnagados from their Country..."

Jobson was very suspicious of the ''Portingals'' when he met them on the Gambia, not only because some of them had pirated Thompson''s ship, but because they controlled much of the trade on the Gambia. These people were Creoles, who had both Portuguese and African ancestry. The Portuguese had been on the Gambia for near 200 years in 1620. Jobson has this to say about the "Portingales":

"And these are, as they call themselves, ‘Portingales,'' and some few of them seeme the same; others of them are ‘Molatoes,'' betweene blacke and white, but the more part blacke, as the natural inhabitants...they doe generally imploy themselves in buying such commodities the country affords...and as they [children] grow up, apply themselves to buy and sell one thing for another as the whole country doth, still reserving carefully, the use of the Portingall tongue, and with a kinde of an affectionate zeale, the name of Christians, taking it in great disdaine, be they never so blacke, to be called a ‘Negro'': and these, for the most part, are the Portingalls..."

Douglas Grant, in The Fortunate Slave, writes about the people on the Gambia.

"The Portuguese dominated West Africa for two hundred years...The English found the Portuguese settled on the banks of the Gambia when they first attempted an exploration of the river. When Jobson anchored on the Gambia...he discovered among the Mandingos near the mouth a number of ‘vagrant Portingall.'' They were Portuguese by language and sentiment rather than in appearance, for, though some were mulattoes, the majority were as black as the rest of the natives. They called themselves Christians and, whatever their hue, considered themselves to be white and took it as an insult to be classed with the Negroes. The river trade was mostly in their hands...By intermarrying with the natives, they [the Portuguese] had bred into their descendents something of the necessary genius of the place...Creole Portuguese was a useful trading language, widespread along the coast and along the Guinea waterways, and one of the most easily picked up by the English..."

Ira Berlin''s Many thousands Gone is a history of slavery in America. He defines "Atlantic Creoles" in the introduction to his book:

"Atlantic Creoles trace their beginnings in the historic encounter of European and Africans on the west coast of Africa. Many served as intermediaries, employing their linguistic skills, and their familiarity with the Atlantic''s diverse commercial practices, cultural conventions, and diplomatic etiquette to mediate between African merchants and European Sea Captains. "

It should be noted that the Europeans cited would have included people from some countries on the Mediterranean Sea. The Atlantic Creoles were wide spread along the coast of West Africa, and were also a large presence in Europe:

"In Europe – particularly Portugal and Spain – the number of Creoles swelled as trade with Africa increased. By the mid-sixteenth century, 10,000 black people resided in Lisbon, where they composed 10 percent of the city''s population ...Men of color drawn from Creole communities of Europe accompanied Columbus to the Americas and marched with Balboa, Cortez, De Sota, and Pizarro ... Other Atlantic Creoles traveled on their own, as sailors and interpreters in both the transatlantic and African trades. Some gained freedom and mixed with Europeans and Native Americans..."

Berlin has this to say about the first generation of slaves in Virginia:

"Atlantic Creoles shaped black America''s charter generations in the Chesapeake. They numbered large among the ‘twenty Negers'' a Dutch man-o''-war sold to John Rolf at Jamestown in 1619...Although some of the new arrivals hailed directly from Africa, most had already spent some time in the New World, understood the language of the Atlantic, bore Hispanic and occasionally English names, and were familiar with Christianity and other aspects of European culture. Set to work alongside a mélange of English and Irish servants, little but skin color distinguished them from others who labored in the region''s tobacco fields. Through the first fifty years of English and African settlement in the Chesapeake, black and white workers lived and worked together in ways that blurred racial lines. The small number of people of African descent (never more than 5 percent of the region''s population during this period) combined with the peculiar demands of the tobacco economy to strengthen the bargaining position of black people, whose status as slaves remained undefined in law, although not in practice. Many escaped bondage and secured a modest prosperity. Reviled and disparaged, black America''s charter generations nevertheless found a place in the society with slaves that emerged around the Chesapeake during the middle of the seventeenth century."

Some of the charter generation of enslaved and free blacks discussed by Berlin include the following: Emanuel Driggers (or Drighouse, probably Rodriggus), Bashaw Farnando (or Ferdinando), Francis Payne, John Graweere and his wife, Anthony Johnson and his wife Mary, Domingo, John Francisco (later Sisco), Anthony Longo, and somewhat later Robert Cain (1660).

Berlin makes the following observation about free blacks:

"By mid-century (1650) the Johnsons, the Paynes, and Graweeres were not alone among people of African descent who enjoyed freedom in the Chesapeake. Small communities of free blacks sprouted up all around the perimeter of the Chesapeake Bay, with the largest concentration on the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland."

The social life of the early servants and slaves are discussed:

"Many blacks and whites appeared to enjoy one another''s company, perhaps because they shared so much. Behind closed doors, far from the eyes of suspicious slaveholders, black and white joined together to drink, gamble, frolic, and fight. Indeed, it was the violence that followed long bouts of ‘drinkinge and carrousinge'' that time and again revealed the extent of interracial conviviality..."

Berlin discusses the early mixing of races on the Chesapeake:

"Inevitably, conviviality led to other intimacies...Bastardy lists suggest that the largest source of mixed-race children in the seventeenth century Chesapeake was not the imposition of white planter men on black slave women but the relations of black slaves and white servants. Fragmentary evidence from various parts of Maryland and Virginia affirms that approximately one-quarter to one-third of the illegitimate children born to white women had fathers of African descent..."

