A plantation lullaby from 1900.
Words by Richard Henry Buck.
Music by Adam Geibel.
The sheet music:
Pensacola Pickaninny – Sheet Music
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. Is yo’ gwine fo’ to slumber
Is yo’ gwine fo’ to sleep?
Pensacola pickaninny, tell me
Jes’ close yo’ eyes in slumber now
An’ doan’ yo’ dar’ to peep
Pensacola pickaninny, tell me
Yo’se been rompin’ all de night
Yo’se been rompin’ all de day
An’ seems to me it’s time to put yo’ wakeness away
Why doan’ yo’ ‘bey yo’ mammy now
What has yo’ got to say?
Pensacola pickaninny, tell me
Refrain
Pensacola, do what I tol’ yo’
Shut yo’ eyes in slumberness fo’ me
Stars am a peepin’, time yo’ was sleepin’
Pensacola pickaninny
Pensacola, , do what I tol’ yo’
Shut yo’ eyes in slumberness fo’ me
Stars am a peepin’, time yo’ was sleepin’
Pensacola pickaninny
2. Doan’ yo’ see Mister Sandman
As he winks bof his eyes?
Pensacola pickaninny, tell me
He’ll come an’ raise a rumpus
If my little Phoebe cries
Pensacola pickaninny, tell me
Once he caught a pick-a-nin’
Who jes’ wouldn’t go to bed
An’ acted jes’ contrariness
To what its mammy said
De sandman took an’ eat him up
Jes’ like a piece of bread
Pensacola pickaninny, tell me