"The Yellow Rose of Texas"

Song Lyrics | Bibliography

In 1836, Emily D. West, a Connecticut-born free Black woman contracted to serve as a hotel housekeeper in the Mexican Providence of Texas in the town of Morgan's Point. The town was attacked by Mexican troops and according to the legend, doubtlessly, Emily was raped. On the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, Emily and other blacks were captured and forced to leave with Santa Anna. According to an Englishman, William Bollaert, who wrote in his journal, "'The battle of San Jacinto was probably lost to the Mexicans, owing to the influence of a mulatta girl (Emily) belonging to Col. Morgan who was closeted in the tent with Gen. Santana's troops during the Battle of San Jacinto and distracted the General while Texas troops advanced."  Subsequent reports denied that the Emily was in the General's tent. After the defeat, Emily applied for a passport,which was granted and she left the Republic of Texas in 1837. Her activities after that, like much of the rest of her life are unknown. She was immortalized in song by a Black man who is known only as J.K. 

Sources:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/WW/fwe41.html
http://alamo-de-parras.welkin.org/archives/yellowrose/yellow-rose-folo_2-1.html
http://www.texancultures.utsa.edu/publications/yellowrose/yellowrose.htm

"The Yellow Rose of Texas"

There's a yellow rose in Texas
That I am going to see

No other darky knows her
No one only me
She cried so when I left her
It like to broke my heart
And if I ever more find her
We nevermore will part.

Chorus:
She's the sweetest rose of color
This darky ever knew
Her eyes are bright as diamonds
They sparkle like the dew
You may talk about dearest May
And sing of Rosa Lee
But the yellow rose of Texas
Beats the belles of Tennessee.

Where the Rio Grande is flowing
And the starry skies are bright
She walks along the river
In the quiet summer night

She thinks if I remember
When we parted long ago
I promised to come back again
And not to leave her so.
Oh now I am agoing to find her
For my heart is full of woe
And we will sing the song together
We sung so long ago
We will play the banjo gaily
And will sing the song of yore
And the yellow rose of Texas
Shall be mine forevermore.
-J.K.

Source:  http://www.nortropic.com/lis341/future/yellow.html

Bibliography
W. Eugene Hollonand & Ruth Lapham Butler, eds. William Bollaert’s Texas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, in cooperation with The Newberry Library, Chicago, 1956),108.

Martha Anne Turner, The Yellow Rose of Texas: Her Saga and Her Song (Austin: Shoal Creek Publishers, 1976).

Anita Bunkley, Emily, the Yellow Rose: A Texas Legend (Houston: Rinard Publisher, 1989), a fictionalized account of her life.