{"id":8996,"date":"2013-03-20T03:36:09","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T03:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=8996"},"modified":"2017-05-23T18:02:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T18:02:14","slug":"the-%e2%80%98yellow%e2%80%99-rose-of-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=8996","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Yellow\u2019 Rose of Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American folk song \u201cThe Yellow Rose of Texas<\/a>\u201d is but one testimony to the desire for mixed-race women.\u00a0 The version of this song that most baby boomers were compelled to learn in grade school is devoid of its original reference<\/a> to a mulatto<\/a> slave woman, Emily Morgan<\/a> (Horton 1993:137, Turner 1976), because through the decades the lyrics have been changed.<\/p>\n

There’s a yellow rose in Texas<\/a> that I am going to see,
\nNo other darkey knows her, no darkey only me;
\nShe cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,
\nAnd if I ever find her we never more will part.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Chorus)
\nShe’s the sweetest rose of color this darkey ever knew,
\nHer eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew,
\nYou may talk about your Dearest May, and sing of Rosa Lee,
\nBut the yellow rose of Texas beats the belles of Tennessee<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The song was inspired by Morgan, who unwittingly played a decisive role in the defeat of General Antonio de Padua Mar\u00eda Severino L\u00f3pez de Santa Anna y P\u00e9rez de Lebr\u00f3n <\/a>at San Jacinto<\/a>.\u00a0 According to Turner (1976), Morgan was a slave owned by Colonel James Morgan, who bought her in New York [City]<\/a>\u00a0and transported her to Texas in [October 25,] 1835.\u00a0 There she was captured by General Santa Anna, whom she served as a concubine.\u00a0 According to ethnologist William Bollaert<\/a>, Sam Houston<\/a> succeeded in a surprise attack in the battle of San Jacinto<\/a> against Santa Anna, who was amorously engaged with Morgan.\u00a0 While Morgan may have led to the demise of Santa Anna\u2019s troups, she was also an inspiration for \u201cThe Yellow Rose of Texas,\u201d which has become integral to American folk music.<\/p>\n

According to Turner (1976:49) the song was \u201ccomposed and arranged expressly for Charles H. Brown<\/a> by J. K. \u2026\u00a0 Through the years the identity of the initialed composer or arranger has remained a mystery\u201d (see original lyrics in Appendix E).\u00a0 Throughout the ensuing decades, writers have changed the lyrics, and after the 1858 and 1906 versions (see Appendices F and G), the term \u201cdarky\u201d disappeared altogether, thus obliterating the metaphor of the yellow \u201crose.\u201d\u00a0 While lyrics can easily be changed, the historical accounts, and, indeed the progeny of mixed unions cannot obscure the genetic record. Despite theories that promulgated the inferiority of African women, it was not unusual for Europen American men to engage in conjugal relations with these same women.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obiagele Lake,\u00a0Blue Veins and Kinky Hair: Naming and Color Consciousness in African America<\/a><\/em> (Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003), 21.<\/p>\n

Read more about the \u201cYellow Rose of Texas\u201d here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American folk song \u201cThe Yellow Rose of Texas\u201d is but one testimony to the desire for mixed-race women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23507,23509,23510,23511,3848,3849,23512,1392,3847,6516,23508,23513],"class_list":["post-8996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excerpts","tag-antonio-de-padua-maria-severino-lopez-de-santa-anna-y-perez-de-lebron","tag-antonio-lopez-de-santa-anna","tag-battle-of-san-jacinto","tag-charles-h-brown","tag-emily-d-west","tag-emily-morgan","tag-emily-west","tag-music","tag-obiagele-lake","tag-sam-houston","tag-santa-anna","tag-yellow-rose-of-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53987,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8996\/revisions\/53987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}