158-499: Henry Clay Work (October 1, 1832, Middletown – June 8, 1884, Hartford ) was an American songwriter and composer of the mid-19th century. He is best remembered for his musical contributions to the Union in the Civil War —songs documenting the afflictions of slavery, the hardships of army life and Northern triumphs in the conflict. His sentimental ballads , some of which promoted
316-440: A Connecticutian family in 1832, Work's upbringing was humble and unconventional. His father, Alanson, was an abolitionist who tirelessly strove to free fugitive slaves , for which he was briefly imprisoned. While a youth, he initiated a career in printing , one that lasted his entire life. Although lacking formal music training, his passion for song manifested itself early on as he wrote poems for newspapers. Work first published
474-501: A standard dialect , leading to widespread and long-standing misconceptions that it is a grammatically inferior form of English, which linguistics research of the twentieth century has debunked. However, educators and social commentators traditionally have advocated for eliminating AAVE usage through the public-education system for a variety of reasons, ranging from a continued belief that AAVE is intrinsically deficient to arguments that its use, by being stigmatized in certain social contexts,
632-652: A tailor , but his father soon allowed him to pursue a career more "congenial to his tastes" in printing , specializing in typesetting music. Work never permanently strayed from this trade, that granted him further insight into the English language , indispensable for his songwriting ventures. In his spare time, his "everyday thought" of writing and music took effect, penning numerous poems, adapting them to melodies and contributing them to various newspapers. In 1853 Work composed his first song with original lyrics and melody, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary". Instead of sending it to
790-630: A June article he admonished compilers of church music books for altering traditional tunes and corrupting their sanctity, followed up by another in July denouncing one of the adapted hymns as "hardly recognizable [and] mutilated." Many compilers perceived these articles as defamation and demanded an apology. While the periodical survived the dispute, Work's editing post did not; he was laid off in August. Nonetheless, this did not tarnish his collaboration with Root, for 1863 proved another fruitful year, indicated by
948-472: A body of writing) from isolated enclaves in Samaná and Nova Scotia peopled by descendants of migrations of early AAVE-speaking groups (see Samaná English ) that suggests that the grammar of early AAVE was closer to that of contemporary British dialects than modern urban AAVE is to other current American dialects, suggesting that the modern language is a result of divergence from mainstream varieties, rather than
1106-627: A business at 107 Duane Street, New York City , in 1875, lasting five years until shutting it down owing to fatigue from old age. In 1876 Cady chanced to encounter Work while strolling in Broadway and, sensing a lucrative opportunity, offered him a post at his business. Eager to pick up songwriting once again, Work accepted; he published nine songs for Cady from 1876 to 1879, ending his four-year "retirement." Throughout this time, he also wrote for John Church & Co., William A. Pond & Co. and Root's firm. Middletown, Connecticut Middletown
1264-457: A coalition of community groups in 2000, is a pioneering attempt to attract residents and businesses to the neighborhood by promoting arts education and outreach. For decades, the famous O'Rourke's Diner has done much to bring some stability to the North End. A fire on August 31, 2006, gutted much of the historic structure. The Middletown community held many fundraising events to raise money for
1422-468: A complete musical piece in 1853, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary". Its moderate success drove him to pursue songwriting further. His career came of age at the Civil War's outbreak ; willing to contribute to the Union struggle, Work started writing patriotic tunes for Chicagoan publishing firm Root & Cady . Impressed by " Kingdom Coming " (1862), Root hired him for the war's duration, during which he drove
1580-472: A composer," publishing a comic song, "Lilly-Wily Woken", for the New York firm William Hall & Son two years later. While his career had been moderately fruitful so far, Work started doubting his songwriting capabilities. He passed the rest of the decade without publishing any music, choosing to focus exclusively on printing. For this reason he migrated to Chicago in 1855, aged twenty-three, and took up
1738-457: A false impression of African Americans' toil in an era when slavery was growing into a dangerously divisive political issue. "Kingdom Coming" strays from the mockery of blackface minstrelsy, portraying a realistic picture of plantation life and humanizing slaves rather than presenting them as blithe, docile servants. Instead of the oppressive master reigning supreme over his subjects as generally observed in minstrel songs, these roles are inverted;
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#17327719082651896-498: A few years. After agreeing to collaborate with Chauncey M. Cady in 1876, his output briefly resurged, yielding one sole major hit, " Grandfather's Clock " (1876). Nonetheless, Work could not reproduce his wartime fame and fortune. He died virtually forgotten in 1884. Henry Clay Work, named for distinguished statesman and former House speaker Henry Clay , was born on October 1, 1832, in Middletown, Connecticut . The Work family
2054-557: A gazette's "poet's corner," he submitted it to Edwin P. Christy , founder of the renowned eponymous minstrel troupe based in New York City that had initiated Stephen Foster 's career. Christy was "well pleased" and later performed it at his shows, received with respectable praise and some popularity. He later sold it to the local publishing firm Firth, Pond & Co. for the sufficient remuneration of $ 25 he bestowed to Work. This encouraged him to pursue "more ambitious efforts as
2212-401: A grim overview of army life, kickstarted Work's wartime career but it was not until March that his music started leaving an impression. That month, George F. Root bought out another of his Unionist compositions, "Our Captain's Last Words", amassing considerable sales. Root met him in person a short while after as Work presented the manuscript for a new song; his autobiography gives an account of
2370-588: A large explosion occurred at a power plant under construction in Middletown. There are numerous houses, buildings and historic districts in Middletown listed on the National Register of Historic Places , and two are further designated as National Historic Landmarks . The Samuel Wadsworth Russell House on High Street, built in 1827, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001. The Alsop House , also located on High Street, and built in 1840,
2528-536: A linchpin of minstrel show repertoires. Such was its success that Root could not keep up with orders, claiming it to be his firm's most profitable composition "for nearly a year and a half" and "the most successful patriotic song in the West." After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, approximately 10,000 Chicagoans gathered at Clark Street to celebrate the occasion; "Kingdom Coming", symbolizing
2686-722: A median income of $ 49,846 versus $ 37,412 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 39,845. 12.3% of the population below the poverty line . The headquarters of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection , previously the Connecticut Department of Public Safety, is located in Middletown. The United States Postal Service operates the Middletown Post Office. Benjamin Florsheim has been
2844-467: A minority of linguists argue that the vernacular shares so many characteristics with African creole languages spoken around the world that it could have originated as a creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing decreolization . African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) may be considered a dialect , ethnolect or sociolect . While it is clear that there
3002-536: A new printing job. Two years later, he married Massachusettsan Sarah Parker and bought a cottage at Hyde Park . In March 1861, with his passion for songwriting revived, Work published a song commemorating the steamer Lady Elgin ' s shipwreck, "Lost on the Lady Elgin", meeting little success. The following month, the American Civil War broke out , laying out a new path for Work's aspirations. After
3160-451: A potential reinvigoration of Work's songwriting career; from 1872 to 1876 he published no music. After Root & Cady shut down, Root pursued some more ventures in music firms, culminating in the Root & Sons Music Company which bore some success until dissolving in 1880. His business partner Chauncey M. Cady also sought to reinitiate a profitable career as a music publisher. He established
