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"Songs Is Powerful Things"

Third and Holland Street is just north, a few thousand feet, from the bluffs overlooking Presque Isle Bay. To the south, by about the same distance, is Perry Square, a park named in honor of Commodore Perry, a victorious naval Commander during the war of 1812.
Harry Burleigh was born and raised in this Erie, Pennsylvania neighborhood , born on December 6th, 1866. The American composer and musical arranger of spiritual folk hymns, best known for such spirituals as "Deep River", "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen", "Were You There?", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", and "Josuha Fit de Battle of Jericho", was influenced by his early life in bustling lake port neighborhood.

As a young person, Burleigh would help his grandfather, Hamilton Waters, a former slave, lighting the street lamps around the Perry Square neighborhood which included the imposing county courthouse, and dozens of elegant mansions owned by industrial tycoons. According to local history, Hamilton would often sing the hand me down spirituals of another era and society as he worked.
Years earlier, Hamilton, Harry Burleigh's grandfather, purchased his and his mother's "Certificate of Freedom" from James Gingham, a farmer in Somerset County, Maryland for about $50. Mother and son soon headed north. Hamilton was granted his freedom because of failing eyesight.
Later, in Erie, Hamilton became active in the anti-slavery movement and in the issues of prejudice after the Civil War in such areas as housing, education and employment. He was a key figure in Underground Railroad activities and in the founding of a start-up neighborhood for newly freed slaves and destitute whites called "Jerusalem", a short distance west of Third and Holland.
Harry Burleigh's mother was also an important influence and was instrumental in Harry's spiritual development. Elizabeth, was an educated woman who graduated from Avery College in Pittsburgh in 1855. At her commencement she delivered a speech in both French and English. Later, she taught scriptures at several Sunday schools in Erie. Burleigh's father died when he was only seven years old and not much is known about the man except "that he liked to sing".
In 1874, Elizabeth applied for a teaching position in the public school system which was denied because she was black. Instead she was offered and accepted employment as a janitor. Often Harry and his brother Reginald would go to work with their mother and the family would sing the old spiritual

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