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Sounding Childhood Main Menu Part 1: Children's Hymns Part 2: Songs for School and Play Part 4: Christmas Carols Part 5: Folk Songs Part 6: Patriotic Songs Part 7: Early 20th-Century Hymns About the Author Works Cited

Part 3: Animal Welfare (Bands of Mercy) Songs

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Band of Mercy Animal Welfare Organizations

An Historical Overview:

The Animal-Welfare Movement of the 19th century was powerful and pervasive. Animals had been used for food and work for centuries but it seems that only when part of the population moved to the cities and away from agrarian lifestyles reliant upon animals were they more sensitive TO the often abusive uses of those animals. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was established in England in 1824; its concerns led to the first important legislation on behalf of animals: Martin's Act of 1835 which made cattle abuse, bull-baiting, and dog carts illegal. In 1866 the American version--the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)--was established. Realizing that children needed to be brought into the movement, Catherine Smithies established the first Band of Mercy in 1875 in Earlham Grove, England. Bands met weekly or monthly to learn humane treatment of animals, sing songs in their defense, and learn facts and political actions. Taking the pledge was paramount to these commitments: "We agree to do all in our power to protect animals from cruel usage, and to promote as far as we can their humane treatment." The Band of Mercy Advocate was a journal established in 1879 by Mrs. Smithies' son Thomas Smithies to spread awareness to a young audience: complete with beautiful engravings of animals, stories of humane treatment of animals, poems by children, and a song in every issue, it must have been a treat to read! Though both Smithies died, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) picked up the journal and kept it going through 1932.

Bands in America:

In 1882, George T. Angell and Rev. Thomas Timmins brought the Bands of Mercy to America. America quickly established Bands for children within the work of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and their numbers soon England's: if England had 800 Bands by the end of the century, America had 27,000 across the country (Clapp-Itnyre, British Hymns 213).

I work and live in Richmond, Indiana, which has been the site of at least three Bands of Mercy. The first was established during the original movement by Earlham College Quakers, in 1888, as seen by this newspaper call, above. Wayne County, Indiana, had even more.

I have formed three Bands of Mercy choirs in Richmond, Indiana; read more about each here:

Each choir is pictured below.

Research:

There is very little research of Bands of Mercy organizations. I am attempting to lead the way with a series of articles. See here: Bands of Mercy sources and scholarship. Meanwhile, Chris Hines, documentarian and collector of Bands of Mercy materials, and I are working on a book.

But the almost 100 children who have sung in a Band of Mercy in Richmond, IN, are helping too! Most songs we recorded are being shared publicly for the very first time. See below for an ALPHABETICAL list of Bands of Mercy songs, to date.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
All song scores featured on this site are from Songs of Happy Life: for Schools, Homes, and Bands of Mercy by Sarah J Eddy (1898), from the open-access website Internet Archive; or from Bands of Mercy/Advocate from the library of Chris Hines and used with permission.

All children’s voices and images are used with parental permission.

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