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Battle Hymn of the Republic |
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What Black Protest Song Has Become a National Institution?
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is a stirring patriotic hymn often sung at state funerals and solemn national moments. From the opening line, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," to the rousing chorus, "Glory, glory hallelujah," we feel the physical power of this marching song as well as its emotional power to inspire. Where did it come from?
In 1861 at the outset of the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), a white Boston abolitionist and feminist, heard a group of African American soldiers singing at a military encampment on the Potomac River. The music was an old Evangelical camp meeting tune. The words, "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave. But his truth goes marching on," were presumably popular black lyrics of the day.
Brown, the most radical of the white abolitionists, was responsible for the killing of pro-slavery men in the fight for Kansas, and best known for attempting to incite a massive slave insurrection in the South by an armed attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown was hanged in 1859. His eloquent statements in the courtroom trial persuaded many Northern whites that slavery could be ended only by force, not by compromise or moral suasion. He became a particular hero to black people, slave and free alike. One of Brown's most militant followers was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe of Boston's Perkins School for the Blind, and Julia Ward Howe's husband. He was so radical he became one of the Secret Six, the tiny group of white anti-slavery militants who surreptitiously financed Brown's treasonable attack on Harpers Ferry.
Throughout the Civil War, Union troops, both black and white, marched to this catchy tune with its politicized words. There were other versions of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Following are the lyrics of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment: Oh, we're the bully soldiers,
Of the First of Arkansas;
We are fighting for the Union,
We are fighting for the law.
We can hit a Rebel further
Than a white man ever saw,
As we go marching on.
We are done with hoeing cotton,
We are done with hoeing corn;
We are Colored solders now,
As sure as you are born.
When the master hears us shouting
He will think it's Gabriel's horn,
As we go marching on.
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