Another Man Done Gone by Vera Hall (1940)

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Adell Hall Ward, also known as Vera Hall (April 6th, 1902 – January 29th, 1964), was an American folk singer born in Livingston, Alabama. Best known for her 1937 single "Trouble So Hard" she was added to the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 2005. Hall was born in Paynesville, Sumter County, Alabama, near Livingston, and she sang all her life.

Her mother and father, Agnes Efron and Zully Hall, taught her songs. Her job also garners interest today. Awarded by historians and folk music fans, Hall's records contain samples of early blues and folk songs that are nowhere else to be heard. [1]

Key Lyrics

Vera Hall

“Another man done gone another man done gone”’’

“He had a long chain on he had a long chain on They hung him in a tree they hung him in a tree They let his children see they let his children see When he was hangin' dead) when he was hangin' dead”

Black Racism in that Era

The persecution of African Americans did not cease until the conclusion of the Civil War, and jails and chain gangs were filled with black people imprisoned for minor offenses. This lyrics, "Another Man Done Gone," tells of the death of a man in one of those chain gangs.

Folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Vera Hall singing "Another Man Done Gone" in 1940, and praised Vera Hall for possessing "the most lovable untrained voice ever recorded."[2]

"Another Man Done Gone," recounts the life and death of those forced to labour in county prison farms by a prisoner lease scheme in the south in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although most white Americans agree that the 13th amendment has ended slavery and unintended servitude, a backdoor has been left open that has culminated in the systematic persistence of slavery in the Southern States of America – slavery as a deterrent for crime. [3]

The mid-20th century field recordings recorded by John and Alan Lomax were the cornerstone of the folk revival, but they are not infinitely mutable texts. Many show the maps and codes that Black rural Southerners have produced to escape the nation's unfolding betrayal.

This song, shared by the father-and-son duo's favourite musician, the Alabama native Vera Hall, testifies to the destruction wrought by a carceral mechanism designed to contain Black Americans after emancipation. Hall's spare verses describe a guy who escaped, or killed, while on a chain gang, one of the mobile jails built soon after emancipation to contain and terrorize free Black people.

Later singers filled up the lines of Vera Hall's cypher. Johnny Cash, who heard the song interpolated with the voices of lynching witnesses on Alan Lomax's 1957 album ‘’Blues in the Mississippi Night’’, added the phrase ‘’"they hung him on a tree."’’ Folk-revival originator Odetta also made state brutality clear in her version, changing Hall's phrase ‘’"he killed another man"’’ to the state—implicating ‘’"they killed another man."’’[4]

Reference

  1. Vera Hall. en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
  2. Kessler, John. 'Another Man Done Gone' - a powerful tale of woe on a chain gang. April 19 2013. knk.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
  3. Milwaukee Independent Staff. ANOTHER MAN: NEW TRACK FROM MILWAUKEE DUO NICKEL & ROSE INSPIRED BY VERA HALL’S JIM CROW ERA FOLK SONG. August 17, 2019. milwaukeeindependent.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
  4. Carter, Bobby; Chinen, Nate; Powers, Ann; Redmond, Shana L.; Wang, Oliver. We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence. June 26, 2020. npr.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.