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Oh we'll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree

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"A Yankee Song" (The Charlotte Democrat, Charlotte, N.C., December 23, 1862) A Yankee Song.jpg
"A Yankee Song" (The Charlotte Democrat, Charlotte, N.C., December 23, 1862)

"Oh we'll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree" (and similar) is a variant of the American folk song "John Brown's Body" that was sung by the United States military, Unionist civilians, and freedmen during and after the American Civil War. [1] [2] [3] [4] The phrase and associated imagery became relevant to the post-war legal issues surrounding the potential prosecution of former Confederate politicians and officers; the lyric was sometimes referenced in political cartoons and artworks of the time, and in political debates continuing well into the post-Reconstruction era. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

History

Jeff Davis and the sour apple tree appear in print as early as August 1861. [9] In 1880, a U.S. Army veteran claimed credit for first singing the lyric in spring 1862 in Virginia, having taken inspiration from a prior song about a "sick monkey in a sour apple tree." [10] In 1947 a survivor of American slavery named Perry Vaughn recalled, "I fought in Abe Lincoln's army and played the bass horn in the Army band. I can still remember, like it was yesterday, playing 'We'll Hang Jeff Davis on a Sour Apple Tree.'" [11]

A less bloodthirsty and more obscene variant was "We'll feed Jeff Davis sour apples 'til he gets the diarhee." [12]

Richard Wright's 1938 novella Big Boy Leaves Home references a white-supremacist variant: "We'll hang ever nigger t a sour apple tree." [13]

Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, died of natural causes in 1889. [14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Finseth, Ian Frederick (2006). The American Civil War: An Anthology of Essential Writings. Taylor & Francis. p. 336. ISBN   978-0-415-97744-9.
  2. ↑ Kobbé, Gustav (1906). Famous American Songs. T.Y. Crowell. p. 158.
  3. ↑ French, Justus Clement; Cary, Edward (1865). The Trip of the Steamer Oceanus to Fort Sumter and Charleston, S. C.: Comprising the ... Programme of Exercises at the Re-raising of the Flag Over the Ruins of Fort Sumter, April 14th, 1865. "The Union" Steam Printing House. pp. 90–91.
  4. ↑ Kent, Charles Nelson (1898). History of the Seventeenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. 1862-1863. By order of the Seventeenth New Hampshire veteran association.
  5. ↑ "Jeff. D hung on a "sour apple tree" or treason made odious". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. January 1867. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  6. ↑ "Hang him on the sour apple tree". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  7. ↑ "John Brown exhibiting his hangman". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. January 1865. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  8. ↑ "A Memory of the Past". Ellsworth Reporter. June 10, 1886. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  9. ↑ "Massachusetts has another new regiment..." Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer. August 22, 1861. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  10. ↑ "Jeff Davis on a Sour Apple Tree: How the Famous Song Had Its Origin in the Army". Wood County Reporter. August 6, 1885. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  11. ↑ "Madison's 3 Surviving Ex-Slaves Total 288 Years". The Capital Times. August 3, 1947. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-08-10. & "Bondage Years Still Vivid to Ex-Slaves Here". The Capital Times. August 3, 1947. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  12. ↑ Coates, Ta-Nehisi (September 8, 2011). "The Glory of the Coming of the Lord". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  13. ↑ Carpio, Glenda (March 21, 2019). The Cambridge Companion to Richard Wright. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN   978-1-108-47517-4.
  14. ↑ "U.S. Senate: Jefferson Davis: A Featured Biography". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  15. ↑ "OUR NEXT VICE-PRESIDENT. Speech of Gov. Johnson at Nashville". NY Times. June 16, 1864.
  16. ↑ Maslowski, Peter (1978). Treason Must be Made Odious: Military Occupation and Wartime Reconstruction in Nashville, Tennessee, 1862-65. KTO Press. ISBN   978-0-527-62185-8.

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