Ain't No More Cain (sic) on the Brazos

I was listening to the Band's recording of "Ain't No More Cane" this morning. When it comes to traditional material, you can't do much better than the band. They do my favorite versions of both this and "Long Black Veil," which actually sounds much older than it really is. Today was the first time I'd really noticed the line "don't you rise up 'til it's judgment day for sure," though, and it struck me at once that Cane may be working dually here.

I knew "Ain't No More Cane" was an old work song, probably dating back to the early twenties or maybe a little further back. I had always assumed it was a migrant farmer song about the ending of the sugar season ("Ain't no more cane on the [banks of the] Brazos [river.] It's all been ground down to molasses" wails the song's speaker. What I didn't know is that it is also a prison song. After hearing it with fresh ears, I went to The Band's unofficial website where Erin Sebo expertly points out that nearly all of the prisons in Texas are along the Brazos and that the song also uses prison slang, like "bully" and "captain."

Another word that is slang is "Hannah," meaning the sun. It is Hannah who is told not to rise until judgment day is certain, i.e., after the anti-Christ, who may claim that (s)he will bring judgment. Sun here may double as Son -- the speaker could be asking Christ to rise up. In the literal context of the song, though, the speaker is asking the sun not to rise because the day means work, often in the hot fields. And though the sugar is all harvested, some other crop's season may be just around the corner.

All of this seems to beg the question, why sugar cane? It may simply be that "cane" is a literal detail from an autobiographical songwriter. It may be that cane fit the meter best. It may also be because cane carries resonances of Cain. Prisoners are outcasts; they bear the same burden as Cain. It could be that they are identifying with him. "Ain't no more Cain" because they have escaped, but then if they "all got ground down to molasses" they may be dead. This is particularly interesting as molasses is the same color as the tar baby. One may think of Jean Toomer's "Cane" or of the white supremacist belief that black skin is the physical mark of Cain (interestingly enough, racists used this as proof of blacks inferiority and then proceeded to lynch blacks, although God marks Cain as a proscription of vengeance, saying that no one can kill Cain because of his mark).

Whatever associations we may make with cane/Cain, its purpose in the song is to represent labor. The sun also represents labor, as the prison work is done beneath the sun's intense heat. The two are equated. When the speaker tells Old Hannah, or the sun, not to rise until judgment day, the speaker is also telling Cain not to rise until judgment day. I don't have the whole thing worked out yet, but there may indeed be something interesting going on there.