3318-566: A private military academy in Middletown. The popular Civil War marching song " Marching Through Georgia " was written by Henry Clay Work , a Middletown resident. Some residents were active in the abolitionism movement, and the city was a hub along the underground railway . In the latter half of the 19th century, manufacturing was the mainstay of the city's economy, especially finely made metal parts, such as marine hardware (Wilcox, Crittendon & Co.) and typewriters (Royal Typewriters). There were also several machine tool & die manufacturers in
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#17327719082653476-423: A profitable fruit farm. Their expectations were promptly wiped out as the farm failed, bankrupting them both. This was the first of several personal tragedies to befall him. "[F]orced to begin life over again," Work left Vineland and disappeared from public life. In 1868 he moved to Philadelphia , living in seclusion since his wife had become insane for reasons unspecified; still, the family seemed to condemn him. He
3634-639: A railroad suspension bridge in the White Rock, Middletown to Bodkin Rock, Portland vicinity, which was seen as an unpractical solution. Middletonians played an active role in the American Civil War. General Joseph K. Mansfield was a Union general at the Battle of Antietam , where he died in action in 1862. Another casualty at Antietam was Brigadier General George Taylor , who had been educated at
3792-454: A record eight years (four terms) as mayor. The city attracted a 12-screen movie theater and numerous restaurants and other businesses to the downtown area, the city provided free Wi-Fi service along Main Street and the historic Inn at Middletown a luxury four and half star boutique hotel transformed the former vacant National Guard Armory. On November 8, 2005, Republican Sebastian Giuliano won
3950-604: A satire of then-President Andrew Johnson 's vetoing of Reconstruction legislation, and "Crossing the Grand Sierras" (1870), describing a train voyage across the nation set just after the Transcontinental Railroad 's completion. The latter was Work's last song published for Root & Cady —personal differences between him and Root as well as the business' abrupt closure brought their once fertile collaboration to an end. Contrary to Work's misfortune,
4108-634: A small group of Cambodian refugees to Middletown, who were exiled following the US involvement in Southeast Asia in the Vietnam War . They developed a thriving Cambodian community, as have later migrants from Tibet . Middletown also attracted Hindu immigrants from India and other parts of Southeast Asia, who established the first Hindu temple in Connecticut in Middletown. Over the decades
4266-570: A song targeted at inducing her husband to quit his extramarital affair and figuratively "return home." In an 1898 New Haven Journal-Courier editorial, Florine Thayer McCray writes: "[...] who has not sat breathless listening to the rare combination of pathos and harmony with which the changing cadences of human voices plead 'Hear the Sweet Voice of the Child' [the chorus] and felt how much more persuasive and fetching than any temperance sermon
4424-526: A strong Union flavor," assigned him a songwriting post lasting until the Civil War's end . Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa, Wid the muffstash on his face, Go long de road some time dis mornin', Like he gwine to leab de place? He seen a smoke, way up de ribber, Whar de Linkum gumboats lay; He took his hat, an' lef' berry sudden, An' I spec he's run away! De massa run? ha! ha! De darkey stay? ho! ho! It mus' be now de kingdom comin' , An' de year ob Jubilo ! " Kingdom Coming "
4582-493: A thousand people. Middletown is also host to the Kidcity Children's Museum located in a renovated and recently expanded former home of Judge Elmer, which was moved 400 feet (120 m) down Washington Street to its current location. Kidcity is a hands-on playspace where children ages 1 through 8 come with parents and other significant adults to learn through play. The Downtown Business District continues to revitalize
4740-487: A tribe. Records show that, over time, Sowheag was forced to sell off most of Mattabesett to the local colonists; by 1676 the Puritans owned all but 300 acres (1.2 km ) of the former territory. Native Americans suffered similar fates of illness and dispossession at other colonial sites in 17th-century New England . During the 18th century, Middletown became the largest and most prosperous settlement in Connecticut. By
4898-490: Is " Come Home, Father ", a young girl's plea for her father, then trifling away his pay and time in a bar getting drunk, to return home while her brother is slowly dying. Like many other temperance lyrics, it is overtly sentimental to persuade the audience of the vices of alcoholism but also realistic in tackling a pressing social issue. Such was its puissance that Work received hundreds of appreciative letters from social reformers. One Louisianan woman even wrote to him requesting
Henry Clay Work - Misplaced Pages Continue
5056-664: Is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut , United States. Located along the Connecticut River , in the central part of the state, it is 16 miles (26 kilometers) south of Hartford . Middletown is the largest city in the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region . In 1650, it was incorporated by English settlers as a town under its original Native American name, Mattabeseck , after the local Wangunk village of
5214-457: Is a strong historical relationship between AAVE and earlier Southern U.S. dialects , the origins of AAVE are still a matter of debate. The presiding theory among linguists is that AAVE has always been a dialect of English, meaning that it originated from earlier English dialects rather than from English-based creole languages that "decreolized" back into English. In the early 2000s, Shana Poplack provided corpus -based evidence (evidence from
5372-562: Is a uniquely wide-ranging intonation pattern or "melody", which characterizes even the most "neutral" or light African-American accent. A handful of multisyllabic words in AAVE differ from General American in their stress placement so that, for example, police , guitar , and Detroit are pronounced with initial stress instead of ultimate stress. The following are phonological differences in AAVE vowel and consonant sounds. Final consonant groups or clusters in AAVE have been examined as evidence of
5530-724: Is deemed "the first of [Work's] important songs" as well as his "unquestioned masterpiece," cementing itself as a wartime favorite of African-American troops . A symbol of the war's progress, it portends the Emancipation Proclamation , the executive order effectively liberating all slaves in Confederate territory. A "hypocritical and cowardly" slave owner, fearing being captured by incoming Union military forces , escapes his plantation, then taken over by his slaves who lock their overseer up as retribution for his cruelty. A staple of minstrelsy, "Kingdom Coming" reverses
5688-406: Is estimated that approximately two thousand were published as sheet music in 1861 alone. No firm attained such success in publishing Unionist music as Chicago-based Root & Cady , "the largest of [...] the era" and "most prolific producers of wartime music." It was established in 1858 by Ebenezer T. Root and Chauncey M. Cady and, from 1860 onwards, principally operated by George F. Root . Root
5846-463: Is held as one of the Union 's preeminent bards whose songs reflect the nation's progress and civilian struggles during the war. His musical contributions to the Union are paralleled with military efforts on the battlefield itself. An 1884 anthology of Northern compositions, Our National War Songs , lists more songs penned by Work than any other composer, illustrating their value in the struggle. Chief among them are " Kingdom Coming " (1861), "Grafted into
6004-472: Is how I account for all the hallucinations previously referred to. I imagine that by-and-by my mind will be able in a clairvoyant state to leave the body temporarily—or else that I shall become insane." In the postwar years leading up to 1872, Work penned 17 songs, fewer than the 27 authored during the Civil War; the only profitable one was "The Ship That Never Returned". Others include "Andy Veto" (1866),
6162-431: Is intensifying with the grammatical features exemplified in these sentences: "He be the best" (intensified equative be ), "She be done had her baby" (resultative be done ), and "They come hollerin" (indignant come ). On the other hand, rural AAVE alone shows certain features too, such as: "I was a-huntin" ( a -prefixing); "It riz above us" (different irregular forms); and "I want for to eat it" ( for to complement). Using
6320-445: Is more common in speech than it is in writing. AAVE also has words that either are not part of most other American English dialects or have strikingly different meanings. For example, there are several words in AAVE referring to White people that are not part of mainstream American English; these include gray as an adjective for Whites (as in gray dude ), possibly from the color of Confederate uniforms; and paddy , an extension of
