The Gallery - William E Barton publishes ‘Motherless Child’ in 1899. The woman who brings it to him says: “You des’ gotter staht dat song in a mourn. Dey hain’t no uddah way to git de hang ub it. Fus’ time I hear it, I wis de Lawd I cud lun it. I tried, an’ couldn’t. I went home studyin’ it, an’ all at once it came a-ringin’ through me. Den I sung it all night.” bachlund.org/Meditation_on_Motherless_Child