“All The Pretty Little Horses” is from the African-American tradition. I loved singing this song when my kids were babies, but never thought about where it came from or what it meant. I couldn’t quite figure out how the horses and the butterflies fit together, but it was pretty and it worked to put the kids to sleep.
Like all traditional lullabies, there are many different versions. But most of them that are sung today have been softened from the hard truth of the original story: that African women slaves had to leave their babies alone to take care of the master’s baby instead. In the original version the woman is singing to that baby:
Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, go to sleepy little baby
When you wake you will have all the pretty little horses
Dapples and greys, pintos and bays
All the pretty little horses
Way down yonder, down in the meadow
Sweet little baby crying “mama”
The birds and the butterflies peckin’ at his eyes
Sweet little baby crying “mama.”
All right, that explains the horses—that rich baby would grow up to own all those pintos and bays. In the sanitized version I learned, the last two lines are more charming:
The birds and the butterflies flutter all around his eyes,
Sweet little baby crying “mama.”
Although it’s a sad story, keep singing this song. Lullabies relay history that we shouldn’t ignore or forget. But sing it in a sweet and loving way, because no matter what the words say or what the real story is, at lullaby time the main message you want to convey to your baby is love.
Sweet Dreams,
Jane
Here is the legendary folksinger Odetta singing the real story:
Listen to "All The Pretty Little Horses":
2 comments:
Very moving. I loved Odetta. I have a few of her CDs, but not this song. I hadn't heard it this way before and didn't know this story. Thanks for telling it here, Jane.
Ann
that African women slaves had to leave their babies alone to take care of the master’s baby instead. lullaby-babies.co.uk
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