He summarizes the close relationship between blacks and whites in the seventeenth century:

"Throughout the seventeenth century, black and white ran away together, joined in petty conspiracies, and upon occasion, stood shoulder-to-shoulder against the weighty champions of established authority. In 1676, when Nathaniel Bacon''s ‘Choice and Standing Army'' took to the field against forces commanded by Virginia''s royal governor, it drew on both white and black bondman in nearly equal proportions. Among the holdouts were a group of eighty black slaves and twenty white indentured servants, who bitterly condemned as a betrayal the surrender of Bacon''s officers."

The plantation regime, which Berlin discusses, began to put new strictures on the life of slaves and freed slaves. Berlin relates the following:

"In the 1660s the Johnson clan abandoned Virginia for Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. John Johnson and John Johnson, Jr., the son and grandson of Anthony Johnson, took refuge among the Nanticoke Indians and so-called Moors, among whom the Johnson name has loomed large into the twentieth century. Near one Nanticoke settlement in Delaware stands the small village of Angola, the name of John Johnson''s Virginia plantation and perhaps Anthony Johnson''s ancestral home. Similar ‘Indian'' tribes could be found scattered throughout the eastern half of the United States, categorized by twentieth -century ethnographers as ‘tri-racial isolates.''"

Berlin also discusses black people on the frontier:

"Others moved west to a different kind of autonomy. Scattered throughout the frontier areas of the eighteenth-century were handfuls of black people eager to escape the racially divided society of plantation America. In upcountry South Carolina, backcountry Virginia, and piedmont Georgia, white frontiersman with little sympathy for the nabobs of the tidewater sometimes sheltered such black men and women, employing them with no questions asked. People of African descent found refuge among the frontier banditti, whose interracial character – a ‘numerous Collection of outcast Mulattoes, Mustees, free Negroes, all Horse-Thieves,'' by one account – was the subject of constant denunciation by aspiring planters."

William Byrd, who was one of a party surveying the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728, confirms Berlin''s account of blacks on the frontier. He states the following in the History of the Dividing Line:

"We had encamped so early that we found time in the evening to walk near a half mile in the woods. There we came upon a family of mulattoes that called themselves free, though by the shyness of the master of the house, who took care to keep least in sight, their freedom seemed a little doubtful. It is certain many slaves shelter themselves in this part of the world, nor will any of their righteous neighbors discover them... Nor were these borderers content to shelter runaway slaves, but debtors and criminals have often met with like indulgence."

The "mulattoes," and others were welcome on a frontier where neighbor had to depend on neighbor. William Byrd and other planter elites had a less than flattering view of people on the frontier.

CONCLUSION

Reading Berlin and others leads me to conclude that many slaves in early America and the West Indies were Atlantic Creoles from the western coast of Africa. Slaves were imported into America for over 200 years, so it is likely some Atlantic Creoles arrived in America well after the first slaves in 1619. Is it possible that some mountain families claimed they were Portuguese because they had Atlantic Creole ancestry? It is an interesting possibility, and has some support in the historical record.

Atlantic Creoles were the result of racial mixing that began long before America was settled. Racial mixing continued in Colonial America among people of European, African, Atlantic Creole, American Indian and other ancestries. Racial mixing also continued on the early frontier. It is likely therefore that some mountaineers have both African and Atlantic Creole ancestors.

It appears to me that the debate about Melungeons has more to do with creating myths about ones ancestors than it does with exploring the historical record. Some genealogists deny that any Melungeon families had African ancestry. They describe Melungeons as a people with Indian and European ancestry. These researchers ignore the early mixing of eastern Indian tribes with Africans as well as Europeans. Some claim a group of Portuguese sailors, stranded in early America, mixed with native Indians and later with Europeans to form Melungeon families. I find no evidence for this in the historical record. If this theory were true, however, Melungeons would still have some African ancestry. Atlantic Creoles, with both Portuguese and African ancestry, would have had a large presence among any group of Portuguese sailors in early America. There are other theories that claim Melungeons have Turkish, Gypsy, Jewish or some other ancestry. There is no doubt that there was a remarkable mixture of people in early America. There is little evidence at this time, however, to support the more exotic claims for Melungeon ancestry.

A mathematician recently discussed the fact that every person living in America today can be proven to have descended from any historical person, if that person is distant enough in the past. The time frame discussed regarding possible Melungeon ancestry is from about 1600 to 2000, or 400 years. If a generation is 25 years, then we are discussing 16 generations. Any person living today would have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, and so on. Continuing this for 16 generations means each of us would have had 65,536 ancestors living in 1600. This is clearly impossible considering the large population living today and the much smaller population existing in 1600. This means we have many ancestors in common, which is another way of confirming all humans are related, however distantly. Mountaineers should be proud of all their ancestors, regardless of their color or ethnicity.

Melungeons And Other Pioneer Families, by Jack H. Goins, is a well researched book on the origin of Gibson, Collins and other families that were described as Melungeon in the early 1800s in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee.

The author, George R. Gibson, welcomes comments about this article. His email address is buzzg@cfl.rr.com; his address is 1311 California Avenue, St. Cloud, FL 34769. George is seriously researching the origin of the banjo in the mountains. He would like to hear from any genealogist who has oral history of family members playing banjo prior to the Civil War.