Lucy McKim Garrison

Lucy McKim Garrison (October 30, 1842 – May 11, 1877) was an American song collector and co-editor of Slave Songs of the United States, together with William Francis Allen and Charles Pickard Ware.^[1][2]

Lucy McKim Garrison
Born	(1842-10-30)October 30, 1842 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	May 11, 1877(1877-05-11) (aged 34) West Orange, New Jersey
Spouse	Wendell Phillips Garrison
Children	3
Parent(s)	Sarah Allibone (née Speakman) McKim and the Rev. James Miller McKim

Early life

Lucy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 30, 1842. She was a daughter of Sarah Allibone (née Speakman) McKim and the Rev. James Miller McKim, an antislavery lecturer and Presbyterian minister. Her younger brother was Charles Follen McKim, a prominent architect with the firm of McKim, Mead & White, and her maternal grandfather was Micajah Speakman of Chester County, Pennsylvania, whose home was a stop on the Underground Railroad.^[3]

Poetry

She traveled to the Sea Islands of South Carolina with her father in 1862 while the Civil War was still raging, serving as his secretary as he gathered information on the conditions for newly freed slaves for the Philadelphia Port Royal Relief Committee. This exposed her to the music of former slaves just after they had been freed, a time of great social change.^[4] Her work in Port Royal, South Carolina, constitutes the first attempt to systematically describe the characteristics of African American spirituals.^[5][6] She published two songs, Poor Rosy, Poor and Roll, Jordon, Roll, they were the "earliest slave songs to be published complete with music".^[3]

Personal life

On December 6, 1865, Lucy was married to Wendell Phillips Garrison (a son of the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison) in Philadelphia. Together, they were the parents of:^[7]

• Lloyd McKim Garrison (1867–1900), who married Alice Kirkham in 1896. After his death she married Frederic Wait Lord.^[8]
• Philip McKim Garrison (1869–1935), who married Marian Knight.^[7][9]
• Katherine McKim Garrison (1873–1948), who married banker Charles Dyer Norton, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary to President William Howard Taft, in 1897.^[10][11]

Garrison died of heart disease after a long illness culminating in paralysis on May 11, 1877, in West Orange, New Jersey. She was survived by her husband and three children. Her story is told in a biography by musicologist Samuel Charters entitled, Songs of Sorrow: Lucy McKim Garrison and 'Slave Songs of the United States' .^[2]

Further reading

• Charters, Samuel. Songs of Sorrow: Lucy Mckim Garrison and Slave Songs of the United States. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2015.

References

• Chase, Gilbert (2000). America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-00454-X.
• Darden, Robert (1996). People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0826417523.
• Epstein, Dena (1971). "Lucy McKim Garrison" in Notable American Women. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674627318
• Bacon, Margaret Hope (Jan 1989): "Lucy McKim Garrison: Pioneer in Folk Music," Pennsylvania HIstory, 54:1-16.

Notes

1. Journal of Folklore Research book review
2. Kreitner, Richard (16 November 2015). "Songs of Revolt". The Nation: 11.
3. James, Edward (1971). Notable American Women. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674627318.
4. Bosman, Erwin. 2011. Roll Jordan, Roll: The Slave Song Lucy McKim taught the world. No Depression: Journal of Roots Music
5. Chase, pg. 220-221
6. Darden, pg. 99
7. "W.P. GARRISON IS DEAD AT 67; Son of the Noted Abolitionist and Editor of The Nation for 41 Years. LIFE SPENT IN LETTERS Biography of His Father in Four Volumes Was His Most Elaborate Work". The New York Times. 1 March 1907. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
8. Daniels, Lee A. (3 October 1991). "Lloyd K. Garrison, Lawyer, Dies; Leader in Social Causes Was 92". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
9. "DIED -- GARRISON". The New York Times. 1 March 1907. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
10. "CHARLES D. NORTON". The New York Times. 7 March 1923. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
11. "CHARLES D. NORTON, BANKER, DIES AT 53; Succumbs to Complications Following an Attack of Influenza. ACTIVE IN CIVIC WORK Once Assistant Secretary of Treasury and Secretary to President Taft". The New York Times. 7 March 1923. Retrieved 30 November 2021.