No. 194 Hebrew Children, Osh 481
Hexatonic, mode 5 A (I — 3 IV V 6 7)
Where are the Hebrew children?
Where are the Hebrew children?
Where are the Hebrew children?
Safe—in the promised land.
Though the furnace flamed around them,
God while in their troubles found them,
He with love and mercy bound them,
Safe—in the promised land.
Where are the twelve apostles? etc.
They went up through pain and sighing,
Scoffing, scourging, crucifying,
Nobly for their Master dying,
Safe etc.
Where are the holy Christians? etc.
Those who’ve washed their robes and made them
White and spotless pure and laid them
Where no earthly stain can fade them,
Safe etc.
Of the author, the editor of the OSH says: “Peter Cartwright [the presumptive author of tune and words] was a minister of the gospel, and used this tune in his camp meetings long before it was ever placed in notation.—Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst County, Va., 1785, and died in Sangamond [sic] County, Ill., 1872.” The song has been widely sung by the negroes who have added numerous stanzas. See White Spirituals, 263. A pre-Civil War secular negroid parody on ‘Hebrew Children’ was published by C. Bradlee & Co., Boston, 1844. Its first stanza is:
O whar is de spot dat we was born on, (three times)
Way down in Car’line State.
Mrs. Annabel Morris Buchanan has made an excellent arrangement of a version of ‘Hebrew Children’ for chorus. It is published by J. Fischer and Brother, New York.