Kingdom Coming
"Kingdom Coming", or "The Year of Jubilo", is an American Civil War-era song written and composed by Henry Clay Work (1832–1884) in 1861.
Narrated by Black slaves on a Confederate plantation, "Kingdom Coming" 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 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.
"[1] It prominently features as a lively instrumental in Ken Burns' eponymous documentary on the Civil War and in numerous twentieth-century cartoons, such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Billy Boy.
In fact, author Florine Thayer McCray remarks that many of his compositions evoke "the very atmosphere of awakening plantation life" and echo "the cottonpicker's musing hum and the roustabout's refrain.
[14] Among the slew of patriotic songs pouring into newspapers and publishing houses, only "a few [...] caught the tempo and the spirit across the country [...]";[15] antislavery compositions in particular were lacking prevalence.
A resident Chicagoan, he was drawn to local publishing firm Root & Cady, the "most prolific producers of wartime music.
"[23] His catalog of 27 patriotic songs issued from 1861 to 1865[24] includes seriocomedies,[25] overviews of army life,[26] commemorations of Northern triumphs[27] and, uniquely, depictions of African Americans' struggles in the South.
Dressed in extravagant costumes and armed with banjos, they acted as caricatured African Americans reminiscing about their days in the agrarian South.
The Romantic portrayal of Southern plantation life, with slaves and their owners residing harmoniously, gave uninformed Northern audiences a false impression of African Americans' toil in an era when slavery was growing into a dangerously divisive political issue.
[28] Stephen Foster idealized the South in his early compositions; "Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground" (1852), featuring slaves lamenting their "kind" master's death, provides a clear example: Massa made de darkeys love him, Cause he was so kind, Now dey sadly weep above him, Mourning cause he leave them behind.
[29] With African Americans stereotyped as blithe, docile servants, racism pervaded Northern society and shaped public attitudes.
[30] "Kingdom Coming" strays from the mockery of blackface minstrelsy, portraying a realistic picture of plantation life and humanizing slaves.
Instead of the oppressive master reigning supreme over his subjects as generally observed in minstrel songs, these roles are inverted; the slaves take over the plantation and overcome their overseer.
Negro spirituals such as "Go Down Moses", alluding to Israel's journey to freedom in the promised land in Exodus, consoled stifled African-American populations and rallied support for emancipation.
[36] His exposure to minstrelsy and African American performers also influenced his writing style and its authenticity to slaves' lifestyle and concerns.
[37] The storyline of "Kingdom Coming" portends the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order issued in January 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.
[38] After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, on September 27, 1862, approximately 10,000 Chicagoans, accompanied by several musical societies such as Root & Cady, gathered at Bryan Hall and Court House Square to celebrate the occasion.
[38] 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 slaves then celebrate their impending emancipation by Union soldiers by drinking their absent owner's cider and wine in his kitchen.
de darkey stay: pointing out the total inversion of the normal order of things, where the master rules over his plantation and the slaves run away in pursuit of freedom elsewhere.
[45] He six foot one way, two feet 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.
[52] Root & Cady reportedly could not keep up with orders for the song, with the publisher claiming: "It is whistled, sung, hummed and instrumentalized everywhere, in fact it is one of the institutions of the day.
[61] Jerome Kern's 1921 Broadway musical Good Morning, Dearie and the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis prominently feature it.
[62] Due to the success of "Kingdom Coming", Work penned a sequel titled "Babylon is Fallen", in which the "massa" who "went and run away" enlisted in the Confederate Army.
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).
[65] 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".
