Well before the first American soldier was killed in combat in World War I, the fictitious mother of the anti-war song “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” warned American mothers what an intervention into the conflict might hold for them. The song expresses the grief of a mother who has lost a son in a war she believed was unnecessary and perhaps unjustified. She tells her listeners that regardless of the outcome of the war, the death of her son is something that will linger with her long into “her lonely years.” The song is primarily a plea to other mothers to recognize that wars can only bring them sorrow and to assert their influence to demand that their boys not be sent to war in the first place.
Context
Songs are often excellent portals into a particular historical moment because of the way they weave together the various ideas, movements, and forces that were active at that time. “I Did Not Raise My Boy” is an excellent example. The song’s anti-war message depends to a great extent on an understanding of two major social movements of the early 20th century United States: the international arbitration movement and the suffragist movement. International arbitration–explicitly mentioned in the song’s lyrics–was the idea that disputes between nations should be arbitrated by professional jurists in courts with supranational jurisdiction. Boosters of this idea hoped that just as civil laws brought stability and security to domestic society, international law and arbitration would do the same for the relations between states. Although their legalist approach to international relations was overtaken by a political approach (i.e. the League of Nations and ultimately the United Nations), institutions such as the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court are direct offspring of these ideas.
The song’s references to the suffragist movement are more subtle, but no less clear. In their struggle to expand the right to vote to all women (women could vote in some states in 1915), suffragists used many strategies. One of them was to argue for the moral superiority of women, largely because their presence in the domestic sphere insulated them from corrupting influences. This argument was somewhat contentious, but “I Didn’t Raise My Boy” clearly makes use of it. The mother of the song clearly defines herself by her relationship to her son, who the song describes as “all she cared to call her own.” Based on the authority that she derives from such a selfless calling as motherhood, she demands that society recognize that her son belongs to her and not be sent to war. The mother of “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” is undoubtedly a strong woman, who despite occupying the domestic sphere is not afraid to venture beyond to advocate for her causes. Other suffragettes and their supporters would have immediately recognized her boldness and her moral authority.