6478-417: Is retrospective. Other war songs, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" for example, were for exciting the patriotic feeling on going in to the war or the battle; "Marching Through Georgia" is a glorious remembrance on coming triumphantly out, and so has been more appropriate to soldiers' and other gatherings ever since." "Marching Through Georgia" quickly became a staple of Civil War reunions; Work even sang it at one of
Henry Clay Work - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-402: Is socially limiting. Some of the harshest criticism of AAVE or its use has come from African Americans themselves. A conspicuous example was the " Pound Cake speech ", in which Bill Cosby criticized some African Americans for various social behaviors, including the way they talked. Educators traditionally have attempted to eliminate AAVE usage through the public education system, perceiving
6794-454: Is stressed and semantically distinct from the unstressed form: She BIN running ('She has been running for a long time') and She been running ('She has been running'). This aspect has been given several names, including perfect phase , remote past , and remote phase (this article uses the third). As shown above, been places action in the distant past. However, when been is used with stative verbs or gerund forms, been shows that
6952-503: Is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working - and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians . Having its own unique grammatical, vocabulary and accent features, AAVE is employed by middle-class Black Americans as the more informal and casual end of a sociolinguistic continuum. However, in formal speaking contexts, speakers tend to switch to more standard English grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of
7110-477: Is the noun–noun combination. There is also the adjective–noun combination, which is the second most commonly occurring type of combination found in AAE slang. AAE also combines adjectives with other adjectives, less frequently, but more so than in standard American English. AAVE has also contributed slang expressions such as cool and hip . In many cases, the postulated etymologies are not recognized by linguists or
7268-497: Is unknown. Kitchen refers to the particularly curly or kinky hair at the nape of the neck, and siditty or seddity means "snobbish" or "bourgeois". AAVE has also contributed many words and phrases to other varieties of English, including chill out , main squeeze , soul , funky , and threads . African-American Vernacular English has influenced the development of other dialects of English. The AAVE accent, New York accent , and Spanish-language accents have together yielded
7426-500: Is used to emphasize the completed nature of the action. ^b I'ma , also commonly spelled Imma , is pronounced as / ˈ aɪ m ə / . Harvard professor Sunn m'Cheaux claims I'ma originated in the Gullah language (an English creole), which uses "a-" instead of "-ing" for this type of verb inflection. Other sources suggest it is a further shortening of I'm gonna . As phase auxiliary verbs, been and done must occur as
7584-730: The African-American dialect and minstrelsy , and, above all, came to terms with slaves' routine agonies. Work grew to share his father's staunch abolitionism, manifesting itself in his later compositions, many of which were endowed with "a pronounced moralistic zeal." While in Illinois, he attended irregular Latin and Greek courses at Mission Institute. These fostered a deep interest in philology ; aged twelve, he noted his "considerable progress" in inventing two languages, "one in which English letters were used to form new words, and one that had an alphabet of its own." In music, Work
7742-473: The Civil War over, Work's motivation for songwriting and musical output declined considerably. Turning away from patriotic songs now deemed outdated, he settled into sentimental balladry . His postbellum songs focus on somber themes owing to the personal tragedies engulfing his later life, as writer Dean Nelson notes in a 2008 Connecticut Explored article: "[...] in his lyrics, children die, soldiers die, ships sink, love goes unreturned, poor folks starve, and
7900-514: The Grand Army of the Republic 's annual campfires—something he typically resisted. Its ubiquity famously inflamed General William T. Sherman , whom it is dedicated to. He grew to despise it after repeatedly hearing it in every public gathering he attended; he once remarked of a reunion: "Scarcely had I gotten under way, however, when the strains of that infernal tune smote upon my ear." With
8058-806: The Jubilee ! Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that makes you free!" So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea, While we were marching through Georgia. Of all Work's Civil War compositions, none were as acclaimed as "Marching Through Georgia", widely regarded as "the greatest of his war songs." The end of 1864 saw the March to the Sea , in which Union forces crippled Confederate resources in Georgia and took over Savannah . Work capitalized on this to write another of his topical celebratory songs, "Marching Through Georgia". Its "suggestive verse" and "swinging meter" capture
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#17327719082658216-959: The Middletown Mansfields of the National Association . In the late 19th and early 20th century, the city underwent a demographic transformation, after having been settled primarily by Protestant people from the British Isles. First the Irish, in response to the Great Famine , and then large numbers of Italian immigrants arrived to work in Middletown's factories and farms. Many of the Italians were immigrants from Melilli , Sicily . Both groups were primarily Roman Catholic. Polish and German arrivals followed, and many of these immigrants were also Catholic. By 1910
8374-755: The Middletown Nature Gardens , Wadsworth Falls State Park and Smith Park , and 100 acres (0.40 km ) of open property at the Guida Farm Conservation Area for families to enjoy. Harbor Park is a 2.6-acre (11,000 m ) recreation area on the Connecticut River, featuring a boardwalk, restaurant/nightclub, fishing, seasonal boat excursions, and the Middletown High School and Wesleyan University crew boathouses. July 4 festivities, as well as
8532-643: The New York accent , including its high THOUGHT vowel; meanwhile, conversely, Pittsburgh AAVE may merge this same vowel with the LOT vowel, matching the cot-caught merger of White Pittsburgh accents , though AAVE accents traditionally do not have the cot-caught merger. Memphis , Atlanta , and Research Triangle AAVE incorporates the DRESS vowel raising and FACE vowel lowering associated with White Southern accents . Memphis and St. Louis AAVE are developing, since
8690-493: The Oxford English Dictionary , such as to dig , jazz , tote , and bad-mouth , a calque from Mandinka . African American slang is formed by words and phrases that are regarded as informal. It involves combining, shifting, shortening, blending, borrowing, and creating new words. African American slang possess all of the same lexical qualities and linguistic mechanisms as any other language. AAVE slang
8848-624: The Song Messenger. Their songs were played routinely at minstrel shows and local musical gatherings. By 1864 Root was held as "the most popular songwriter in America," in no doubt helped by Work's success. That year, he published the patriotic songs "Wake Nicodemus", a minstrel show hit, "Washington and Lincoln" and "Corporal Schnapps". The last of these is a tragic yet humorous lament distinguished for its employment of German dialect, said to enable "the difficult fear of laughing and crying at
9006-488: The United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 42.3 square miles (109.6 km ), of which 40.9 square miles (105.9 km ) is land and 1.4 square miles (3.7 km ) is water. The total area is 3.36% water. Middletown shares borders with the neighboring towns of Cromwell , Portland , East Hampton , Haddam , Durham , Middlefield , Berlin , and Meriden . Of all
9164-456: The Women's Christian Temperance Union , called for public education on the perils of alcohol. Drunkards were framed as sinful and culpable for the degeneration of lives throughout the country. "Reform literature" was the popular medium through which temperance was propagated, often taking the form of simple, sentimental and persuasive lyrics . Biographer George W. Ewing notes: "Many, if not most, of
9322-510: The bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12–13, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the Southern rebellion. Music, which "aroused herself to meet the exigencies of the times," was instrumental to raising the Union 's spirits, rallying civilians and troops, both White and Black, round their nation's cause. Folk music enthusiast Irwin Silber notes: "Throughout
9480-431: The census of 2020, there were 47,717 people, and 20,089 households residing in the city, with an average household size of 2.14. The population density was 1,163.26 inhabitants per square mile (449.14/km ). There were 21,549 housing units at an average density of 508.59 per square mile (196.37/km ) and a vacancy rate of 7%. Owner occupied housing made up 54% of the units and the average value of owner occupied housing units
