[Ads-l] Plea for Assistance

Tue Jan 7 17:32:07 UTC 2025

Although I was wrong in seeing Wagner and Verdi as clear evidence, I see in WIkipedia that "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," which is mentioned in the snippet, is firmly believed to be post-1865.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 12:22 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Plea for Assistance

Actually my previous email was a product of my own hastiness and ignorance of music.  First of all, James acknowledged that the Google Books citation was problematic.  Second, I was assuming wrongly that the Wagner and Verdi compositions were late-19th-century, but now I realize that that is not accurate.  It's still very probable that the item is post-1858 (the font seems to me to be more modern than 1858), but I was probably wrong in saying it was clearly much later than 1845.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 12:09 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Plea for Assistance

Thanks to James for helping with this request.  But Google Books serials are usually misdated and it is clear even from the tiny snippet that this is a much later occurrence.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of James Landau <00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 11:31 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Plea for Assistance

On Mon, 6 Jan 2025 at 19:49:40 Zone+0000  "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:" Is someone at an institution with full access to America's Historical Newspapers (or access to GenealogyBank if that has everything in AHN) willing to search for me to see if there are any occurrences of the phrase "Negro spiritual" earlier than August 30, 1858?"
Google Books has a problematic citation, dated 1845, but it is a snippet view only and Google Books will not reveal the front matter to check the date.
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fbooks%2Fedition%2FAnnual_Report_of_the_School_Committee%2FXCQwAQAAMAAJ%3Fhl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26bsq%3D%2522negro%2Bspiritual%2522%26dq%3D%2522negro%2Bspiritual%2522%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C07a8f3cbda764a1cdb6908dd2f3fdf43%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638718673573068407%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MRBBr1Zm9xymKa7Kj8LDT6vqk02VsXkqAD7XExpTppM%3D&reserved=0<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fbooks%2Fedition%2FAnnual_Report_of_the_School_Committee%2FXCQwAQAAMAAJ%3Fhl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26bsq%3D%2522negro%2Bspiritual%2522%26dq%3D%2522negro%2Bspiritual%2522%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C07a8f3cbda764a1cdb6908dd2f3fdf43%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638718673573092761%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ZNvbWaoU3D%2FYi2nyVQNM%2FkUG%2Fo29bN8RmVIqhQr1sWQ%3D&reserved=0><https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fbooks%2Fedition%2FAnnual_Report_of_the_School_Committee%2FXCQwAQAAMAAJ%3Fhl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26bsq%3D%2522negro%2Bspiritual%2522%26dq%3D%2522negro%2Bspiritual%2522%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C07a8f3cbda764a1cdb6908dd2f3fdf43%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638718673573108170%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2ByYWKvxeRgdejAtWMKUl6CbTW887AB00OgM9YGwcaLs%3D&reserved=0><https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_School_Committee/XCQwAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22negro+spiritual%22&dq=%22negro+spiritual%22&printsec=frontcover>

Annual Report of the School Committee.... - Page

51
Fitchburg (Mass.). School Committee · 1845
<quote>  "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"  (Negro Spiritual) <end quote>
The original which was digitized by Google Books is at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Have fun trying to check the date!
James Landau
jjjrlandau at netscape.com

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