Album: Freedom Highway (2017)
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  • Julie oh Julie
    Won't you run
    'Cause I see down yonder
    The soldiers have come

    Julie oh Julie
    Can't you see
    That them devils have come
    To take you far from me

    Mistress oh mistress
    I won't run
    'Cause I see down yonder
    The soldiers have come

    Mistress oh mistress
    I do see
    And I'll stay right here
    Till they come for me

    Julie oh Julie
    You won't go
    Leave this house
    And all you know

    Julie oh Julie
    Don't leave here
    Leave us who love you
    And all you hold dear

    Mistress oh mistress
    I will go
    Leave this house and all I know

    Mistress oh mistress
    I will leave here
    With what family I got left
    They're all I hold dear

    Julie oh Julie
    Won't you lie
    If they find that trunk of gold by my side

    Julie oh Julie
    You tell them men
    That that trunk of gold
    Is yours my friend

    Mistress oh mistress
    I won't lie
    If they find that trunk of gold by your side

    Mistress oh mistress
    I won't lie
    If they find that trunk of gold by your side

    Mistress oh mistress
    That trunk of gold
    Is what you got
    When my children you sold

    Mistress oh mistress
    Don't you cry
    The price of staying here is too high

    Mistress oh mistress
    I wish you well
    But in leaving here
    I'm leavin' hell Writer/s: RHIANNON GIDDENS LAFFAN
    Publisher: Wixen Music Publishing
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • To Michael From New Jersey from VancouverRhiannon Giddens in another article states that the Union soldiers were who would come to free enslaved peoples in America. Therefore Julie's mistress tells her to essentially go run and hide so that she is not freed. When Julie responds that she will not go (showing that she wants to be freed) the mistress then tries to change her tactics. Therefore when she says "you won't go" it's almost as if she is saying "you wouldn't dare leave me and all you know". The gold trunk is also an interesting line I didn't understand until I read Gidden's article. Giddens states that the mistress asks Julie to lie and say the gold is hers. However Julie replies she "won't lie", or rather doesn't need to, as the gold SHOULD belong to her as the mistress got it when she sold Julie's children at a slave auction. Therefore, Julie is again showing her mistress that she does not love her, and that the mistress has done so many things against Julie. The song seems to show the ignorance of slave owners of the time, and their ideas of their slaves loving them.

    Below is linked the article if you would like to hear it from Gidden's herself.
    bit.ly/3RhJ9Kp
  • Michael from New JerseyI must be dense. I know I am because Ms. Giddens is brilliant so it must be me. Why did the mistress tell Julie to run? Are they Union soldiers who would free Julie? Then why does mistress ask her to stay in 2 verses? Is it like “well if you refuse to go, then at least say the gold is yours so they don’t confiscate it.”?
  • Ken from E2e 1p9The tune is similar to lay me down in the river by The Fortunate Ones from Newfoundland. But hey that's folk music eh?
  • Michelle from NevadaBeautiful and haunting song.
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