Kingdom Coming

This article is about the Civil War song. For the Emeli Sandé EP, see Kingdom Coming (EP).

The original 1862 sheet music cover by Root & Cady.

The composer Henry Clay Work in a W. S. B. Matthews engraving.

"Kingdom Coming", or "The Year of Jubilo", is an American Civil War-era song written and composed by Henry Clay Work in 1861. It was published by Root & Cady in 1862 and first advertised in April by the popular minstrel group Christy's Minstrels. Narrated by Confederate slaves on a plantation, it recounts their impending freedom after their master disguises himself as a contraband and flees to avoid being captured by Union troops. It is a minstrel song, written in a creole similar to African American Vernacular English, spoken by slaves, and intended to be performed by blackface troupes.

Work was an avowed abolitionist and composed numerous pro-Union songs during the Civil War such as "Marching Through Georgia" (1865) and "Babylon is Fallen" (1863)—the sequel to "Kingdom Coming". The song portended the then-President Abraham Lincoln's issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, an executive order liberating all slaves in Confederate territory.

"Kingdom Coming" was one of the most successful Union songs, renowned as a favorite among Black Unionists and minstrel troupes. It amassed sheet music sales of 75,000 copies. The publisher George Frederick Root claimed that it was his firm's most successful piece "for nearly a year and a half" and "the most successful patriotic song in the West". It prominently features as a lively instrumental in Ken Burns' eponymous documentary on the Civil War and in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon Billy Boy.

Background

Work as a songwriter

George Frederick Root of the Root & Cady publishing firm, who Work collaborated with throughout the Civil War.

Henry Clay Work arose from a resolutely antislavery family. His father Alanson conducted extensive welfare work for slaves, notably aiding 4,000 fugitive slaves attain freedom via the Underground Railroad, on which his house was situated. The humanitarian work the young Henry was exposed to left an indelible impression on him as he cultivated profound sympathy for the oppressed African American population. He spent innumerable hours among freedmen and gradually learned their dialect, which would greatly enhance his songwriting capability. In 1854 Work settled in Chicago to work as a printer. In his spare time, he wrote songs for the minstrel troupe Christy's Minstrels; his first successful hit was "Coming, Sister Mary".

Once the Civil War erupted in 1861, Work diverted his songwriting efforts to aiding the Union effort, seeking to arouse morale among troops in a time when they lacked antislavery vigor. Music was to remedy this dispirited attitude, providing a space to amplify African Americans' sentiments and arouse national sympathy for them. Work began working with another notable songwriter George Frederick Root of the local publishing house Root & Cady, and embarked on a pervasive advertising campaign to promote his compositions. "Kingdom Coming" was his first major song supporting this cause, published by Root in 1862. The campaign paid off as Root & Cady would observe its highest sales during Work's collaboration.

An 1864 reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation by W. Roberts.

Work published twenty-nine songs throughout the war's duration, earning him widespread acclaim as one of the Union's bards. A writer for the Hartford Courant gazette observed:

Our country has produced few songwriters whose works have been more widely sung than Mr. Work. Some of his productions have not only been on the lips of nearly every man, women and child in America, but with some variations, in every part of the world. There is scarcely a Grand Army gathering where his songs are not sung, and they are to be sung for generations to come.

The Emancipation Proclamation

The storyline of "Kingdom Coming" portends the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order issued in January 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. It mandated that:

all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

Lyrical analysis

Vernacular lyrics	Standard English translation
Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa, Wid the muffstash on his face, Go long de road some time dis mornin', Like he gwine to leab de place? He seen a smoke way up de ribber, Whar de Linkum gunboats lay; He took his hat an' lef' berry sudden, An' I spec he run away!	Say, darkeys, have you seen the "massa", With the mustache on his face, Go long the road some time this mornin', Like he's going to leave the place? He's seen a smoke way up the river, Where the Lincoln gunboats lay; He took his hat and left very sudden, And I expect he ran away!
De massa run? ha! ha! De darkey stay? ho! ho! It mus' be now de kingdom comin' An' de year ob Jubilo!	The "massa" ran? ha! ha! De darkey stays? ho! ho! It must be now the kingdom's comin' And the year of "Jubilo"!
He six foot one way’, two foot tudder, An' he weigh three hundred pound, His coat so big, he couldn’t pay de tailor, An’ it won’t go half way round. He drill so much, dey call him Cap’n, An’ he get so drefful tanned, I spec’ he try an’ fool dem Yankees, For to tink he’s contraband. — CHORUS	He's six foot one way', two feet the other, And he weights three hundred pounds, His coat's so big, he couldn't pay the tailor, And it won't go half way round. He drills so much, they call him Cap'n, And he gets so dreadful tanned, I expect he'll try and fool them Yankees, For to think he's contraband. — CHORUS
De darkeys feel so lonesome, Libbin' in de log-House on de lawn, Dey move dar tings to massa’s parlor, For to keep it while he’s gone, Dar's wine an’ cider in de kitchen, An’ de darkeys dey’ll hab some; I spose dey’ll all be cornfiscated, When de Linkum sojers come. — CHORUS	The darkeys feel so lonesome, Livin' in the log house on the lawn, They move their things to "massa"'s parlor, For to keep it while he's gone, There's wine and cider in the kitchen, And the darkeys they'll have some; I suppose they'll all be confiscated, When the Lincoln soldiers come. — CHORUS
De oberseer he make us trouble, An' he dribe us round a spell, We lock him up in the smoke-House cellar Wid de key thrown in de well. De whip is lost, de han-cuff broken, But de massa'll hab his pay, He's ole enuff, big enuff, ought to know better Dan to went, an' run away! — CHORUS	The overseer he makes us trouble, And he drives us round a spell, We lock him up in the smoke house cellar With the key thrown in the well. The whip is lost, the handcuff broken, But the "massa"'ll have his pay, He's old enough, big enough, ought to known better Than to go, and run away! — CHORUS