9638-513: The conflagration . Root remarked in the Song Messenger : "All is gone, my musical library and the thousand useful things that I have gathered about me in so many busy years, swept in a moment." Unable to continue the business in its former rendition, Root & Cady's music copyrights were all sold to Ohioan publishers S. Brainard Sons and John Church & Co . The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1872. Root continued his former teaching profession and Cady left Chicago for New York. This dispirited
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#17327719082659796-621: The historical enslavement of African Americans primarily in that region. Mainstream linguists see only minor parallels between AAVE, West African languages , and English-based creole languages , instead most directly tracing back AAVE to diverse non-standard dialects of English as spoken by the English-speaking settlers in the Southern Colonies and later the Southern United States . However,
9954-597: The non-standard accent . AAVE is widespread throughout the United States, but is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American. As with most English varieties spoken by African Americans , African-American Vernacular English shares a large portion of its grammar and phonology with the regional dialects of the Southern United States , and especially older Southern American English , due to
10112-603: The roustabout 's refrain." However, contrary to the minstrel tradition, Work exposes the actual struggles endured by African Americans rather than stereotyping or idealizing them as most antebellum musicians such as Stephen Foster and Thomas D. Rice had done. Having come face to face with their hardships while in the Underground Railroad , Work genuinely understood the plight of slaves. He resorted to minstrelsy not merely for entertainment but to endorse emancipation and Black enlistment. "Brave Boys Are They",
10270-406: The 1950s, as the prevalence of the automobile increased, government officials approved the construction of a highway that effectively separated Middletown from the Connecticut River, which had long supported its development. Highway construction demolished historic neighborhoods, including many buildings from the 18th century. New suburban developments were built outside older neighborhoods, attracting
10428-485: The 1960s, Pratt & Whitney opened a large aircraft engine plant in the Maromas section of Middletown. Concurrently, developers bought much of the city's remaining farms, including most of Oak Grove Dairy, to redevelop as residential suburbs for local workers and commuters to surrounding cities. During the 1970s, Oddfellows Playhouse was established. The theater attracts hundreds of young people every year from around
10586-562: The African American English (AAE) took place in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to name a few. These studies concluded that the African American Language (AAL) was homogeneous, which means that AAE was spoken the same way everywhere around the country. Later, sociolinguists would realize that these cities lacked the influence of the rural south; the early studies had not considered
10744-606: The Army" (1862), "Song of a Thousand Years" (1863), " Babylon is Fallen " (1863), "Wake Nicodemus" (1864) and " Marching Through Georgia " (1865). They reaped nigh unrivalled success; Work's career, as well as Root & Cady's, crested during the war. Many of Work's songs present slaves' routine undertakings on the plantation and incorporate African-American dialect , thus falling in the minstrelsy genre. In Florine Thayer McCray's words, they evoke "the very atmosphere of awakening plantation life" and echo "the cottonpicker's musing hum and
10902-487: The Army". The lattermost, the most well-known of the bunch, is "a delightful comedy tune" narrated by a widowed mother whose son was drafted into the Union army under President Lincoln 's Enrollment Act . The song particularly targets a provision in the law exempting those paying a $ 300 fee to the government or appointing a substitute, while the poor mother's son is obliged to fight. At the Civil War's apex, with many Northerners " Copperheads " questioning Lincoln's running of
11060-520: The City of Middletown was consolidated with the Town, making the city limits extensive. Originally developed as a sailing port and then an industrial center on the Connecticut River, it is now largely residential. Its downtown, based on Main Street, serves as a popular retail, dining, and bar district near Wesleyan University . Middletown was the county seat of Middlesex County from its creation in 1785 until
11218-557: The English colonists and enemies of the Wangunk, arrived in the Middletown area in the latter half of the 17th century; conflict between them and local Native American tribes ensued. The inhabitants of Mattabesett and others referred to the Mohegan as "destroyers of men." Sowheag hoped that the colonists would intervene. They did not. Smallpox epidemics caused high mortality, reducing their ability to resist and disrupting their cohesion as
11376-546: The Railroad. Having spent much time with the freed slaves, the efforts of Henry Work's father left a stirring impression on him. In his 1884 biography of the composer, Bertram G. Work remarked: "That Henry Clay Work drew much of the inspiration for his songs from his youthful experiences cannot be doubted. During his most impressionable years, he came in contact with many noted anti-slavery workers; perhaps even assisted his father in his humanitarian work." He became familiar with
11534-542: The Union still lacked much antislavery vigor. Having just been remotivated to write music, Work, who had witnessed the hardships of slavery firsthand, was drawn to Root & Cady , conveniently situated in his hometown of Chicago. He engaged in a markedly successful partnership with the firm throughout the war and in subsequent years. Work's music "captured the spirit and struggle of the Civil War ," composed with "a fiery partisanship." From 1861 to 1865 he penned 27 patriotic pieces and published them for Root & Cady . He
11692-404: The action began in the distant past and that it is continuing now. Rickford (1999) suggests that a better translation when used with stative verbs is "for a long time". For instance, in response to "I like your new dress", one might hear Oh, I been had this dress , meaning that the speaker has had the dress for a long time and that it isn't new. To see the difference between the simple past and
11850-491: The actual enthusiasm felt by Union troops during the campaign. Published in January 1865, it was a runaway success, selling 500,000 copies in its first twelve years. In his autobiography published 26 years after the song's drafting, Root explained its popularity: "It is more played and sung at the present time than any other song of the war. This is not only on account of the intrinsic merit of its words and music, but because it
12008-500: The antebellum tradition of denigrating the plight of slaves, instead sympathizing with them. Ever since the 1830s lower-class Northern theater had been dominated by troupes of blackface performers. Dressed in extravagant costumes and armed with banjos , they acted as caricatured African Americans reminiscing about their days in the agrarian South. The Romantic portrayal of Southern plantation life, with slaves and their owners residing harmoniously, gave uninformed Northern audiences
12166-445: The business to unprecedented prosperity and produced some of the most memorable wartime songs, most notably, " Marching Through Georgia " (1865). After the war, Work started venturing in balladry, his first being " The Ship That Never Returned " (1865). Upon returning from a European maritime voyage, familial and financial woes demotivated him considerably, worsened by Root & Cady's closure in 1871. He quit songwriting altogether for
12324-538: The city's North End, an area that has been plagued by poverty and crime in recent decades. In November 2012, voters approved a $ 37 (~$ 48.6 million in 2023) Million initiative to move Middletown's wastewater to the Mattabassett Sewer District treatment plant in nearby Cromwell . Previously, the city had operated its own sewage treatment plant on the banks of the Connecticut River . The city has made plans to tear down this older plant and develop
12482-480: The city. In 1841, Middletown established the state's first public high school, which at first enrolled all students from age nine through age sixteen who had previously attended district schools. During the mid-19th century, manufacturing replaced trade as Middletown's economic mainstay. But industrial growth was limited after railroad operators bypassed Middletown in their construction of a railway between Hartford and New Haven. There had been an ambitious plan to build
12640-495: The city. Middletown was the site of a major unit of Goodyear . In addition, there was the pioneer automobile manufacturer Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company . Other manufacturers included in national expositions and now museum collections include the Middletown Plate Company (silver), Middletown Silver Co. and I. E. Palmer (hammocks). Middletown also briefly was the home of a major-league baseball team,
