Hymn of the Contrabands a machine-readable transcription R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang Kristen Treen transcription and encoding Kristen Treen R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang aa.18640319.4a cwnewspaperpoetry Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing
http://www.scholarlyediting.org
Association for Documentary Editing University of Nebraska–Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
319 Love Library University of Nebraska–Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-4100 http://cdrh.unl.edu
2012

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Derivatives must be credited to R. J. Weir and Elizabeth Lorang, made available non-commercially, and distributed under the same terms.

 Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing editor Amanda Gailey editor Andrew Jewell 34 2167-1257 George H. Boker Hymn of the Contrabands The Anglo-African 19 March 1864 [4] The microfilm copy used for transcription was loaned by Indiana University-Bloomington. <imprint> <date sameAs="#issue_date"/> </imprint> </monogr> </biblStruct> </sourceDesc> </fileDesc> <encodingDesc> <p>This electronic text is a semi-diplomatic transcription of the source text. Hyphenation, punctuation, variant spellings, and errors present in the source text have been retained. The transcription does not attempt to capture all aspects of the original formatting or layout.</p> </encodingDesc> <profileDesc> <creation> <persName xml:id="ghb">Boker, George H. (George Henry), 1823-1890</persName> <persName xml:id="rh">Hamilton, Robert</persName> <persName xml:id="th">Hamilton, Thomas</persName> <date when="1864">1864</date> </creation> <langUsage> <language ident="en-US">modern American English</language> </langUsage> <textClass> <classCode scheme="http://authorities.loc.gov"> <term>African-American soldiers</term> <term>Freedmen--Southern States</term> <term>Slaves--Emancipation--United States</term> <term>United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Songs and music</term> <term>United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Religious aspects</term> </classCode> </textClass> </profileDesc> <revisionDesc> <change when="2013-03-05" who="#el">notes tweaks</change> <change when="2013-03-02" who="#el">made copyediting changes</change> <change when="2013-01" who="#el">revised transcription and encoding to address errors and inconsistencies; updated editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-11" who="#awj">added Scholarly Editing info to TEI header</change> <change when="2012-10-28" who="#el">added and encoded additional editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-10-21" who="#el">added and encoded editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-09-06" who="#el">checked transcription and encoding</change> <change when="2012-09-02" who="#el">checked basic encoding</change> <change when="2012-07-17" who="#kt">encoded; inserted placeholder terms</change> <change when="2012-04-29" who="#bw">checked transcription</change> <change when="2012-05-23" who="#kt">transcribed</change> </revisionDesc> </teiHeader> <facsimile corresp="#issue"> <surface xml:id="pp1"> <graphic url="aa.18640319.pp1.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp2"> <graphic url="aa.18640319.pp2.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp3"> <graphic url="aa.18640319.pp3.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp4"> <graphic url="aa.18640319.pp4.jpg"/> <zone xml:id="pp4_cropped" corresp="#poem"> <graphic url="aa.18640319.pp4a_cropped.jpg"/> </zone> </surface> </facsimile> <text corresp="#poem #pp4_cropped"> <body> <lg type="poem"> <head type="main" subtype="authorial" rend="center">HYMN OF THE CONTRABANDS.<note type="editorial" resp="#bw #el">General Benjamin F. Butler, commander at Fortress Monroe, defined fugitive slaves as "contraband of war" in the summer of 1861. Labeled as rebel property, runaway slaves could be confiscated by Union troops; doing so would deprive the Confederate war effort of manpower and secure military laborers for federal commanders, without challenging slavery on legal grounds. Secretary of War Simon Cameron approved the policy, which was consolidated by the terms of the First Confiscation Act. See <title level="m">Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867, ed. Ira Berlin, et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), series 1, 1:15–16. BY GEORGE H. BOKER.Philadelphian George Henry Boker (1823–1890) gave up the law for a literary life in the 1840s. He wrote several plays but success on the stage proved elusive; nevertheless, his household included several servants by 1860 (census records list his occupation as "Gent"). When the war broke out, Boker turned from drama to patriotic verse. He also cofounded Philadelphia's Union League in the winter of 1862; in addition to serving as the league's secretary, he used public poetry to promote Unionist sentiment in and beyond the city. Surely God himself has risen Over all the wakened world; Burst the darkness of the prison, Into hell the shackles hurled; For we hear a mighty rattle Fill the valleys and the hills, As the freedmen march to battle, As the God of freedom wills. Chorus—Then rally, rally, rally Round the flag of liberty; We are men at last and soldiers; We are free, are free, are free! God has put the sword and rifle Into labor-hardened hands, And we dare not stop or trifle When our God himself commands.Many of Boker's contemporaries believed that "the almighty hand steadily guided the course of history" (George C. Rable, God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010], 268). Antebellum slaves and abolitionists anticipated the year of jubilee; in 1863 an increasing number of Northern soldiers and civilians came to understand the war as divine punishment for the national sin of slavery (Rable, 155; Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War [New York: Knopf, 2007], 119). Boker's God commands freedmen to fight and thus secure liberty for their "brother[s]." Of course, his "contraband" speakers subscribe to a providential narrative that complements the aims of the Union League—to promote "loyal" sentiment and generate support for government policies like emancipation and African American enlistment. We have cut our bonds asunder, As the mower cuts the grain, And the land shall fill with wonder Ere they find them on again. Chorus. God has said make free your brother, As you now yourselves are free; Strike for wife and sire and mother, And for children on the knee. We are worse than Pagan scoffers If we fail to do the deed That God's grace so freely offers To our people's trampled seed. Chorus. In the name of God, who heeds us, We will crush the tyrants' power, And trust to Him who leads us In the battle's bloody hour. He will take us safely over, He will heal our wounds with balm, And the blessed dead He'll cover In the hollow of his palm. Chorus.