Origins
The song's author and origins are unknown. It is noted in American Ballads and Folk Songs, an anthology of songs collected by the Lomaxes throughout the 1930s and 1940s; that the song is known throughout Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee and was titled "Never Said a Mumbalin' Word." However, the song originates back to when the United States endorsed slavery, assuming the song pre-dates 1865. It is known to be a companion piece to, and possibly holds the same author(s) as, "Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)?", another spiritual.
Read more about this topic: He Never Said A Mumblin' Word
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)