12798-441: The conflict, Root accelerated the production of Unionist compositions to hike morale up but struggled to recruit enough composers for his firm. Still, it managed to print 250,000 copies of sheet music. That year, he began issuing a periodical, the Song Messenger , with Work as its editor. They agreed that Work would be "independent and untrammeled in the expression of his views on all subjects" but this promptly sparked controversy. In
12956-615: The creation of numerous melodic imitations, especially on railway incidents, the most famous of which is the tragic ballad " The Wreck of the Old 97 " (1903). In 1866 Work composed another song concerning a maritime disaster, "When the 'Evening Star' Went Down", commemorating the eponymous steamer's sinking after sailing into a hurricane. Upon returning to the United States, Work and his brother invested most of their wealth in hundreds of acres of land in Vineland, New Jersey hoping to establishing
13114-479: The dialect as grammatically defective. In 1974, the teacher-led Conference on College Composition and Communication issued a position statement affirming students' rights to their own dialects and the validity of all dialects. Mainstream linguistics has long agreed with this view about dialects. In 1979, a judge ordered the Ann Arbor School District to find a way to identify AAVE speakers in
13272-521: The diner's rebuilding. Reconstruction began in September 2007, and O'Rourke's Diner re-opened in February 2008. Mayor Daniel Drew (2011–2019) supported citizen-oriented efforts to revitalize the North End, such as the local nonprofit NEAT (North End Action Team). In 2012, the City of Middletown and NEAT partnered to form the "I Heart the North End" initiative, which plans to raise public awareness of
13430-548: The downtown area. Pratt and Whitney , Aetna, Middlesex Hospital, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Liberty Bank , and Wesleyan University are major employers. Located on the western border of the city, in an area known as Westlake, is an 84 house community known as The Farms . This architectural award-winning community was developed in 1969 by George Achenbach, and was one of the first communities in Connecticut designed for cluster living , with open areas designated as common land . There are also many parks and nature trails including
13588-462: The economic and cultural opportunities available in the area. Middletown is the only location of a well-known youth theater group, Oddfellows Playhouse , which is located on Washington Street and pulls in children of all ages from all over the state to learn theater skills. Oddfellows also runs the Children's Circus of Middletown where children learn circus skills and put on a free show for close to
13746-570: The elimination of county government in 1960. As of the 2020 census , the city had a total population of 47,717. Middletown, Connecticut is considered the southernmost city in the Hartford-Springfield Knowledge Corridor Metropolitan Region, which features a combined metro population of 1.9 million. Middletown is largely a politically progressive city, and is home to one of the largest pride events in all of Connecticut. The land on
13904-465: The encounter: "One day early in the war a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad, was sent up to my room from the store with a song for me to examine. I looked at it and then at him in astonishment. It was "Kingdom Coming"—elegant in manuscript, full of bright, good sense and comical situations in its "darkey" dialect—the words fitting the melody almost as aptly and neatly as Gilbert fits Sullivan —the melody decidedly good and taking, and
14062-539: The fall of 1871 when the firm burnt down in the Great Chicago Fire , incurring $ 315,000 in losses. It raged on from October 8 to October 10, destroying all waterworks, banking houses and railway depots, and caused a minor depression in the national stock market. Every business in the city's south wing was obliterated; it was reported that over 20,000 buildings were demolished, wreaking over $ 200,000,000 in damages. All of Work's original music plates fell victim to
14220-513: The family near Quincy, Illinois , to better their fortunes. He was "a noted and fearless anti-slavery advocate," organizing the family home into a station of the Underground Railroad , a network for fugitive slaves to escape to freedom. For aiding thousands of slaves flee from bondage, Alanson was sentenced to twelve years' hard labor in Missouri in 1841. He was conditionally pardoned four years later, forced to return to Connecticut and abandon
14378-455: The firm over $ 10,000 in profit within a few months. In February Work set P. G. T. Beauregard 's recent evacuation of Charleston to music; the product, "Ring the Bell, Watchman", reflected the successive toppling of Confederate cities during the war's final weeks. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9 marked the Civil War's end; Chicagoans paraded the streets and packed
14536-403: The first auxiliary; when they occur as the second, they carry additional aspects : The latter example shows one of the most distinctive features of AAVE: the use of be to indicate that performance of the verb is of a habitual nature. In most other American English dialects, this can only be expressed unambiguously by using adverbs such as usually . This aspect-marking form of been or BIN
14694-510: The former county court. Other county functions were either centralized to the state or transferred to the towns. The former county building has been removed, but there are other state agency buildings elsewhere in the city, such as the Dept. of Social Services on Main Street Ext. Middletown's Probate Court district includes the towns of Cromwell, Portland, Middlefield and Haddam. The city is also
14852-523: The gerund when used with been , consider the following expressions: Auxiliaries in African American Vernacular English are related in a typical pattern. They can be grouped into negative forms and affirmative forms for each of the words. For example, "had" is an affirmative form, while "hatn" is the corresponding negative form. These same auxiliaries can be used to mark sentences for the anterior aspect. As another example,
15010-623: The great," which symbolizes the downfall of despotism. This suits the song's content, narrating the slaves' seizure of their master who had fled to fight for the Confederate army and returned disgraced. Also written in vernacular , "Babylon is Fallen" aroused African Americans recruited for the Union army; their numbers had grown since the Emancipation Proclamation's passage. Also a favorite among abolitionists and soldiers, it sold more first-month copies than its prequel. 1863 had been exceedingly fruitful for Root & Cady and other Chicagoan music firms, thriving in "a flourishing condition" according to
15168-470: The growing temperance movement , have also left their mark on American music . Many of Work's compositions were performed at minstrel shows and Civil War veteran reunions. Although largely forgotten nowadays, he was one of the most successful musicians of his time, comparable to Stephen Foster and George F. Root in sales and sheer influence. In songwriting, he is renowned for his dexterity in African-American dialect , seriocomedy and melody . Born to
15326-674: The head of its long river port on the Thames in Middlesex County, England. The same persons also established the Middlesex Turnpike (now Route 154 ) to link all the settlements on the western side of the Connecticut, again with the intent of creating one long port. After the American Revolution, Connecticut and most northern states abolished slavery. The port's decline began in the early 19th century during
15484-556: The head of the Connecticut Regatta event in October are conducted from Harbor Park. Middlesex Hospital a major employer in Middletown and throughout Middlesex County, is spending $ 31 million to build a new emergency department. The new emergency department opened on March 24, 2008. Along with the new department, a helipad will be added along with 70 new parking spaces for patients. At 11:17 a.m. on February 7, 2010,
15642-451: The hymnbooks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries contain at least two or three temperance hymns." It borrowed elements from contemporary literary realism , documenting the hardships of domestic life with emphasis on women's oppression at the hands of their husband's indulgent habits. In line with the ever-growing movement, Work composed several influential songs spotlighting the perils of alcohol consumption. His most renowned
15800-438: The language. For example, the word "tes" in AAVE originates from "test", with the final "t" of the "st" consonant cluster being deleted in word-final position. McWhorter discusses an accent continuum from "a 'deep' Black English through a 'light' Black English to standard English," saying the sounds on this continuum may vary from one African American speaker to the next or even in a single speaker from one situational context to
