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

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Politically significant American song lyric

"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. 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.

History

Jeff Davis and the sour apple tree appear in print as early as August 1861. 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." A Civil War-era pieced-quilt block pattern called Apple Tree probably references the song lyric. 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.'"

A less bloodthirsty variant was "We'll feed Jeff Davis sour apples 'til he gets the diarhee."

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

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

Gallery

  • Cover for a spin-off "The Sour Apple Tree, or Jeff Davis' Last Ditch" depicts Davis in a dress, a common image after the end of the war, as when he was captured he was reportedly wearing a woman's cloak (Edison Collection of American Sheet Music at University of Michigan via HathiTrust) Cover for a spin-off "The Sour Apple Tree, or Jeff Davis' Last Ditch" depicts Davis in a dress, a common image after the end of the war, as when he was captured he was reportedly wearing a woman's cloak (Edison Collection of American Sheet Music at University of Michigan via HathiTrust)
  • This 1865 American political cartoon entitled "Freedom's Immortal Triumph" featured the imagery from the song (Library of Congress cph.3b35188) This 1865 American political cartoon entitled "Freedom's Immortal Triumph" featured the imagery from the song (Library of Congress cph.3b35188)
  • Hecklers on Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour called upon him to hang Jeff Davis; he asked them to consider hanging Wendell Phillips and Thaddeus Stevens instead (Panel from Andy's Trip by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, October 27, 1866) Hecklers on Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour called upon him to hang Jeff Davis; he asked them to consider hanging Wendell Phillips and Thaddeus Stevens instead (Panel from Andy's Trip by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, October 27, 1866)
  • This political cartoon references the song lyric, and one of Andrew Johnson's stump-speech stock phrases ("treason must made odious"), in its critique of Horace Greeley's support for releasing Davis from Fort Monroe (Library of Congress LC-DIG-pga-09194) This political cartoon references the song lyric, and one of Andrew Johnson's stump-speech stock phrases ("treason must made odious"), in its critique of Horace Greeley's support for releasing Davis from Fort Monroe (Library of Congress LC-DIG-pga-09194)
  • "White Front Shoe Store advertisement" (The Dayton Herald, Dayton, Ohio, February 6, 1888) "White Front Shoe Store advertisement" (The Dayton Herald, Dayton, Ohio, February 6, 1888)

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. Brackman, Barbara (December 1, 2012). Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler: 50 Quilt Blocks with Stories from History. C&T Publishing Inc. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-60705-567-9.
  12. "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.
  13. Coates, Ta-Nehisi (September 8, 2011). "The Glory of the Coming of the Lord". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  14. Carpio, Glenda (March 21, 2019). The Cambridge Companion to Richard Wright. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-108-47517-4.
  15. "U.S. Senate: Jefferson Davis: A Featured Biography". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
  16. "OUR NEXT VICE-PRESIDENT. Speech of Gov. Johnson at Nashville". NY Times. June 16, 1864.
  17. 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.

Further reading

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