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[Identification of item], [box #, folder #], "Young Eph's Lament" Song Sheet, circa 1850-1899, SC 0055, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
James Madison University Special Collections acquired this item at auction from Cohasco, Inc. in January 2016.
The archivist applied a contextual date based on Charles Magnus' years of operation.
Charles Magnus (1826-1900) worked in New York City from 1850 to 1899 as a print publisher, map dealer, book seller, and stationer. He issued over one thousand unique letter sheets, maps, song sheets, envelopes, and prints.
The "Young Eph's Lament" Song Sheet, circa 1850-1899, is a 5 x 8 inch hand-colored lithograph song sheet featuring four stanzas in stereotypical black dialect. The song sheet includes a hand-colored lithograph of a Union soldier conversing with an African American who is carrying a walking stick. A palmetto tree is in the background. The "Lament" is comprised of four stanzas and begins, "Oh, where will I go if dis war breaks de country up, and de dar-keys hab to scat-ter a-round…" Per the seller's description, the song sheet was "intended for the northerner craving peace but not necessarily abolition."
The song sheet is housed in one letter folder.