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Ask Mr. Mudd: “Levee Song” and Princeton’s Minstrel Shows

Q. Dear Mr. Mudd,

Is it true that the University of Texas school song, “The Eyes of Texas,” has a Princeton University connection? Where did the song come from, and why don’t Princeton students sing it anymore?

A. “The Eyes of Texas” is set to a tune best known today as “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Both use a melody first published as “Levee Song” in the College of New Jersey (Princeton)’s songbook, Carmina Princetonia, in 1894. With the new lyrics as “The Eyes of Texas,” the song was first published in The University of Texas Community Songbook in 1918.

carminia_princetoniana_1894_cover_ac056_box_2_folder_5
Carmina Princetonia, 1894. Princeton Music Collection (AC056), Box 2.

“Levee Song” was already well known by the time of its publication. The song itself may date back as early as the 1830s and 1840s, and it refers to the use of African American labor to construct levees across the South. As black labor shifted from building levees to building railroads, so too did the lyrics of the tune. (A mixture of primarily enslaved African Americans, alongside imprisoned and immigrant laborers, built these levees and railroads in the antebellum period, but racial prejudices regarding work persisted long after emancipation. In the late 19th century, free black laborers were still the primary workforce maintaining the railroad tracks.) The 1894 Princeton version includes reference to both levees and railroads.

carmina_princetonia_1894_levee_song_ac056_box_2_folder_5
“Levee Song” from Carmina Princetonia, 1894. Princeton Music Collection (AC056), Box 2. Click to enlarge.

Princeton’s Glee Club included “Southern Levee Song” in a series of concerts in 1892. Alumni seem to have had strong associations between their alma mater and this song. In 1900, Alexander McDowell Wilson, Class of 1897, wistfully recalled his time at Princeton: “With a lusty good will I could join you in singing once again the Levee Song.”

misc_organizations_1890_bric
“Miscellaneous Organizations” illustration from 1890 Bric-a-Brac. Note the “Princeton College Minstrels” flyer in the upper left.

All three songs (“Levee Song,” “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” and “The Eyes of Texas”) have origins in minstrel shows. Princeton’s minstrel tradition may have begun in 1886, when students complained that they had no “outlet for our long pent-up humorous and jocular emotions.” A minstrel show would solve this problem, the Princetonian felt. “Such a performance would certainly be acceptable to any College audience; it will be especially acceptable here.” They noted that Princeton was late to become involved in minstrelsy, but that similar entertainment had been popular at rival institutions. “The enthusiastic reception which College audiences everywhere else have always given to their minstrel troupes, should encourage them to go ahead with their plan. They need have no fear about the support of the College.”

all_in_favor_1948-49_minstrel_show_ac122_box_73
Minstrel show from “All in Favor,” 1948. Triangle Club Records (AC122), Box 73.

Though minstrel shows declined in popularity nationwide after the early twentieth century, they lived on at college campuses, including Princeton. For example, the Triangle Club’s 1949 production of “All in Favor” featured a full-scale minstrel show (see the blog and video). The “Levee Song,” as part of this tradition, remained a part of alumni nostalgia well into the mid-twentieth century. Given the changes in Princeton’s student population and its expressed hope to act in the service of humanity, entertainment like this no longer has a place on campus.

Sources:

Bric-a-Brac

Daily Princetonian

Princeton Alumni Weekly

Princeton Music Collection (AC056)

Reunion Books Collection (AC214)

Triangle Club Records (AC122)

 

See also:

Kornweibel, Theodore, Jr. Railroads in the African American Experience: A Photographic Journey. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

van Rossum, Helene. “Triangle’s ‘All in Favor’, 1948-1949.”

April C. Armstrong *14

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14 responses to “Ask Mr. Mudd: “Levee Song” and Princeton’s Minstrel Shows”

  2. “refers to the use of African American labor to construct levees across the South. As black labor shifted from building levees to building railroads”

    LABOR!!
    If savagely and brutally kidnapping women, men and children, holding them hostage, starving them and physically, sexually, psychologically torturing them in forced prison camps every single day of their lives across generations is “labor”, then I guess that can replace the word enslavement.

    Shame on the author!

    Reply

    • We appreciate the opportunity to clarify, and have inserted language to more clearly state our intention, which is not to obscure slavery, but rather to account for patterns of African American labor both before and after emancipation. It is accurate to note that in the antebellum period, most of those engaged in this work would have been enslaved. After emancipation, there were still many racialized expectations of the workforce, and railroads are a good example of this. Minstrelsy itself is rooted in anti-abolitionist sentiments. It draws upon racial tropes to convey messages about non-white inferiority. This song, as part of this tradition, carries these intentions, and it was one of the ways white Princetonians historically upheld and sustained white supremacy on campus and in the world at large. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

  11. Why on Earth does this article not mention anything about the horror of minstrel shows and blackface? This treats the topics waaaaay too lightly. Does Princeton condone this kind of racism?

    Reply

    • We thank you for your feedback. The last sentence of this post offers condemnation of minstrelsy, though perhaps not as forcefully as some readers would prefer. Racial caricature is something we often see in late 19th and early 20th century material in Mudd Library’s collections, whether in minstrel shows or otherwise. This blog provides a look at Princeton’s past that sometimes reveals it was not as we wish it had been, but as it nonetheless existed in earlier eras. In presenting the fullest picture of what our holdings reveal of Princeton’s history as we can, the sources we use are sometimes offensive. We apologize for any misunderstanding about our intentions. Our goal is to highlight sources researchers can use to advance their own arguments.

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