Happy International Labor Day! Enjoy this thread about labor related folk tales and songs! I encourage you today to think about all the things we can accomplish when we join together and demand what is ours. #FolkloreSunday
"A Miner's Life" (Roud 3510) is an American union folk song. It's aimed at rallying miners to unionize. It advises workers "union miners, stand together. Do not heed the coal board's tale. Keep your hand upon your wages and your eye upon the scale"
Music has an important history in labor organizing. The Industrial Workers of the World, for example published multiple editions of "The Little Red Song Book" throughout the years full of songs they used in their organizing efforts.
Folklorist Archie Green, who coined the term "laborlore" and lobbied congress to create the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, compiled and annotated the songs presented in various editions of The Little Red Song Book in a collection, The Big Red Song Book.
"The Factory Girl" (Roud 1659) is a folk song about a factory worker who is proposed to by a rich man on her way to work. She is insulted by his belief that she'd marry him just because he's rich, asserting, "although I'm a poor girl, I think it no shame."
"Lamkin" (Roud 6, Child 93) shows a bloody retribution for unfair labor practices. Lamkin, a mason who didn't get paid for building a castle for a noble, teamed up with the false nurse, who was poorly treated by the noble's wife, to exact bloody revenge.
An often overlooked and undervalued aspect of labor is the unpaid but crucial work of homemaking. The folk song "The Capable Wife" (Roud 281) shows just how challenging this labor can be, as a husband tries to do his wife's work with a disastrous outcome. open.spotify.com/track/3TX7V331…
In a similar folk tale, "The Husband Who Was to Mind the House" (ATU 1408), a husband comes home angry every day so the wife offers to switch jobs for a day. This has hilarious consequences as the husband has one mishap after the other. sites.pitt.edu/~dash/norway01…
A well known category of labor songs are sea shanties. Contrary to popular belief, sea shanties were sang specifically during labor and often contained sailors' protests about working conditions. Here is a larger thread I made on sea shanties:
Walter Crane (1845-1915), who created most of the illustrations used in this thread, is best known for his illustrations of fairy tales and children's books. As we can see here, he was also an avid supporter of labor organizing.
This is only just scratching the surface of folklore and folk songs relating to, supporting, and arising from labor. This International Labor Day, I encourage you to think about the conditions of you and your comrades, and how you can work towards changing them.
Art Credits:
1- Walter Crane
2- Walter Crane
3- Industrial Pioneer 1921
4- A. Slave
5- Walter Crane
6- Walter Crane
7- Walter Crane
8- Walter Crane
9- Walter Crane
10- N/A
11- Walter Crane
Sources and further reading:
A Miner's Life: mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/min…
The Factory Girl: mainlynorfolk.info/frankie.armstr…
A database of songs about labor organizing: unionsong.com
Lamkin: mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/la…
The Old Man and his Wife: mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/the…
Archie Green: latimes.com/archives/la-xp…
Walter Crane: britannica.com/biography/Walt…
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