The song is pro-Unionist, and the lyrics are sung from the point of view of slaves ("de darkeys") in Confederate territory, who celebrate their impending freedom after their master flees the approach of Union military forces. The primary persona is a 'hypocritical and cowardly' slave owner ("de massa"). They speculate on the future fate of the owner, whom they suspect will pretend to be a runaway slave in order to avoid capture. With their owner absent, the slaves revolt, locking their overseer in a cellar as retribution for his harsh treatment toward them. The slaves then celebrate their impending emancipation by Union soldiers by drinking their absent owner's cider and wine in his kitchen.

Legacy

In the Civil War

"Kingdom Coming" was first advertised by Christy's Minstrels in April 1862, and became instantly successful and a staple of any minstrel show's repertoire. Its sheet music sold 75,000 copies. It was reportedly as popular as "Dixie's Land" during the war and subsequent years.

In popular culture

The tune to "Kingdom Coming" features in several cartoons. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made use of it in The Three Little Pups, (with Droopy) and Billy Boy, as well as in Michael Lah's Blackboard Jumble and Sheep Wrecked. The piece is whistled throughout all four pictures by a dimwitted wolf character voiced by Daws Butler (using the same slow Southern drawl he would later employ for Huckleberry Hound). This wolf character has no official name, but is commonly referred to as "Jubilo Wolf", in reference to "Year of Jubilo". It also occasionally appears in Warner Bros. cartoons, such as being used throughout the 1938 Porky Pig cartoon Injun Trouble and its 1945 remake Wagon Heels, and the closing scenes of the 1945 Bugs Bunny cartoons The Unruly Hare and Hare Trigger.

Some films exercise it. In The Telegraph Trail (1933), John Trent (John Wayne) whistles this tune. It is instrumental background music in The Horse Soldiers (1959) (also starring Wayne). In Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Esther Smith (Judy Garland) sings new lyrics, written for the movie, to the tune of "Year of Jubilo". The lyrics are in standard English and are inoffensive, with no reference to slavery, the Civil War, or any other controversial subject.

The tune was also used in the introductory section to the second movement of John Philip Sousa's 1925 suite Cubaland.

Notable recordings

• The McGee Brothers and Todd recorded the song with lyrics in 1927 as "Old Master's Runaway"
• Frank Crumit recorded "Kingdom Coming and the Year of Jubilo" on November 29, 1927. It was released on Victor 21108.
• Sauter-Finegan Orchestra recorded an instrumental version titled "Doodletown Fifers", which they released as their first record, and it reached No. 12 on the Billboard Most Played by Disk Jockeys chart in 1952. "Doodletown Fifers" has also been recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra.
• Western pop singer "Tennessee" Ernie Ford had a hit record in 1958 titled "Sunday Barbecue", which became the latest incarnation of the original tune. It was released on Capitol # F3997.
• A solo piano rendition of the song is included on jazz pianist Bill Carrothers' album, The Blues and the Greys, which features popular music from the time of the Civil War.
• The song appears on the soundtrack to Ken Burns' Civil War, usually played whenever pictures of General Ulysses S. Grant are shown on screen.
• The song is performed by Pokey LaFarge in the 2013 collection Divided and United: The Songs of the Civil War, titled as "Kingdom Come".

Bibliography

• Bailey, Guy; Natalie, Maynor; Cukor-Avila, Patricia (1991). The Emergence of Black English: Text and Commentary. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 1-55619-161-8.
• Carder, P. H. (2008). George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter: A Biography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3374-2.
• Cohen, Michael C. (2015). The Social Lives of Poems in Nineteenth-Century America. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4708-4.
• Hill, Richard S. (1953). "The Mysterious Chord of Henry Clay Work". Notes. 10 (2): 221–225. doi:10.2307/892874 – via JSTOR.
• Hursh, David; Goertzen, Chris (2009). Good Medicine and Good Music: A Biography of Mrs. Joe Person, Patent Remedy Entrepeneur and Musician, Including the Complete Text of Her 1903 Autobiography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3459-6.
• Kelley, Bruce C.; Snell, Mark A. (2004). Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1538-6.
• McWhirter, Christian (2012). Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3550-0.
• Shepherd, John (2003). Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 1. New York City, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-6321-5.
• Silber, Irwin (1995). Songs of the Civil War. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-28438-7.
• Work, Henry C. (1923). Work, Bertram G. (ed.). Songs of Henry Clay Work. New York: United States: Little & Ives.

External links

Recordings

• Recording by the 2nd South Carolina String Band on their 2000 album Hard Road.
• Recording by the 97th Regimental String Band on their 1990 album Battlefields and Campfires: Civil War Era Songs, Vol. I.
• Recording by Bobby Horton on his 1987 album Homespun Songs of the Union Army, Volume 1.

Sheet music

• Sheet music from Project Gutenberg.