15958-573: The local Court House until well into the night. Work celebrated the triumph with a final wartime composition, "'Tis Finished!, or Sing Hallelujah", published in June. However, for him, 1865 remains best remembered for the meteoric popularity of " Marching Through Georgia ". Bring the good old bugle boys! we'll sing another song, Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along; Sing it as we used to sing it fifty thousand strong, While we were marching through Georgia. "Hurrah! Hurrah! we bring
16116-428: The lonely remain so." Newly enriched by his war efforts, Work embarked on a tour around Europe from 1865 to 1866, during which he wrote the first of his few notable postbellum songs, " The Ship That Never Returned ". It narrates the departure of a ship from a harbor that never come back, with a mother and the captain's wife lamenting the loss of their loved ones on board. It swiftly entered the folk tradition and sparked
16274-451: The loss of his son Waldo in 1871: "I think there must be a screw loose somewhere in my physical or mental organization—I am so particular about, and so much annoyed by, trifles, and lose so much time in perfecting unimportant details of plans, many of which are eventually abandoned [...] My nerves seem to be gradually gaining an ascendancy over me—the fastenings which connect the mind and body seem to be growing loose and getting detached. This
16432-504: The mayor of Middletown since 2019. Top employers in Middletown according to the town's 2022 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report Middletown operates public schools, including Middletown High School . The city has one Roman Catholic elementary school, Saint John Paul II Regional Catholic School, and two Roman Catholic high schools, Xavier High School for boys and Mercy High School for girls. African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English ( AAVE )
16590-492: The mayor's office, replacing Thornton, whom he criticized for raising taxes and for the awarding of a contract for the construction of a new high school to Tomasso Brothers, Inc. , a firm that had been the target of a federal corruption probe. During Giuliano's three terms in office, Middletown's Main Street became a hub for small businesses, and the city began investing heavily in the arts. Democrat Daniel T. Drew defeated Giuliano in 2011. Drew has pushed for increased development in
16748-522: The mid-twentieth century, an iconic merger of the vowels in SQUARE and NURSE , making there sound like thurr . Californian AAVE often lacks a cot-caught merger , especially before nasals. African-American Vernacular suffers from persistent stigma and negative social evaluation in American culture. By definition, as a vernacular dialect of English, AAVE has not received the social prestige of
16906-611: The neighboring towns, Portland and East Hampton are the only ones that do not have any land boundaries, as they are located on the eastern side of the Connecticut River. The west side of Middletown is flanked by the Metacomet Ridge —a mountainous trap rock ridgeline that stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border. Notable mountains of the Metacomet Ridge in Middletown include Higby Mountain and
17064-412: The new immigrants stimulated the rise of a range of cuisines offered by restaurants. This has become one of the most well-known aspects of the city. Middletown was hit by floods in 1927 and 1936, and by The Great New England Hurricane in 1938. The Arrigoni Bridge was completed over the Connecticut River in 1938. It replaced an earlier bridge to connect Middletown to Portland and points east. During
17222-412: The next. McWhorter regards the following as rarer features, characteristic only of a deep Black English but which speakers of light Black English may occasionally "dip into for humorous or emotive effect": Although AAVE does not necessarily have the simple past-tense marker of other English varieties (that is, the -ed of "work ed "), it does have an optional tense system with at least four aspects of
17380-581: The north side of Lamentation Mountain . The 50-mile (80 km) Mattabesett Trail traverses the ridge. The Nature Conservancy manages the summit and ledges of Higby Mountain. Major bodies of water include the Connecticut River along the towns eastern boundary, the Mattabesset River along its northern boundary, Crystal Lake in the southern end of town, and Pameacha Pond along South Main Street. The Mount Higby and Adder reservoirs also fall along its western boundary with Middlefield. As of
17538-715: The origins of AAVE "agree that the West African connection is quite minor." However, a creole theory, less accepted among linguists, posits that AAVE arose from one or more creole languages used by African captives of the Atlantic slave trade , due to the captives speaking many different native languages and therefore needing a new way to communicate among themselves and with their captors. According to this theory, these captives first developed what are called pidgins : simplified mixtures of languages. Since pidgins form from close contact between speakers of different languages,
17696-456: The past tense and two aspects of the future tense. The dialect uses several Tense-Aspect-Mood markers integrated into the predicate phrase, including gon or gonna (future tense), done (completive aspect), be (habitual aspect, state of being), and been (durative aspect). These can function separately or in conjunction. ^a Syntactically, I bought it is grammatical, but done (always unstressed, pronounced as / d ən / )
17854-595: The people with money to buy new. In the mid-20th century, Middletown and similar towns lost heavy industry and manufacturing jobs that moved offshore, resulting in a general decline in population. An alternate economy began to develop by the 1990s. During this period, the city tore down many older buildings in the name of ' urban renewal ', but sometimes new development was delayed for years. Downtown area had large flat parking lots, or buildings were abandoned and left empty. With high unemployment and limited opportunities, and increasing problems with drugs, crime increased. During
18012-451: The period of strained American-British relations and resulting trade restrictions, which led to the War of 1812 . The port never recovered from the restrictions of the war. The city's men distinguished themselves in the war effort, as Middletown's Commodore Thomas Macdonough led American forces to the victory on Lake Champlain in 1814 which ended British hopes for an invasion of New York. After
18170-546: The population had swelled to nearly 21,000. Meanwhile, the number of African Americans dwindled to 53 persons. Employers chose to hire white immigrants. Later in the century, more African Americans from the South migrated to the area for its industrial jobs and better social conditions. They were part of the Great Migration during the 20th century, up to 1970. In the early 1980s, two Wesleyan professors arranged to bring
18328-466: The population movements during the Great Migration, resulting in a broadly South-to-North pattern, albeit with founder effects in cities that already had existing African American populations at the beginning of the Great Migration. There is no vowel for which the geographic variation in AAVE patterns with that of White American English. New York City AAVE incorporates some local features of
18486-472: The postbellum years were looking bright for Root & Cady. Publications and song anthologies, among them, the temperance song compilation titled The Musical Fountain , were being churned out at a rate surpassing even their wartime production. The Chicagoan music scene was as lively as ever. George F. Root also distinguished himself as a prominent campaigner for Ulysses S. Grant in the 1868 presidential election . However, their prospects came crashing down in
18644-474: The proclamation's outcome, was one of the abolitionist songs chanted alongside " John Brown's Body ". While time has not been kind with the song, up until the 19th century's close, it was reportedly as popular as " Dixie ". By 1862 the surge in patriotic songs witnessed the year prior had slowed down, but Work's output did not decline. It includes "God Save the Nation", "Uncle Joe's Hail Columbia" and "Grafted into
18802-485: The recordings of former slaves to demonstrate that negation was inherited from nonstandard colonial English. AAVE shares most of its lexicon with other varieties of English, particularly that of informal and Southern dialects; for example, the relatively recent use of y'all . As statistically shown by Algeo (1991: 3–14), the main sources for new words are combining, shifting, shortening, blending, borrowing, and creating. However, it has also been suggested that some of
18960-672: The region the Mattabesset were a part of the Wangunk, a large tribe in the Connecticut Valley, at the time under a sachem named Sowheag . Plans for the colonial settlement were drawn up by the General Court in 1646; the first migrants came from nearby Connecticut colonies in 1650. On September 11, 1651, the General Court of Connecticut established the town of "Mattabesett". A couple of years later in November 1653,
