There were also different types of folk music even before the American slave era, the songs based from different melodies told stories and were passed down generation by generation. Folk music was when manual labour was happening and the workers wanted something to cheer them up, keep them motivated. So they sang, this was folk music as well. Generally opinions differ of the creation of folk music. People said it reflects the character of the race that made it, some said it came from the reasons that I’ve already said.
It could be coincidental that all prospective slave traders flock towards Africa to fill their demand for laborers or that they believed they were superior enough to take those people and force them into a different life. This resulted in the unfortunate incident of many Africans becoming unwilling participants in the institution of slavery. One of the largest practices of slavery was that of Muslim societies in the Arab slave trade. More than 10 million Africans were taken and traded as a part of the Arab slave trade. This helps to assume that the target of enslaving people fell heavily in the people of the African race.
Narrative of an American Slave Douglass' Narrative begins with the few facts he knows about his birth and parentage. He knows that his father is a slave owner and his mother is a slave named Harriet Bailey. Here and throughout the autobiography, Douglass highlights the common practice of white slave owners raping slave women, both to satisfy their sexual hungers and to expand their slave populations. In the first chapter, Douglass also makes mention of the hypocrisy of Christian slave owners who used religious teachings to justify their abhorrent treatment of slaves; the religious practice of slave owners is a recurrent theme in the text. Throughout the next several chapters, Douglass describes the conditions in which he and other slaves live.
The earliest Africans were seen in the same light as indentured servants from Europe. According to Hine D., Hine W., & Harrold S. (2014), they (Africans) interacted culturally and physically with the white indentured servants and with American Indians. This cordiality, however, did not last. By the latter half of the 17th century, obvious differences existed in the treatment of black and white servants. Slave codes were soon approved – in Massachusetts in 1641 and Virginia in 1661 –and any minor liberties that might have existed for African American were taken away (Feature Indentured Servants In The U.S , n.p.).
It is still used today in gospel music. If there is not call an response then the songs are usually strophic (split into verses). One aspect that is often used in African music are Glissandos. A glissanndo is when you slide from one note to another without without any defined pitches in between. They are also sometimes known as portamento s. African music also uses slurs whistles and yodels.
Although this song, lyrically, seems to be about the slavery of the Jewish people prior to the Common Era, it could be used as a protest song of sorts, updated for the Civil Rights era. It makes sense that African-Americans might identify with this song, as many tend to be quite religious and involved in various types of Christianity. When hearing the song and letting it run through my head a few times, various images came to my mind including slaves in the United States working and singing together with their love of music keeping them going each day and the struggles that Blacks faced in the 1950s and 1960s, being oppressed and discriminated against. The lyrics that give the song its namesake, “let my people go” sounds like a call to action, a plea for peace, and the yearning of freedom. The warning issued in the song, while harsh and something from days long gone, does bring to mind a biblical sense of revenge.
Slave Song History It can be said that Slave songs was born in Africa and that slaves or Africans brought their customs or rituals to America. Singing songs was very important to the Africans because it acted as a form of communication. In the home country of Africa the songs that the people sang told a lot about the communities the people dwelt in, like the condition of the tribes or about nature. African songs were also used to express the religious beliefs of the Africans, whether it is God or gods or to ward of those spirits that they thought meant harm. The Africans also used songs to tell about what happened in the community.
Under the bleak condition of slavery, African American used music as a way to stay connected with their own African culture, while expressing the painful experiences that they had throughout history. They expressed their emotions and claims toward the racism they were receiving from white Americans into their music, and that has later on entirely spread among American culture. In Africa, drums were originally used as a tool of communication. During the early slave rebellion in America, they used drums in the same way they had been used in their own country: to communicate secretly in the presence of their owners.
It organised education, health care, orphanages, and found reasonable work for ex-slaves. It also helped 21% of people read and write, although if you could read you weren’t allowed to vote and some of the schools were burnt down and pupils were beaten up.- this shows that even though the law of it was a really good idea, racism was still an issue as the whites and blacks were mixed together. Sharecropping was where slaves were made to work for their original slave masters on the plantations and instead of being constantly paid with money, the slaves would get given a third of the crops, but only if enough crops were harvested so slaves would have to rely on good harvesting if they wanted to get paid. However, if there was not enough rain, the crops wouldn’t grow properly so the slaves would have no food for however long, meaning that some wouldn’t be able to survive. Not only would they not survive, but it wasn’t very helpful to their lives later on because they fell into debt so there wasn’t much point of it.
In the book, enslaved Africans are crudely treated in white owners’ plantations; furthermore, the conditions of salves are inferior in real history. Beyond doubt, the Book of Negroes has strong connections with actual history. Aminata is sent onto the deck of a huge vessel with a rotting smell after months of marching. This part of plot is related to history because salves were truly transported by slave ships from Africa to the Americas; “the earliest ships used to transport human beings from Africa to enslavement in North America were converted merchantmen; later, special vessels were built, equipped with air scuttles, ports, and open gratings” (Mannix, “Slave Ships”). While Aminata is going down into the ship, she finds the living conditions of black people in the dark, stinking place are excessively disgusting; she describes “[their] corridor [is] nothing but a narrow footpath separating the men to [their] left and right.