Song Name: Kingdom Coming (Year of Jubilo)
Year of Release: 1861
Written By: Henry Clay Work
Released by: No original recording exists, though later renditions are available
Key Lyrics: "He seen a smoke, way up de ribber/Whar de Linkum gunboats lay/He took his hat, and lef' berry sudden/An' I spec he's run away! (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 coming/An' de year ob Jubilo! (The master run? Ha! Ha!/The darkey stay? Ho! Ho!/It must be now the kingdom coming/And the year of Jubilo!)."
Description: The song was written in African American vernacular English, and the enslaved people in the song refer to each other as "darkeys." The songwriter, Henry Clay Work, came from an abolitionist family, and his house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The song is written from the perspective of enslaved people who see their enslaver fleeing at the sight of Union troops and begin celebrating their freedom by overthrowing the overseer (overseers were hired by enslavers to oversee the enslaved laborers) and locking him in the cellar. The song was intended to be performed by performers in blackface, but despite this, the primary target of the song's mockery was the enslaver, not the enslaved workers. The "Jubilo" in the lyrics is a reference to the year of Jubilee in the Bible, where enslaved people would be emancipated every 50 years.
Why It Was Important: The song provides a view of the conflict from the perspective of noncombatants and specifically from the point of view of enslaved people, whose very freedom hung in the balance of the war. Unlike many songs of the time, which used enslaved characters as entertainment and the subject of mockery, Kingdom Coming shows them celebrating their impending freedom and rising up against their overseer. The song even spawned a sequel called "Babylon is Fallen," where the enslaver in the song joins the Confederate Army, only to be imprisoned by the people he formerly enslaved. The song also became associated with notable events during the war, such as the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, during which the crowd chanted the song in celebration.
Recordings:
KINGDOM COMING (2nd South Carolina String Band rendition)