Hoe Emma Hoe
Hoe Emma Hoe is a slave song that was sung during work. Slaves sang while working on tobacco or cotton plantations or when cleaning clothes. They sang according to the task at hand and used a call and response style. A call and response style is when the lead singer sings a line, and others respond. The slaves sang the songs to enable them to get by their work. It was also a way of communicating about the issues they experienced in the field. Since their masters did not treat them well, and they were not allowed to talk, they used the songs to speak to each other.
Hoe Emma Hoe begins by the caller telling the reader the characteristics of Emma. Emma is a nice person who is willing to help others. The lead encourages Emma and the other slaves to keep on digging and not to lose hope. Even though Emma is a woman, she works hard more than two grown men. In the second verse, the caller describes Joseph, who became old. He was a hard worker, but when he became old, he could not manage a lot of work as required by the master. The master, therefore, replaced him with his son because he is young and can do a lot of work. The master became mad at Joseph because he is only concerned about the amount of work that a slave can do. Although aging is a natural process, the master is not concerned with the well being of the slaves but how much they can deliver in a day.
The third verse describes the master as a lazy man. He cannot work hard like the slaves, yet he treats them in a wrong way and does not give them freedom. He only rides on a horse and bothers the slaves as they work on his plantation. The caller would like the master to stop worrying them, but he cannot say it because he is not allowed. Verse four describes the master as a wrong person because he sold the caller’s family to another master. The caller hopes that one day the Lord will come to their rescue. He compares the master to Pharaoh, the Egyptian leader who held the people of Israel for many years. God will strike the master just as He did to Pharaoh, and the slaves will be free.
The overall song message is the excessive work that slaves are subjected to by their masters. The slaves encourage each other to keep working and help each other in their difficult tasks. Even though they work hard, their masters do not appreciate them, and they keep bothering them. They subject them to misery because they sell their people to other slaves and separate their families. Slaves lack the freedom to communicate or associate with others because the masters view them as less human.
The song was successful in freeing slaves because it started their resistance. They communicate with each other about how they did not like the harsh treatment; hence, they had to fight for their freedom.