More Reading: Books And Articles On Folk Music, African American Music, And Songs For Children


Allen, William Francis, Garrison Ware, and Lucy McKim, eds. Slave songs of the United States. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing, 1992. New York, A. Simpson & Co., 1867.

Bass, Robert D. "Negro Songs from the Pedee Country." The Journal of American Folklore, 44/174 (1931): 418-436.

Hawes, Bess Lomax: "Folksongs and Function: Some Thoughts on the American Lullaby", Journal of American Folklore, USA Vol. 87/344 (April-June 1974) 140-48.

Lomax, John and Alan, eds. Our Singing Country: Folk Songs and Ballads. 1941. Reprinted. New York: Dover Publications, 2000. This volume contains music and words for the following African American lullabies: "Mama' s Gone to the Mail Boat," "Ol'Hag, You See Mammy?" "Daddy Shot a Bear," and "Hush, Li'l Baby."

McGill, Alice. In the Hollow of Your Hand: Slave Lullabies. Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Includes CD.

Scarborough, Dorothy. On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs. Hatboro, Pa.: Folklore Associates, 1963.

Seeger, Ruth Crawford. American Folk Songs for Children. Garden City; New York: Doubleday & Co., 1948.

Southern, Eileen and Josephine Wright. African-American traditions in song, sermon, tale, and dance, 1600s-1920: an annotated bibliography of literature, collections, and artworks. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.

Thomas, Joyce Carol, ed. Hush Songs: African America Lullabies. Hyperion, 2000. Includes CD.

White, Shane. The sounds of slavery: discovering African American history through songs, sermons, and speech. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.

Compiled by

Judith Tick
Senior Research Analyst, Feminist Sexual Ethics Project

Melissa J. de Graaf
Research Analyst, Feminist Sexual Ethics Project