![]() ![]() As more of the population began to adopt Christianity, slaves were allowed to sing these songs while they worked, and stories of their lived reality began to seep into the narratives. Singing hymns during Sunday worship was one of the few moments slaves were able to express themselves freely. And although this may seem like a minor detail, the rhythms and songs they learned and taught each other would go on to lay the foundations for so much of modern gospel music, let alone spread across New Orleans and the rest of the South to influence delta blues, jazz, and swing. In places like Congo Square in New Orleans, slaves made use of this allowance to play the drums. This meant that Africans were allowed to play music, sing songs, and commune. On most plantations in the American South, Sundays were considered a day of rest and slaves were allowed time to study scripture, learn about the Lord, and practice worship. One of the most interesting paradoxes of slavery was that despite the blatant cruelty of this dehumanizing practice, there was still an insistence that slaves worshiped “God” and become Christian. These elements from African culture were able to subversively survive through music, among other ways.Įarly slave songs known as spirituals were adaptations of the hymns that new slaves were taught during Sunday worship. Families and people from the same region were also separated, on purpose, so that ethnic and tribal communication would be even further limited amongst the slave population.īecause slaves were often prohibited from practicing traditional religions and customs from back home, new languages and dialects were created in the New World to hide elements of culture and communicative devices from their captors. So when the first African slaves arrived on American soil, many of them could not communicate with each other. Most of the slave population that was taken across the Atlantic Ocean between the 17th and 19th centuries came from West Africa, and that region alone is just as diverse as all of Europe. Africa is a continent rich with many different countries, cultures, traditions, and languages. One of the main casualties of slavery was language. Let’s unpack how the legacy of the slave trade has made it from the early music of African slaves to genres that have become “as American as apple pie.” Slave Songs/Spirituals Despite that the after-effects of this era still haunt much of North America and the world, we are all beneficiaries of these cultural and artistic gifts. But the beauty of this museum is that in addition to all of the traumatic images on display, there was also a section that focused on the many cultural gifts that have been given to modern society as a result of the antiquities of the slave trade. There I saw images that disturbed me to my core. In 2014, I was fortunate enough to visit the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England. American music as an idea has been largely shaped by the byproducts of this resistance: blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, gospel, hip-hop, and so much more. The resilience and resistance African slaves demonstrated in the face of oppression was the catalyst for an unprecedented amount of innovation. However, as a product of the African diaspora myself, I can definitively say that I am grateful for the legacy I inherited - a legacy that contains brilliant scholars, inventors, and artists who, within the 20th century, managed to change the course of music, literature, and culture in profound ways. ![]() When remembering the transatlantic slave trade, it’s easy to dwell on the horrors of the experience of slavery. ![]() Today is the United Nations’ International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We wanted to take this commemorative opportunity to shed some light on this extremely painful part of global and North American history, to both celebrate the purpose of the UN’s dedicated day of remembrance, and to have a chance to talk about the ways in which slavery contributed positively to the artistic development of American culture. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, VA. Attributed to John Rose, Beaufort County, SC. (Above) “The Old Plantation (Slaves Dancing on a South Carolina Plantation)”. ![]()
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