19118-426: The representation of the south of America, which caused the AAE studies to change. To make those changes, the newer studies used the diversity of the country and took into consideration the rural south. African-American Vernacular English began as mostly rural and Southern, yet today is mostly urban and nationally widespread, and its more recent urban features are now even diffusing into rural areas. Urban AAVE alone
19276-520: The result of decreolization from a widespread American creole. Linguist John McWhorter maintains that the contribution of West African languages to AAVE is minimal. In an interview on National Public Radio 's Talk of the Nation , McWhorter characterized AAVE as a "hybrid of regional dialects of Great Britain that slaves in America were exposed to because they often worked alongside the indentured servants who spoke those dialects..." According to McWhorter, virtually all linguists who have carefully studied
19434-465: The revival of downtown Middletown. Crime decreased, and new restaurants and shops opened. In recent decades, Middletown has focused on balancing the needs and comforts of its residents with the commercial development required to help fund services. These efforts date at least from 1931, when the city was one of the first in America to establish a planning board. Progress continued under the leadership of Democratic mayor, Domenique S. Thornton, who served
19592-470: The riverfront property on which it sits. Middletown continues to support manufacturing and small business. Middletown has remained an important government administrative center. From the creation of Middlesex County in 1798 until the elimination of county government in 1965 Middletown was the county seat. Middletown today retains Middlesex Superior Court, and the Judicial District remains that of
19750-517: The same name. They were among many tribes along the Atlantic coast who spoke Algonquian languages . The colonists renamed the settlement in 1653. When Hartford County was organized on May 10, 1666, Middletown was included within its boundaries. In 1784, the central settlement was incorporated as a city distinct from the town. Both were included within newly formed Middlesex County in May 1785. In 1923,
19908-407: The same time": Ah! mine fraulein ! You ish so ferry unkind! You coes mit Hans to Zhermany to live, And leaves poor Schnapps pehind. Besides the Union struggle, Work devoted himself to the temperance movement , "[expressing] his passionate convictions about Prohibition " through music. The movement gained much traction after the Civil War's close as many moralistic fraternities, eminently,
20066-486: The schools and to "use that knowledge in teaching such students how to read standard English." In 1996, Oakland Unified School District made a controversial resolution for AAVE, which was later called "Ebonics". The Oakland School board approved that Ebonics be recognized as a language independent from English (though this particular view is not endorsed by linguists), that teachers would participate in recognizing this language, and that it would be used in theory to support
20224-654: The settlement was renamed as Middletown. This name was chosen because the site was approximately halfway between Windsor and Saybrook on the Great River. Life was not easy for these early colonial Puritans ; clearing the land and building houses, and tending farms in the rocky soil of New England was a labor-intensive ordeal. They had a strict society; offenses legally punishable by death in the Connecticut colonies included "witchcraft, blasphemy, cursing or smiting of parents, and incorrigible stubbornness of children." The Pequot Mohegan , at that time traditional allies of
20382-472: The site of the controversial State Juvenile Training Center. Culturally and politically, Middletown is in the midst of an effort to revitalize its historically disadvantaged North End. Economic development projects recently completed in the North End include Wharfside Commons, a 96-unit mixed income apartment block, and the new Community Health Center (completed in 2012 at the corner of Main and Grand Streets ). The Green Street Arts Center, founded by Wesleyan and
20540-509: The slang use for "Irish". "Red bone" is another example of this, usually referring to light skinned African Americans. " Ofay ", which is pejorative , is another general term for a White person ; it might derive from the Ibibio word afia , which means "light-colored", from the Yoruba word ofe , spoken in hopes of disappearing from danger. However, most dictionaries simply say its etymology
20698-532: The slave trade would have been exactly such a situation. Creolist John Dillard quotes, for example, slave ship captain William Smith describing the sheer diversity of mutually unintelligible languages just in The Gambia . By 1715, an African pidgin was reproduced in novels by Daniel Defoe , in particular, The Life of Colonel Jacque . In 1721, Cotton Mather conducted the first attempt at recording
20856-483: The slaves take over the plantation and overcome their overseer. It vastly appealed to African-American Union troops who sang it regularly as they marched to the South. The song's allure was bolstered by its employment of African-American dialect. Its "robust melody," blending in perfectly with the lyrics, reflects Work's harmonic finesse. First advertised by Edwin P. Christy in April 1862, "Kingdom Coming" quickly became
21014-663: The sound of New York Latino English , some of whose speakers use an accent indistinguishable from an AAVE one. AAVE has also influenced certain Chicano accents and Liberian Settler English , directly derived from the AAVE of the original 16,000 African Americans who migrated to Liberia in the 1800s. In the United States, urban youth participating in hip-hop culture or marginalized as ethnic minorities are also well-studied in adopting African-American Vernacular English, or prominent elements of it: for example, Southeast-Asian Americans embracing hip-hop identities. The first studies on
21172-562: The speech of slaves in his interviews regarding the practice of smallpox inoculation. By the time of the American Revolution, varieties among slave creoles were not quite mutually intelligible . Dillard quotes a recollection of "slave language" toward the latter part of the 18th century: "Kay, massa, you just leave me, me sit here, great fish jump up into da canoe, here he be, massa, fine fish, massa; me den very grad; den me sit very still, until another great fish jump into de canoe; but me fall asleep, massa, and no wake 'til you come...." Not until
21330-526: The state to perform in plays and other performances. The playhouse is one of the few youth theaters in the state of Connecticut . It is located on 128 Washington Street, around the corner from Middletown's Main Street. During the 1990s, a partnership between the city, the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, and Wesleyan University invested substantially in Middletown's Main Street, improving urban design and supporting new businesses. Their actions helped
21488-491: The systematic nature of this language variety, governed by specific rules. Additionally, such analyses have been utilized to bolster arguments concerning the historical origins of AAVE. Consonant cluster reduction is a phonological process where a final consonant group or cluster, consisting of two consonant sounds, is simplified or reduced to a single consonant sound. The analysis of consonant cluster reduction in AAVE assumes that, initially, final clusters are present and intact in
21646-464: The third-largest African slave population in the state of Connecticut—218 slaves to 5,446 whites. Middletown merchant traders pushed for the clearance of the Saybrook Bar at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and later sought the creation of Middlesex County in 1785. The name 'Middlesex' was chosen because the intention was to make Middletown the head of a long river port, much as London was at
21804-673: The time of the American Civil War did the language of the slaves become familiar to a large number of educated Whites. The abolitionist papers before the war form a rich corpus of examples of plantation creole. In Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870), Thomas Wentworth Higginson detailed many features of his Black soldiers' language. Opponents of the creole theory suggest that such pidgins or creoles existed but simply died out without directly contributing to modern AAVE. Many pronunciation features distinctly set AAVE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American ). McWhorter argues that what truly unites all AAVE accents
21962-537: The time of the American Revolution , Middletown was a thriving port, where one-third of its residents were involved in merchant and maritime activities. Some settlers held enslaved Africans as workers in the early economy of Middletown; they worked as domestic servants, laborers, and in shipping. African slaves were imported by the English in 1661 from Barbados in the Caribbean. By 1756 Middletown had
