From the plaintive tunes of woe sung by exiled kings and queens of Africa to the spirited worksongs and "shouts" of freedmen, enslaved people created expansive forms of music from the United States to the West Indies and South America. Dena J. Epstein's classic work traces the course of early black folk music in all its guises. Anchored by groundbreaking scholarship, it redefined the study of black music in the slavery era by presenting the little-known development of black folk music in the United States. Her findings include the use of drums, the banjo, and other instruments originating in Africa; a wealth of eyewitness accounts and illustrations; in-depth look at a wide range of topics; and a collection of musical examples. This edition offers an author's preface that looks back on the twenty-five years of changes in scholarship that followed the book's original publication

Dena J. Epstein (1916-2013) was a retired assistant music librarian at the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, and a past president of the Music Library Association.

Preface to the 2003 Paperback   xiii
Preface to the 1977 Edition   xvii
Prologue: The African Heritage and the Middle Passage   3
Part One: Development of Black Folk Music to 1800   19
1. Early Reports of African Music in British and French America   21
La Calinda and the Banza   30
Other African Dancing   38
2. More Black Instruments and Early White Reaction   47
Drums and Other African Instruments   47
The Balafo   55
Legal Restrictions on Instruments   58
3. The Role of Music in Daily Life   63
Funerals   63
Pinkster and Other African Celebrations in the North   66
Worksongs and Other Kinds of African Singing   68
4. The Acculturation of African Music in the New World   77
The Arrival of Africans and Their Music   78
Acculaturation in New Orleans   90
5. Conversion to Christianity   100
6. Acculturated Black Musicians in the Thirteen Colonies   112
The African Jig, a Black-to-White Exchange   120
Part Two: Secular and Sacred Black Folk Music, 1800-1867   125
7. African Survivals   127
Persisting Musical and Cultural Patterns   128
Black Music in New Orleans, 1820-67   132
8. Acculturated Dancing and Associated Instruments   139
Patting Juba   141
Drums, Quills, Banjo, Bones, Triangle, Tambourine   144
Fiddlers   147
Instrumental Combinations   155
9. Worksongs   161
Field Work and Domestic Chores   161
Industrial and Steamboat Workers   164
Boat Songs   166
Corn, Cane, and Other Harvest Songs   172
Singing on the March   176
Street Cries and Field Hollers   181
10. Distinctive Characteristics of Secular Black Folk Music   184
Whistling   184
Improvisation   184
Satire   187
Style of Singing   188
Other Secular Music   189
11. The Religious Background of Sacred Black Folk Music, 1801-67   191
Opposition to Religious Instruction of Slaves   192
Camp Meetings   197
Missions to the Slaves   199
Black Religious Groups   202
Opposition to Secular Music and Dancing   207
12. Distinctive Black Religious Music   217
Spirituals   217
Attempts to Suppress Black Religious Singing   229
The Shout   232
Funerals   234
Part Three: The Emergence of Black Folk Music during the Civil War   239
13. Early Wartime Reports and the First Publication of a Spiritual with Its Music   241
14. The Port Royal Experiment   252
Historical Background   252
Earliest Published Reports   256
Wartime Publication of Song Texts and Music   260
15. Reports of Black Folk Music, 1863-67   274
Criticism of "This Barbaric Music"   274
Recognition of a Distinctive Folk Music   275
The Shout   278
Worksongs   287
Performance Style   290
Introduction of "New" Songs by the Teachers   296
16. Slave Songs of the United States: Its Editors   303
William Francis Allen   304
Charles Pickard Ware   310
Lucy McKim Garrison   314
17. Slave Songs of the United States: Its Publication   321
The Contributors   321
Problems of Notation   326
Assembling the Collection   329
Publication and Reception   331

Conclusion   343
Appendices 349
I. Musical Excerpts from the Manuscript Diaries of William Francis Allen   349
II. Table of Sources for the Banjo, Chronologically Arranged   359
III. Earliest Published Versions of "Go Down, Moses"   363
Bibliography   374
Index   416