COME TO THE OLD GUM TREE. American, Minstrel Song (6/8 time). A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABACA.
The words to "Come to the old gum tree" were published New York in Christy's Nigga Songster (c. 1850, "As Sung By Christy's, Pierce's, White's and Dumbleton's Minstrels"). They go:
Come to the Old Gum Tree, Where the coon and the possum prance. Come yere niggers and see, And join in the jovial dance. The coon is above us, In his nest in the tree, We know that he don't love us, But fond of him are we. Come to the Old Gum Tree, &c.
Come to the Old Gum Tree, The wood in the shallow leaves, The cotton plants and flowers, For a merry life is ours. Around and above us, The banjo's sweet notes, The voice of these niggers, Come warbling from their throats. Come to the Old Gum Tree, &c.
Come to the Old Gum Tree, So softly boys as you can, We will catch the coon in the moon, And fry him in the pan. That nigger plays the fiddle, And I the Tamborine, We are the happiest set of niggers, That ever 'fore was seen. Come to the Old Gum Tree, &c.
The melody to "Come to the old gum tree" was entered into the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of Bellport, Long Island, ship's captain and fiddler biography:Isaac Homan, along with several other blackface minstrel pieces.
