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Slave Song "Hammer Ring"

The Music of Slave Societies

Drawing on their strong west Slave African traditions, music became one of the integral components of slave Song "Rosie" culture. Kenneth Stampp writes:

"rarely did a contemporary write about slaves without mentioning their music, for this was their most splendid vehicle of self-expression. Slave music was a unique blend of 'Africanisms,' of Protestant hymns and revival songs, and of the feelings and emotions that were a part of life in servitude." Like their African forefathers, slaves distinguished among song types according to the function of each song, and made sure certain activities were accompanied only by certain kinds of songs, each with their own distinct tempo. Eileen Southern, in The Music of Black Americans, writes:

"The slave recorded the circumstances of his daily life in song just as assuredly as if he had kept a diary or written his biography....the slaves often sang together as they returned from the fields to their quarters at the end of the day, particularly on plantations where the gang system was in use and all of the workers would have stopped work at the same time. The songs were carried through the gathering dusk to the ears of the white residents in the big house, conveying a message of hopelessness and despair, even though the words of such songs were unintelligible at such a great distance. Again at night, such songs could be heard coming up from the slave quarters, sung by tired workers as they sat on their cabin doorsteps or by their cabin fires before going to bed."

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