The Boredom Board

[youhavenoidea]

Michael Row the Boat Ashore" is a rowing song. That's not as obvious as it sounds. "Michael" is the only rowing song we know about that's actually about boats. It was first mentioned in 1863 as a song sung by black slaves in the Georgia Sea Islands. Pete Seeger, in The Incompleat Folksinger, mentions that slaves brought from Africa spent their lives on these small islands, out of touch with mainland life. "The only transportation was small boats and strong arms to row them," he writes. The boat crews from different plantations would have their own rowing songs, each song exclusive to the plantation. "Michael" is mentioned in the letters of some teachers who went to the islands in 1862-63.