Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.

Hopkins’ New-Orleans 5 Cent Song-Book.

New Orleans, LA: John Hopkins, printer, 823 New Levee St., 1861. 24mo (5.5” x 4.25”), illustrated yellow wrappers. 17 pp. Period inscription at title-page.

One of two recorded issues of this Confederate songster produced in New Orleans at the beginning of the Civil War, with striking content relating to the war and slavery.

Included are such songs evoking the war as Volunteer Mess Song (“Here’s to our Generals brave, who we know will well behave”); Hurrah for the South, Hurrah (“Hurrah for the South, ‘tis joy to see, / Far in the mighty dawn, / The Genius of old Liberty / With all her armor on”); The Merry Little Solider (“I’m a merry little soldier, / Fearing neither wound nor scar, / When in battle, no one bolder / Valour is my leading star”); and Lincoln Going to Caanan (“At Pensacola landing the south has made a standing, / To resist an invasion they’re preparing. / Let Lincoln and his might come and give us a little fight, And we’ll send ‘em to the Happy Land of Canaan”; Also included is a minstrel song, We’ll Have a Little Dance, with lyrics in the voice of a slave whose master is temporarily absent from the plantation: “Oh listen to this good old tune, And then I’ll sing another, Oh, Massa’s gone this afternoon, To call upon his brother. So darkies wait’s a little while, Till he gets out ob sight, We’ll drop the shovel and the hoe; And have a little dance tonight.” The combination of two songs one after the other—My Little Ned and I, a tender composition about the death of a slave-playmate, and Happy Land of Canaan No. 2, a nasty racist number—is particularly startling.

The back-wrapper features ads for John Hopkins, as book and job printer, as well as one R. Coburn, dealer in books, stationery and fancy goods, both located on Tehoupitoulas Street.

Parrish and Willingham describe two issues with partially varying content, the present issue dated 1861 and an undated issue, which probably precedes the dated.

REFERENCES: Crandall, M. L. Confederate Imprints, 3260; Parish and Willingham, Confederate Imprints, 6657.

CONDITION: Good, wrappers somewhat soiled, small losses to wrappers, one puncture to front wrapper; occasional foxing and light damp-stains.

Item #7071

Sold