American War for Independence from British rule. Any war creates a semifolk
occupation—that is, an occupation with its own lore into which members come for a set
period of time before returning to another part of society. This differs from a genuine folk
occupation in that its members are from heterogeneous backgrounds and are made
homogeneous only by the temporary situation. In such an occupation, the lore may be
either brought from the outside and adapted to fit the new situation, created by the
homogeneity of the semifolk occupation, or may be popular lore created by educated
persons associated with, or looking back on, the occupation.
Three examples from the American Revolution will illustrate. The tale of the scout
Tim Murphy shooting an enemy Indian hiding behind a rock by bending his rifle and
firing die bullet in a curve is an old European folktale (Type 1890E in the AarneThompson Type-Index). The story simply attached itself to the reputation of this famous
rifleman. On die other hand, the New York legend that Murphy’s shooting of Scottish
General Simon Frazer from a tree was the turning point in one of the battles at Saratpga is
a genuine bit of lore rising out of the Revolutionary experience. But stories like those
about Nathan Hale and his famous last words, or Paul Revere’s ride to Concord, are
dramatizations that have been made part of Revolutionary lore after gaining popularity at
die literary level.
Soldiers joining the armies or shipping aboard the privateers brought their own
legends, songs, beliefs, and folkways with them. These were genuine bits of the lore of
the colonial farmers, sailors, lumbermen, and villagers who came from Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia to make up the troops. The traditions were adapted and
melded into a body of material to serve the fighters. Genuine Revolutionary folk heroes like Murphy and the better-known Ethan Allen had their reputations salted with
anecdotes and motifs common to this Anglo-colonial lore. They are bitten by snakes who
get drunk on their alcohol-laden blood; they run deer into the ground because it is more
fun that shooting them; and they grab their rifles and knock flies out of the air.
A major example of lore brought to the war from the communities that provided the
troops is The Green Mountain Songster, printed in 1823 by “An Old Revolutionary
Soldier” calling himself “a follower of Gen. Washington.” It is a collection of British and
colonial American songs and ballads—some old, some recent—that must have been sung
around the campfires forty-five or so years before at Aquidneck or Valley Forge.
Although the book contains no music, most of the songs are well enough known that
scholars can make a good guess as to their tunes.
One piece in the Songster, “The Plymouth Colony,” uses the phrase “yankee doodle
dandy.” “Yankee Doodle” was, of course, the best-known folksong of the Revolution.
Originally a ballad-like song written during the French and Indian Wars by a British
Army surgeon, George Shuckburgh, it set an old British refrain to an even older
European melody. Popularized by the British in the early days of the Revolution as a
means of mocking the shabby colonial troops, it was taken over by the colonials with
many variations. Even today, the refrain beginning “Yankee Doodle went to town” and
its tune are known to every American, although Shuckburgh’s full text and the dozens of
variations have been forgotten.
Also popular was “Chester,” a hymn written by one of the Boston patriots, music
master William Billings. Given fresh lyrics to fit the political situation, it was sung
throughout the war. In the 1990s, the hymn is still known to the shapenote singers of the
South. “The World Turned Upside Down,” the song played at Cornwallis’ surrender, was
another favorite.
To the soldiers fighting the war, the names most Americans associate with the
Revolution—Paul Revere, Nathan Hale, John Paul Jones, Benedict Arnold, British Major
John André, and the like—were everyday participants, however remote they may have
seemed. They were certainly not folk heroes like Murphy and Allen. They owe their
“legends” to publicity and literary endeavors fostered in the 19th century as our country
began to establish cultural, as well as political, independence. Nor have the flag-waving
fathers of these stories been bothered by presenting distorted pictures of these heroes who
fought in a war in which loyalties and purposes were often confused.
Most Americans do not know or care that Paul Revere was a “mechanic” (part of the
Underground) in Boston whose ride to warn of the British raids ended with his capture
near Lexington before he got to Concord, and that his efforts were shared by William
Dawes and Samuel Prescott; that Nathan Hale was an ill-prepared spy who almost
certainly never said “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”; that
John Paul Jones was a hero to pro-colonial sympathizers in Europe and even England;
that Benedict Arnold was not alone in thinking it would be best if the conflict were ended
to British advantage; and that young, handsome Major André, besides being a fool to get
captured, was sympathetically treated by many colonials.
Nonetheless, these figures have replaced the real folk heroes—the Murphys, the
Allens, the Enoch Crosbys (a spy who was probably the model for James Fenimore
Cooper’s Harvey Birch), and the John Champes (the soldier assigned to kidnap Arnold
after his treasonous act at West Point). These, too, have been eclipsed, this time by
frontier and Western figures, the shapers of what we regard as our “manifest destiny.”
Somehow Davy Crockett seems more national, less colonial, than Murphy or Allen.
Tristram Potter Coffin
References
Alden, John Richard. 1954. The American Revolution. New York: Harper.
Browne, Ray B. 1961. Superstitions Used as Propaganda in the American Revolution. New York
Folklore Quarterly 17:202–211.
Coffin, Tristram Potter. 1971. Uncertain Glory: Folklore and the American Revolution. Detroit:
Gale.
Gephart, Ronald M. 1984. Revolutionary America, 1963–1789: A Bibliography. Washington, DC:
Library of Congress.
Smith, Dwight L., ed. 1975. Era of the American Revolution: A Bibliography. Santa Barbara, CA:
ABC-Clio.