“He Lies in the American Land”

Description

A man emigrates to America, leaving wife and children back in Europe. When he sends for them, they arrive to find only his grave; he has been killed in the steel mill. She cries out to him; his voice tells her not to wait, for he lies in the American land

Notes

Many, perhaps most of the workers who made steel in the two great centers of South Chicago and western Pennsylvania were eastern European immigrants. - PJS

I don't know if this is an authentic folk song; Paul thinks so, or he would not have submitted it. Certainly it has the genuine folk sensibility. - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "I Have a Father in My Native Land" (theme)

Recordings

• Pete Seeger, "He Lies in the American Land" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist2, PeteSeeger48)