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Juneteenth is a powerful story of freedom. Nothing captures the spirit of this holiday like Sojourner's Battle Hymn, "Valiant Soldiers." Truth wrote the song to honor the 1st Michigan Colored Regiment. She performed the song in Detroit and Washington, D.C. Below find the lyrics of the song accompanied by an acapella version of the song sung by Bernice Johnson Reagon and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Also see the Voices Raised LA Freedom Collective's rendition of "Sojourner's Battle Hymn" (2020)
#SojournerTruth #Sojourner'sBattleHymn #!stMichiganColoredRegiment #SweetHoneyintheRock
(Please click on the Watch on Youtube Link and the video will appear)
Sojourner's Battle Hymn: "Valiant Soldiers"
WE are the valiant soldiers who've 'listed for the war; We are fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law; We can shoot a rebel farther than a white man ever saw, As we go marching on.
Chorus.-- Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.
Look there above the center, where the flag is waving bright; We are going out of slavery, we are bound for freedom's light; We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight, As we go marching on.--Chorus.
We are done with hoeing cotton, we are done with hoeing corn; We are colored Yankee soldiers as sure as you are born. When massa hears us shouting, he will think 'tis Gabriel's horn, As we go marching on.--Chorus.
They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin; They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin; They will have to give us house-room, or the roof will tumble in, As we go marching on.--Chorus.
We hear the proclamation, massa, hush it as you will; The birds will sing it to us, hopping on the cotton hill; The possum up the gum tree couldn't keep it still, As he went climbing on.--Chorus.
Father Abraham has spoken, and the message has been sent; The prison doors have opened, and out the prisoners went To join the sable army of African descent, As we go marching on.--Chorus.;