Talk:Wallace Willis

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The attributions made to Wallis Willis, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Steal Away," appear to be based on the claims of Rev. Reid in the following citation:

Flickinger, The Choctaw Freedmen and etc.: "In 1871, when the Jubilee singers first visited Newark, New Jersey, Rev. Alexander Reid happened to be there and heard them. The work of the Jubilee singers was new in the North and attracted considerable and very favorable attention. But when Prof. White, who had charge of them, announced several concerts to be given in different churches of the city he added, "We will have to repeat the Jubilee songs as we have no other." When Mr. Reid was asked how he liked them he remarked, "Very well, but I have heard better ones." When he had committed to writing a half dozen of the plantation songs he had heard "Wallace and Minerva" sing with so much delight at old Spencer Academy, he met Mr. White and his company in Brooklyn, New York, and spent an entire day rehearsing them. These new songs included, "Steal away to Jesus," "The Angels are Coming," "I'm a Rolling," and "Swing Lo

There is information that contradicts this account.

Three sources attest that the Fisk Singers performed "Steal Away" for the first time at Oberlin College on November 16, 1871. They had not yet been to the East Coast and could not have received the song from Mr. Reid as stated above.

^[1] ^[2] ^[3]

Ella Sheppard was one of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. ^[4] She was also the assistant choir director and pianist. A PBS transcript and biography for the documentary "The American Experience: Jubilee Singers" claim that she taught "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" to the group. ^[5] Maude Cluney - Hare relates the story of Bishop Frederick Fisher of Calcutta who, while travelling in Rhodesia near Victoria Falls, heard a song almost identical to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." ^[6] ^[7]

"... in Rhodesia* he had heard natives sing a melody so closely resembling "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" that he felt that he had found it in its original form: moreover, the region near the great Victoria Falls have a custom from which the song arose. When one of their chiefs, in the old days, was about to die, he was placed in a great canoe together with trappings that marked his rank, and food for his journey. The canoe was set afloat in midstream headed toward the great Falls and the vast column of mist that rises for them. Meanwhile the tribe on the shore would sing its chant of farewell. The legend is that on one occasion the king was seen to rise in his canoe at the very brink of the Falls and enter a chariot that, descending from the mists, bore him aloft. This incident gave rise to the words 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,' and the song, brought to America by African slaves long ago, became anglicized and modified by their Christian faith."

Eric Sundquist quotes Cluney - Hare and adds a similar story by Dorothy Scarborough an African American anthropologist. Scarborough quotes a missionary who heard a funeral dirge so similar to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," in the Belgian Congo he was compelled to ask the origin of the song. He was told by a local that it was "as old as the tribe itself." ^[8] ^[9] Khawk224 (talk) 18:03, 18 March 2014 (UTC)Reply

^ Lauri Ramey, "Slave Songs and the Birth of African American Poetry," 2008 p.6
^ "Encyclopedia of Religion in the South,"2005 pp. 320-321
^ Transcript from the PBS documentary "The American Experience: Jubilee Singers" 1999, which quotes historians, musicologists, and singers who performed with the original group including Ella Sheppard.
^ Ibid
^ Ibid
^ Maud Cuney - Hare in "Negro Musicians and Their Music," 1936 p. 69
^ Amiri Baraka(Leroi Jones) "Blues People," 1963, pp. 44-49"
^ Eric Sundquist "To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature, 1994" (pp. 519 - 520)
^ Dorothy Scarborough, "Ebony and Topaz," 1927, edited by Charles S. Johnson

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[1] Lauri Ramey, "Slave Songs and the Birth of African American Poetry," 2008 p.6

[2] "Encyclopedia of Religion in the South,"2005 pp. 320-321

[3] Transcript from the PBS documentary "The American Experience: Jubilee Singers" 1999, which quotes historians, musicologists, and singers who performed with the original group including Ella Sheppard.

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Maud Cuney - Hare in "Negro Musicians and Their Music," 1936 p. 69

[7] Amiri Baraka(Leroi Jones) "Blues People," 1963, pp. 44-49"

[8] Eric Sundquist "To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature, 1994" (pp. 519 - 520)

[9] Dorothy Scarborough, "Ebony and Topaz," 1927, edited by Charles S. Johnson

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