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THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT highlighted the importance of music and song in social movements, demonstrating how singing can overcome fears, reinforce new activist identities, and build solidarity. The Civil War also inspired powerful songs that influenced and shaped people's understanding of the times. "John Brown's Body" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" not only boosted morale of the troops but helped abolitionists shift public understanding of the Civil War in the North from a secular struggle to preserve the Union toward a sacred crusade to abolish slavery. The popularity of these songs inspired dozens of parodies (in the musical sense of a reworking of an established composition) that mimicked the lyrical structure of the "Battle Hymn," itself set to the tune of "John Brown's Body."
Of the Civil War era "Battle Hymn" parodies, only two have been recorded and performed in modern times: "Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment," attributed to the regiment's white officer, Capt. Lindley Miller, and "The Valiant Soldiers," attributed to Sojourner Truth in the postbellum editions of her Narrative. What the songs' preservers and performers have not noticed is that, on close inspection, these turn out to be essentially the same song, with the eight-stanza "Marching Song" incorporating the six stanzas of "The Valiant Soldiers."
All but forgotten for nearly a century, the songs were revived by musicians and activists apparently struck by their powerful early statements of black pride, militancy, and desire for full equality, which seem to anticipate the spirit of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. To a substantial degree, the songs were discovered by distinct communities: the "Marching Song" by a curious combination of Old Left folk music advocates and Civil War scholars; and "The Valiant Soldiers" by feminists, both white and African-American, fascinated by the legendary Sojourner Truth.
Can the question of authorship be resolved at this late date? Determining primary authorship requires, first, that one of the versions of the song be documented as appearing prior to the other, and, second, that the song be shown to have a clear path of transmission from the actual author to the other person identified as the writer. Addressing this question raises, in turn, what may be more important issues: the significance of the song...