Rockin' the Boat by Jeff Fleischer

Author:Jeff Fleischer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zest Books
Published: 2015-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

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Brown’s sacrifice for the anti-slavery cause helped inspire one of the most recognizable songs in the American canon. Union soldiers, often with time on their hands between battles, regularly created folk songs to sing while on the march—including one called “John Brown’s Body.”

According to poet Julia Ward Howe, the tune was originally about a Massachusetts soldier with the same name. But the song spread to other units who assumed it was about the other, more famous John Brown, so they added lyrics specifically about that John Brown. Howe heard a version of the song in 1861, adapted that tune and its closing line (“His soul is marching on!”), and wrote her own lyrics. The result was “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a song every American kid learns at some point and one that still plays at presidential inaugurations and national memorials.

Like many protest songs, “John Brown’s Body” experienced a revival during the 1960s’ struggle for civil rights in America. Politically active singers like Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger recorded their own versions of the song, while Bob Dylan and others composed new songs about the abolitionist hero.

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