22120-439: The transition from Ebonics to Standard American English in schools. This program lasted three years and then died off. Although the distinction between AAVE and General American dialects is clear to most English speakers, some characteristics, notably double negatives and the omission of certain auxiliaries (see below) such as the has in has been are also characteristic of many colloquial dialects of American English. There
22278-457: The tunes "Sleeping for the Flag", "Song of a Thousand Years" and, most notably, " Babylon is Fallen ". "Kingdom Coming" had been such a major success that numerous takes on the theme of slaves' emancipation sprung up such as Root's "De Day ob Liberty's Comin" (1862). Work published a sequel of his hit in July 1863 titled "Babylon is Fallen", alluding to Revelation 14, NT : "Fallen, fallen is Babylon
22436-542: The vocabulary unique to AAVE has its origin in West African languages, but etymology is often difficult to trace, and without a trail of recorded usage, the suggestions below cannot be considered proven. Early AAVE and Gullah contributed a number of words of African origin to the American English mainstream, including gumbo , goober , yam , and banjo . Compounding in AAVE is a very common method in creating new vocabulary. The most common type of compounding
22594-743: The war, migration of New England families continued west to New York and, later, to the Midwest around the Great Lakes, where more land was available. In the 19th century, Middletown became a major center for firearms manufacturing. Numerous gun manufacturers in the area supplied the majority of pistols to the United States government during the War of 1812. After that war, however, the center of this business shifted to Springfield , Massachusetts; and Hartford , and New Haven , Connecticut. (See also History of Connecticut industry .) In 1831 Wesleyan College
22752-525: The war, soldiers and civilians of the Union states were inspired and propagandized by a host of patriotic songs. An endless stream of compositions poured forth from the dedicated pens of scores of professional song writers and hundreds of eager amateurs. [...] a few of these songs caught the tempo and the spirit across the country carried on the lips of millions of Americans." Being in such high demand, patriotic song submissions began pouring into local newspapers and music labels, most of which were rather trite. It
22910-466: The western bank of the Connecticut River where Middletown now lies was home to a village of the Wangunk , a tribe of Algongquian -speaking Native Americans . The village was named Mattabesset (also spelled Mattabesett, Mattabesec, Mattabeseck, and Mattabesek ); the area they inhabited—now Middletown and the surrounding area—was named after it. When the primarily-English European settlers arrived in
23068-490: The whole exactly suited to the times. 'Did you write these words and music?' I asked. A gentle 'Yes' was the answer. 'What is your business, if I may inquire?' 'I am a printer.' 'Would you rather write music than set type?' 'Yes.' 'Well, if this is a specimen of what you can do, I think you may give up the printing business.'" He saw great potential in Work's "gift for composition" and, in a time that "called for patriotic songs with
23226-597: The whole thing ("Don't try to act as if you don't know what happened, because you started the whole thing"). The irrealis mood marker be , having no intrinsic tense refers to a current or future event that may be less than real. Modals The dialect uses double modals, such as might could , which can function in various ways, including as adverbs. Negatives are formed differently from most other varieties of English: While AAVE shares these with Creole languages, Howe & Walker (2000) use data from early recordings of African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, and
23384-724: The word bees even in place of be to mean is or are in standard English, as in the sentence "That's the way it bees" is also one of the rarest of all deep AAVE features today, and most middle-class AAVE speakers would recognize the verb bees as part of only a deep "Southern" or "country" speaker's vocabulary. There are at least 10 distinct regional accents in AAVE, and regional patterns of pronunciation and word choice appear on social media. Regional variation in AAVE does not pattern with other regional variation in North American English, which broadly follows East-to-West migration patterns, but instead patterns with
23542-669: Was marks type 1 sentences, which by default are present tense, and transforms them to a time before the present. Take, for instance, "She at home": the word was can be inserted to mark this sentence, making the marked equivalent "She was at home". Auxiliaries such as these also have opposing negative and affirmative forms. In its negative form the auxiliary verb "wadn" is used to convey the opposing affirmative form. In addition to these, come (which may or may not be an auxiliary ) may be used to indicate speaker indignation, such as in Don't come acting like you don't know what happened and you started
23700-420: Was $ 240,700. The racial makeup of the city was 66.2% White only, not Hispanic or Latino, 15.7% Black or African American , 10.9% Hispanic or Latino , and 5.7% Asian . The foreign born population made up 11.9% of residents. 15.5% of residents were under the age of 18, and 16.2% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.5 years. The median income for a household in the city was $ 62,022. Males had
23858-588: Was cut off from his children who were residing with Sarah in Greenwich Village, Manhattan . Two years later, meanwhile having passed some time in California , he resettled in Brooklyn , spending the next twelve years isolated in a boarding house . A letter composed in the early 1870s to his correspondent Susie Mitchell paints a grim picture of the depression consuming his postbellum life, worsened by
24016-476: Was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2009. Both buildings are part of the Wesleyan campus. The saltbox Samuel Harris House , built in 1686 and not listed on the National Register, may be the oldest surviving house in Middletown. Middletown sits on the west bank of the Connecticut River, in the south-central portion of the state. Running alongside the river, Route 9 bisects the city. According to
24174-442: Was established. It became one of the United States' leading liberal arts universities . The college replaced an earlier educational institution on the same site, Partridge's American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It had moved to Norwich, Vermont and later developed as Norwich University . The two main buildings of the original campus were built by the people of Middletown in order to attract an academic institution to
24332-480: Was largely self-taught, save for some lessons at a church singing school and exposure to camp meetings in his neighborhood. He quickly grew acquainted with the principles of musical notation , devising original melodies while laboring at the family pasture. In 1845, obliged by the terms of Alanson's release from prison, the Work family migrated back to Middletown, except for Henry who stayed a year longer. Then aged fourteen, he reluctantly commenced his apprenticeship as
24490-530: Was moderately successful, and "Shadows on the Floor" (1877), an account of impoverished families' hardships, although none faithfully captured the essence and fame of "Come Home, Father". Root & Cady's early weeks of 1865 were occupied with Root's latest 1864 hit, " Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! ", stimulated by grim revelations on the atrocities within Confederate prison camps . It took the Union by storm and earned
24648-580: Was of Scottish origin, their surname derived from Auld Wark, a significant stronghold during the Anglo-Scottish wars . To avert religious persecution, they migrated to the north of Ireland . Soon after, in 1720, Joseph Work emigrated to the United States, settling in Ashford, Connecticut . Henry Work's background was modest, "pass[ing] his boyhood days almost in want" without much formal education. When aged just three, his father, Alanson, resettled
24806-425: Was one of the most renowned composers of the Civil War era, with such tunes as " Battle Cry of Freedom " and " Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! " to his name. By the war's opening weeks, his firm was receiving roughly sixty daily submissions; throughout the conflict, it published over a hundred songs. In fact, it issued the very first Unionist composition, "The First Gun is Fired!", in response to the attack on Fort Sumter. However,
24964-518: Was this song [...]" A hallmark of temperance meetings, "Come Home, Father" was adopted as the Women's Christian Temperance Union's theme tune. The song featured as an interlude in a production of Timothy Shay Arthur 's acclaimed Prohibitionist play Ten Nights in a Barroom . Work wrote other temperance songs after the war, including "Lillie of the Snowstorm" (1866), "King Bibler's Army" (1877), which
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