Nathan Bell, 1859

The tragedy in the American soul is as dark as a tomb.  It's desire for power is equal to its need for forgiveness.  The story line in the folk song, House Carpenter,  involves the seduction of a young mother, who leaves her husband and family, and runs off with a rich sailor, who turns out to be the Devil.  The moral center of this tale is the guilt of the woman for having forsaken her own youngest child for the riches promised by the deceiver.  

Nathan Bell looks at a similar situation from the perspective of Julia and Nathan's unborn child, and sets the scene in the Antebellum South circa 1859.  It can be seen symbolically, literally, or psychologically as a tragic complex of the spiritual scars inflicted on the world in the insanity of the historic American power schism, a schism which plagues us to this day.  

Nathan Bell 1859

1.  O Lord, forgive my mother, save her soul
She only did what she thought she had to do.
The pain I felt as her murdered unborn child
is something I'll never have to live through.

2.  A deeper wound than pain has scarred my mind,
in the darkest dying moments cold and frozen,
heat and rage, then guilt, then a loneliness that's born 
of crossroads,  crossroads poorly chosen.

3.  So it was that Julia Acorn and Nathan Bell
conceived me in the heat of the August thunder.
And not five months had passed until my life was cut short
by madness, hysteria, and blunder.

4.  Nathan Bell was a rich man, and a terrible man.
He thought no one and nothing could stand in his way.
He pulled at the heartstrings of my mother, fair mother,
Parted clouds, made the sun shine on her day.

5.  And my mother, (sweet mother) was so grateful, 
that to his relentless advances she finally gave in.
But her daughter Hannah, no, she hated Nathan Bell.
No matter what he would buy her, she'd never let him win.

chorus - nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
        nah nah nah nah nanaaa

6.  Julia Acorn,  in sadness, told her daughter, 
"Your father's likely gone, and gone for good.
And Nathan Bell, he pays the bills, he feeds us well.
Maybe I can change him,"  her hopeless heart believed she could.

7.  So they came to live with him in his mansion on the hill,
as man and wife, with servants and with slaves.
And they'd never have to work again, have fine clothes and finer jewels,
Julia's dying soul, it tried to tell her, this is the price you pay.

Chorus  

8.  A cruel, cruel man was Nathan Bell, cruel man,
who had killed a man on an insult poorly taken.
He loved Julia with a boastful, anxious heart,
a passion born of fever, lust, obsession.

9.  But he taught Julia how to shoot, how to shoot, 
'til she could knock a bottle off a bail of hay at a hundred paces.
He said, "A woman needs protection from those who would abuse her,
like runaway slaves, or Yankees, or those other white trash faces." 

Chorus

10.  For Hannah, it meant waiting every minute of the day.
Four years, and two months she counted and she burned.
With her Daddy's own spyglass, from her upstairs bedroom window
she would watch, and she would wait for his return.

11.  Came the day, glorious day, in the bright noonday sun,
up the road drove a brand new buggy.
From just a speck in the distance she soon viewed his tall frame
and she knew who it was, it was her father coming back again.

12.  His shiny black carriage, at a cantering pace,
was pulled by a Tennesee stallion.
He trotted through the front gates, pulled up t' the front door,
and with wide open arms, he held his Hannah.  

13.  Julia stood in the doorway in shock and disbelief
at the sight of her lost and lawful husband.
"I thought you were never coming back, I thought you dead."
He said, "I told you I'd return when I made a fortune,  here I am."

14.  And now Julia is torn between her heart and certain knowledge
of what the rich man will do when he finds them missing. 
"We must leave at once" she says, " for Nathan Bell will kill us all."
So they gather up their things and race away.

15. When from his fields, Nathan returned to find his female chattel gone
the house slave's story, so struck his mind, it lit a blinding rage 
He saddles up his fastest horse, and charges down the dusty road
Pistols, rifles, fully loaded, rebel yelling, sabre waving

16.   After riding half an hour, he chases down the Acorn buggy. 
Hannah sees the look in his eyes, it scares her to half to death.
For Joshua one last hope, maybe he can talk to Nathan Bell.
All he gets is the rich man's curse, and a bullet in his chest.

17.  And Hannah screams, as Nathan pulls the trigger four times,  
one for Joshua in the heart, three for Hannah in the crown.
Julia, cool as stone, pulls the gun that Nathan gave her, and
with a single shot between the eyes, the rich man dies and hits the ground.

Chorus

18.  Julia Acorn, in despair and bitter grief
points the gun right at her belly, then puts it in her mouth. 
"I could never bring another like Nathan Bell into this world."
Now possessed, she pulls the trigger, there was never any doubt.  

19.  You might think my mother, since she killed me in the womb,
that for her and the rich man, Hell is surely waiting.
But she did me right service, I was saved from being born
into a world of fear, insanity and hatred.

20.  So Lord, I forgive my mother, please save her soul.
She only did what she thought she had to do.
The pain I felt as her murdered unborn child
is something I'll never ever have to live through.

Copyright © 2009, 2014 by David Larstein, all rights reserved.

« Back