Sweet Honey in the Rock - Sojourner's Battle Hymn

Описание: This song is a strong and wonderful part of our heritage. It gives me chills with it's beauty, truth, and raw emotion. It doesn't matter that there are 3 versions around. They all are inspirations to us. Enjoy! to purchase: http://sweethoneyintherock.org/albums...

This stirring a cappella version of the black soldier's Civil War marching song is brilliant. ( "Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment"). It is from Sweet Honey in the Rock on "Still On The Journey: The 20th Anniversary Album" released in 1993. There are differing stories about it's origin, but they all lead back to a Captain Miller who wrote a "Marching Song" first mentioned to his mother in a letter he wrote her Jan. 20, 1864. The song is a powerful testament of the hopes and dreams of the black soldiers set to the tune of "John Brown's Body." Years later, a Civil War veteran said he once heard a black regiment sing it just before a battle and they made the welkin [heavens] ring, and inspired all who heard it." * info from internet sites & Wikipedia (with other confirmation.)

Sojourner Truth, a female, black speaker and worker against slavery made a version of the song, "The Valiant Soldiers," which appears in the 1878, 1881, and 1884 editions of her "Narrative". She sold her booklets and song sheets to support herself at her speeches. Her song is almost identical to Captain Miller's version of the "Marching Song". In the post-Civil War editions of Truth's Narrative, "The Valiant Soldiers" is introduced by this sentence by Francis Titus: "The following song, written for the first Michigan Regiment of colored soldiers, was composed by Sojourner Truth during the war, and was sung by her in Detroit and Washington." She did sing the song, but she was first linked to the song in 1878, fourteen years after Miller's version was published in the National Anti-Slavery Standard. *internet historical sites & Wikipedia.

In 1993, Sweet Honey in the Rock recorded "Sojourner's Battle Hymn," which was basically "The Valiant Soldiers" by Sojourner Truth, which was actually the "Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment" by Captain Miller, with a few less stanza's.

Song Composers:
Bernice Johnson Reagon

Song Lyrics - 'Sojourner's Battle Hymn' as sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Lyrics transcribed by Lily Phan.

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.

We are the Yankee soldiers who've enlisted for the war;
We are fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law;
We can shoot a rebel farther than a white man ever saw,
As we go marching on.

Look there above the center, where the flag is waving bright;
We are going out of slavery, we are bound for freedom's light;
We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight,
As we go marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.

We are done with hoeing cotton, we are done with hoeing corn;
We are colored Yankee soldiers, just as sure as you are born.
When the Rebels hears us shouting, they will think it's Gabriel's horn,
As we go marching on.

They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin;
They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin;
They will have to give us houses, or the roof will tumble in,
As we go marching on.

(we're singing)
Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.

We has the proclamation, Rebels hush it as you will;
And the birds will sing it to us, hopping on the cotton hill;
The possum up the gum tree couldn't even keep it still,
As he went climbing on.

Abraham has spoken, and the message has been sent;
The prison doors have opened, and out the prisoners went
To join the sable army of African descent,
As we go marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.