Subject: Early Masters Family in Alabama

Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 15:54:02 -0600

From: "Dale Boman" <DALEB@novell.com>

To: <jack@jackmasters.net>

On your web page, it states that Sally Masters composed "Yes, my native land I love thee" in about 1850

Early Masters Family in Alabama by T. Euclid Rains Sr.

On the night before their leaving South Carolina, Sally Masters composed and sang a song. It is recorded that she sat in the middle of their huge living room and played the guitar and sang. The song reflected concern upon going to a strange new country and the leaving of her friends there in Anderson:

The lyrics were written 18 years earlier by Samuel F. Smith in 1832. They were printed in the hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1835. And before that were printed in the Southern Harmony. Other verses speak of voyaging across the ocean, so the words are not about leaving Anderson.

Although Sally Masters may have composed a new tune for the words, she did not write the lyrics. And I am sure that the words to the song fit her emotional state of being at that time.

My own great great grandmother Hannah Thompson wrote in her journal that she sang the familiar song as she left from Liverpool in 1856 as an immigrant from Scotland to sail across the ocean and walk across the plains with a handcart to Utah.

Here is the whole text.

1. Yes, my native land, I love thee,

   All thy scenes I love them well;

   Friends, connections, happy country;

   Can I bid you all farewell;

   Can I leave you, Can I leave you,

   Far in heathen lands to dwell;

   (Repeat previous 2 lines)

2. Home! thy joys are passing lovely!

   Joys no stranger heart can tell!

   Happy home! 'tis sure I love thee!

   Can I, can I say farewell?

   Can I leave thee, can I leave thee,

   Far in heathen lands to dwell;

   (Repeat previous 2 lines)

3. Scenes of sacred peace and pleasure,

   Holy days and Sabbath bell.

   Richest, brightest, sweetest treasure!

   Can I say a last farewell?

   Can I leave you, Can I leave you,

   Far in heathen lands to dwell;

   (Repeat previous 2 lines)

4. Yes, I hasten from you gladly,

   From the scenes I loved so well!

   Far away, ye billows, bear me;

   Lovely, native land, farewell!

   Pleased I leave thee, Pleased I leave thee,

   Far in heathen lands to dwell;

   (Repeat previous 2 lines)

5. In the deserts let me labor,

   On the mountains let me tell

   How he died--the blessed Savior--

   To redeem a world from hell!

   Let me hasten, Let me hasten,

   Far in heathen lands to dwell;

   (Repeat previous 2 lines)

6. Bear me on, thou restless ocean;

   Let the winds my canvas swell--

   Heaves my heart with warm emotion,

   While I go far hence do dwell.

   Glad I leave thee, Glad I leave thee,

   Native land, Farewell! Farewell!

   (Repeat previous 2 lines)

I thought you might be interested . That is all.

Dale Boman