Roll the Cotton Down
Come roll the cotton down, my boys
Ch: Roll the cotton down;
Come roll the cotton down, my boys
Ch: O roll the cotton down!
Come hither, all you negro boys,
Come hither, all you negro boys
A dollar a day is a white man's pay,
A dollar a day is a white man's pay
Ten dollars a day is a black man's pay
Ten dollars a day is a black man's pay
The white man's pay is rather high,
The white man's pay is rather high
The black man's pay is rather low,
The black man's pay is rather low
Around Cape Horn we're bound to go,
Around Cape Horn we're bound to go
So stretch it aft and start a song,
So stretch it aft and start a song
Stan Hugill provides the following information in Shanties from the Seven Seas:
This hoosier version probably stemmed from the Negro one. The white cotton-stowers used it for screwing the huge bales of cotton into place down in the dark holds of the cotton droghers, heaving at the levers of the screws…Once the cotton season was over these men would ship “foreign,” taking these “cotton chants” with them for use at halyard and capstan, hence a new infusion of shanty blood – coloured blood – entered into the field, which perhaps up till then had been dominated mainly by Irish-shaped work-songs.