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I’ve got a babe but shall I keep him
‘Twill come the day when I’ll be weepin’
But how can I love him any less
This little babe upon my breast
You can take my body
You can take my bones
You can take my blood
But not my soul . . .
From Rhiannon Giddens in an interview on NPR with Michel Martin in April 2018
I’ll play the other song that was inspired by being a mother called “At the Purchaser’s Option” that was inspired by an ad that I saw in the late 1700s that was for a young woman who was for sale. This was very common, like used car ads. Seriously, you needed some cash, you just put an ad in the paper. It was horrible; these are human beings. But it was so common and it said at the end of it: She has with her a nine-month-old baby who is “at the purchaser’s option.” And those words said everything to me. I tried to put myself in her position. Her frame of mind.
