Watch Night, Emancipation, and "Mary Don't You Weep"

First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln

On December 31, 1862, people held in slavery in the American South and black churches around the country awaited news whether President Abraham Lincoln would issue the final Emancipation Proclamation. He had issued a “Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation” on September 22 warning of the coming emancipation to the states in rebellion.

Thus, on December 31 as a nation waited for Lincoln to fulfill his promise, was born Watch Night.

The Emancipation Proclamation

The next day, on January 1, 1863, despite speculation to the contrary, Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation. The document technically only freed the slaves in the Confederate states fighting against the Union. But it sent a symbolic message to all of the nearly four million slaves. The message was that the war that began out of a battle to preserve the country would eventually bring an end to slavery.

The proclamation also told the public that the Union military could enlist blacks into the Union’s armed forces. In reality, many already had been serving in some capacities. (James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 563.)

The language of the proclamation is less poetic than many of our nation’s great documents like the Declaration of Independence, probably because the lawyer president knew it was a legal document written to have legal effect. Nevertheless, the meaning of words such as “forever free” in the following opening paragraph are beautiful:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

In the tradition of Watch Night, often there are scheduled events in the nation’s capital and around the country. The National Archives in Washington, D.C. has hosted a midnight display of the Emancipation Proclamation along with other national documents and readings, songs and bell ringing. President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, where Lincoln started writing the proclamation, also has held special midnight events. The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in D.C. holds midnight services. In 2013, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled an Emancipation Proclamation stamp.

“Mary Don’t You Weep”

I have been reading John W. Blassingame’s excellent book about American slavery, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (1972). In the book, Blassingame tells how slaves created songs with coded messages. Several of their songs were about Egypt because the American slaves could sing about slavery from another time under the noses of the slaveholders.

The passage made me think of one of my favorite songs on Bruce Springsteen’s CD tribute to Pete Seeger, “Mary Don’t You Weep.” Hearing the reference to Exodus and the parting of the Red Sea — “Pharaoh’s army got drown-ded!” — has a different meaning when you think of slaves in the fields of the South singing the song. It is a song of uprising, hope, and freedom. And they got away with singing it.

The song is not about Jesus’ mother, but about Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead. “Mary Don’t You Weep” can be joyful, defiant, spiritual, comforting or all of those things combined. One of the most popular versions of the song was the version recorded by the Caravans in 1958.

Other Versions of “Mary Don’t You Weep”

The following version features Georgia field workers singing “Mary Don’t You Weep.” It was recorded around the late 1920s or early 1930s.

Thus, this version by the field workers is separated by decades from slavery. But you can still hear the connection of an earlier time. It’s beautiful.

In the video below, a young Aretha Franklin performs a short version of the song on Soul Train. In her more sorrowful version of “Mary Don’t You Weep,” which she had recorded on her 1972 live gospel album Amazing Grace, she plays down the defiance of the song and focuses on the comforting aspect.

“Mary Don’t You Weep” has been recorded through the years. It was popular during the 1950s and 1960s during the Civil Rights movement, when it also provided the music for another Civil Rights anthem, “If You Miss Me From the Back of the Bus.”

Covers of “Mary Don’t You Weep” include a contemplative version by Mississippi John Hurt, a lively folk version by Leadbelly, another soulful version by Aretha Franklin, and the New Orleans influenced rousing Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band version. The song has even been adapted in the Greek language.

One of the most popular versions was by the Swan Silvertones. Lead singer Claude Jeter’s additional line in the song, “I’ll be a bridge over deep water if you trust in my name” inspired Paul Simon in writing his classic “Bridge over Troubled Water.”

So every New Year’s Eve, as you celebrate the incoming year and say goodbye to the last, take a moment to remember Watch Night and a time in midst of misery and war, when a nation found a great reason to celebrate a president’s promise fulfilled. And have a safe and happy new year.

Well, one of these nights around twelve o’clock,
This old town’s gonna really rock.
Didn’t Pharaoh’s army get drowned?
Oh, Mary, don’t you weep.

What’s your favorite version of “Mary Don’t You Weep”? Leave your two cents in the comments. Heading Photo via: First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln by Francis Bicknell Carpenter (public domain).