Real Behind the Music: Emily, the Maid of Morgan’s Point and The Yellow Rose of Texas
The Battle of San Jacinto was probably lost to the Mexicans, owing to the influence of a Mulatto Girl . . . who was clustered in the tent with General Santa Anna
The Battle of San Jacinto was probably lost to the Mexicans, owing to the influence of a Mulatto Girl . . . who was clustered in the tent with General Santa Anna
(Y’allogy) - There’s a Yellow Rose that I am going to see,
Nobody else could miss her, not half as much as me.
She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part.
These are the lyrics made famous by Mitch Miller in 1955, but aren’t the lyrics of the original tune “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” made popular a century earlier by Edwin P. Christy and his Christy’s Minstrels. The 1853 version, performed in blackface, included racial epithets objectionable today.
There’s a yellow girl in Texas that I am going to see,
No other darkies know her, no darkey only me.
She cried so when I left her that it like to broke my heart,
And if I only find her, we never will part.
The song has been around since the 1830s.1 The term “yellow” was a common reference to mulattos—mix raced progeny of a White parent and a Black parent—while the word “rose” was a common euphemism for a young woman. Folklorists, like Frank X. Tolbert, have claimed the tune was based on true events that happened at the battle of San Jacinto between Mexican president-general Antonio López de Santa Anna and a young indentured servant by the name of Emily D. West.
Historically, we know Santa Anna existed and what happened to him and his troops on that fateful day on April 21, 1836—Mexican forces were routed and slaughtered by Texian forces under Sam Houston and Texas won its independence from Mexico. But was Emily West a living, breathing person of the past, and if so, who was she and what does she have to do with Santa Anna and the tune “The Yellow Rose of Texas”?
The activities of Santa Anna at the moment Sam Houston and the Texian army attacked Mexican troops at San Jacinto have been disputed and debated since 1836. After action accounts by Mexican veterans indicate lax conditions within the Mexican…
Thanks! Great piece! I was familiar with the story, but not all the supporting sourcing. Personally do not understand the "offended sensibilities" to the original lyrics. A black guy singing about his love for a mixed blood girl, performed by a minstrel group to boot. But the permanent victim class and their non Irish managers have to control the language and narrative. The sheep then dutifully go along.