Children Go Where I Send Thee: A Song History

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"Children, Go Where I Send Thee" is a cumulative counting song. The Traditional Ballad Index describes verses that each add a number tied to a biblical figure or image, climbing to twelve^[1]. Hymnary.org lists it in six hymnals and gives its source as African American traditional^[2]. The Ballad Index suggests it could be an American version of the counting song "Green Grow the Rushes-O," also known as "The Twelve Apostles," which shares its theme and structure^[1]. Roud's index groups the two with several other songs, the Ballad Index notes, but it keeps them as separate entries because songs of this kind are easy to make and the link is uncertain^[1]. In its notes on that song, the Index quotes Botkin, who calls a text of the American song from a 1942 field recording a version of "The Carol of the Twelve Numbers"^[3]. The same notes report a link, proposed by Newell and supported by Cohen, between this family of songs and the Passover chant "Echod Mi Yodea," while adding that it is hard to say which way any borrowing went^[3].

In October 1934, John A. Lomax recorded an unidentified group of prisoners at Cummins State Farm in Gould, Arkansas, singing a piece catalogued as "The Twelve Disciples"; the Library of Congress catalogue card gives "Holy Babe" and "One Little White Baby" as other titles^[4]. That December, John and Alan Lomax recorded a song catalogued under the same title from prisoners at Bellwood Prison Camp in Atlanta^[5]. Robert B. Cochran of the University of Arkansas names Kelly Pace of Camden as the finest Arkansas prison singer that John Lomax and Huddie Ledbetter came across, and credits him with more than thirty performances in the Library's archive^[6]. Pace was later one of five singers on a "Holy Babe" recorded at Cummins by John A. and Ruby T. Lomax and issued on a Library of Congress album^[1][7]. Commercial recordings also date from the 1930s: the Ballad Index lists a 1936 ARC record by Dennis Crampton and Robert Summers^[1], and on 4 August 1937 the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet recorded "Go Where I Send Thee" for Victor, issued on Bluebird and later on Victor^[8][1].

In March 1943, Lewis Wade Jones and Willis James recorded a "Holy Babe" by the Davies Hill School Chorus of Houston County, Georgia, at Fort Valley State College^[9]. In 2018 the Library's Folklife Today blog listed that recording among several versions of the spiritual presented in a Christmas songs podcast^[10]. The Ballad Index reports the song from the Appalachians as well as the Southeast and South, and its references include two books by Jean Ritchie, among them Singing Family of the Cumberlands^[1][11].

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Sources

1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Children Go Where I Send Thee".
2. Hymnary.org: "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" (text).
3. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You)".
4. Library of Congress, American Folklife Center: "The twelve disciples" (catalog card, Cummins State Farm, October 1934).
5. Library of Congress, American Folklife Center: "The twelve disciples" (catalog card, Bellwood Prison Camp, December 1934).
6. CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas (Robert B. Cochran): "'The Rock Island Line' (Song)".
7. CNRS – Musée de l'Homme sound archives (CREM): "Holy Babe (1ère partie)".
8. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UC Santa Barbara): "Victor matrix BS-011938. Go where I send thee / Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet".
9. Library of Congress: "Holy Babe" (Davies Hill School Chorus, Fort Valley, Georgia, 1943).
10. Library of Congress, Folklife Today (Stephen Winick): "Christmas Songs Podcast is Live!".
11. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Bibliography".