Got A Home At Las’

“Got A Home At Las’” is a spiritual arrangement for voice and piano by Eva Jessye. The song is the fifteenth arrangement included in Jessye’s book My Spirituals (1927). In the song’s preface, Jessye describes the very personal story of her grandmother’s death. Penny Jessye, Eva Jessye’s grandmother, was South African and spent almost thirty years as a slave in Louisiana, and after being freed she lived in Texas and Oswego, Kansas. She was known for her “majestic carriage, large physique, and great physical endurance.” Penny was close to death when suddenly her eyes opened and her gaze landed upon Eva, and she smiled because of Eva's resemblance to her son (Eva’s father). Jessye writes, “I knelt by the bedside and she spoke weakly. She stroked my bowed head and in a faint whisper began singing a weird air the words of which I could scarcely understand. The weight of her hand grew heavy and the voice quavered into silence. Some kindly soul lowered the pillows and her spirit ebbed its way to the Heaven her eyes of faith had long beheld.” Though many of Penny’s songs were sung in a mixture of English and African, Jessye later learned that Penny’s hymn of farewell—”Got A Home At Las’”—was American in origin.

Date: 1927Composer: Eva JessyeText: SpiritualSong Collection: My Spirituals

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