African American work songs originally developed in the era of captivity, between the

seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Because they were part of an almost entirely oral
culture they had no fixed form and only began to be recorded as the era of slavery came
to an end after 1865. The first collection of African American 'slave songs' was
published in 1867 by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, Lucy McKim
Garrison.[5] Many had their origins in African song traditions, and may have been sung
to remind the Africans of home, while others were instituted by the captors to raise
morale and keep Africans working in rhythm.[6] They have also been seen as a means of
withstanding hardship and expressing anger and frustration through creativity or covert
verbal opposition.[7]

A common feature of African American songs was the call-and-response format, where
a leader would sing a verse or verses and the others would respond with a chorus. This
came from African traditions of agricultural work song and found its way into the
spirituals that developed once Africans in bondage began to convert to Christianity and
from there to both gospel music and the blues. Also evident were field hollers, shouts,
and moans, which may have been originally designed for different bands or individuals
to locate each other and narrative songs that used folk tales and folk motifs, often
making use of homemade instruments.[8] In early African captivity drums were used to
provide rhythm, but they were banned in later years because of the fear that Africans
would use them to communicate in a rebellion; nevertheless, Africans managed to
generate percussion and percussive sounds, using other instruments or their own bodies.
[9]
Perhaps surprisingly, there are very few examples of work songs linked to cotton
picking.[10]

Corn, however, was a very common subject of work songs on a typical plantation.
Because the crop was the main component of most Africans diet, they would often sing
about it regardless of whether it was being harvested. Often, communities in the south
would hold “corn-shucking jubilees,” during which an entire community of planters
would gather on one plantation. The planters would bring their harvests, as well as their
slaves, and work such as shucking corn, rolling logs, or threshing rice would be done,
accompanied by the singing of Africans doing work. The following is an example of a
song Africans would sing as they approached one of these festivals. It is from ex
bonded African William Wells Brown’s memoir “ My Southern Home.”

All them pretty gals will be there,

Shuck that corn before you eat;
They will fix it for us rare,
Shuck that corn before you eat.
I know that supper will be big,
Shuck that corn before you eat;
I think I smell a fine roast pig,
Shuck that corn before you eat.[citation needed]

These long, mournful, antiphonal songs accompanied the work on cotton plantations,
under the driver's lash.
—Tony Palmer, All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music.[11]

Work songs were used by African American railroad work crews in the southern United
States before modern machinery became available in the 1960's. Anne Kimzey of the
Alabama Center For Traditional Culture writes: "All-black gandy dancer crews used
songs and chants as tools to help accomplish specific tasks and to send coded messages
to each other so as not to be understood by the foreman and others. The lead singer, or
caller, would chant to his crew, for example, to realign a rail to a certain position. His
purpose was to uplift his crew, both physically and emotionally, while seeing to the
coordination of the work at hand. It took a skilled, sensitive caller to raise the right
chant to fit the task at hand and the mood of the men. Using tonal boundaries and
melodic style typical of the blues, each caller had his own signature. The effectiveness
of a caller to move his men has been likened to how a preacher can move a
congregation."[12]

Another common type of African American work song was the “boat song.” Sung by
slaves who had the job of rowing, this type of work song is characterized by “plaintive,
melancholy singing.” These songs were not somber because the work was more
troublesome than the work of harvesting crops. Rather, they were low-spirited so that
they could maintain the slow, steady tempo needed for rowing. In this way, work songs
followed the African tradition, emphasizing the importance of activities being
accompanied by the appropriate song.[13]

19th century

The influence of African Americans on mainstream American music began in the 19th
century, with the advent of blackface minstrelsy. The banjo, of African origin, became a
popular instrument, and its African-derived rhythms were incorporated into popular
songs by Stephen Foster and other songwriters. In the 1830s, the Second Great
Awakening led to a rise in Christian revivals and pietism, especially among African
Americans. Drawing on traditional work songs, enslaved African Americans originated
and began performing a wide variety of Spirituals and other Christian music. Many of
these songs were coded messages of subversion against slaveholders, or that signaled
escape.

During the period after the Civil War, the spread of African-American music continued.
The Fisk University Jubilee Singers toured first in 1871. Artists including Morris Hill
and Jack Delaney helped revolutionize post-war African-American music in the central-
east of the United States. In the following years, the Hampton Students and professional
"jubilee" troops formed and toured. The first black musical-comedy troupe, Hyers
Sisters Comic Opera Co., was organized in 1876.[2]

By the end of the 19th century, African-American music was an integral part of
mainstream American culture.
Songsters in American culture

The songster tradition both pre-dated and co-existed with blues music. It began soon
after the end of slavery and the Reconstruction era in the United States, when African
American musicians became able to travel and play music for a living.[1] Black and
white musicians shared the same repertoire and thought of themselves as "songsters"
rather than "blues" musicians.[2]

Songsters generally performed a wide variety of folk songs, ballads, dance tunes, reels
and minstrel songs. Initially, they were often accompanied by non-singing
"musicianers", who often played banjo and fiddle. Later, as the guitar became more
widely popular, the songsters often accompanied themselves[3].

Songsters often accompanied medicine shows, which moved from place to place selling
salves and elixirs. As entertainers, songsters had the task of enticing a public, to whom
the concoctions were then offered. One published in 1886 by Professor Lorman, “The
Great Disease Detective” of Philadelphia. “The Lorman’s Indian Oil Star Specialty
SONGSTER” announced on the booklet’s title page that it contained “an entirely new
and original collection of Songs now being sung nightly by the members of the above
named excellent company, together with all the popular Songs of the day.” Along with
ads for Lorman’s full range of medicines, the songster included a cast list introducing an
“ever welcome Vocalist and Organist,” a “celebrated Comedian and End Man,” the
“Funniest End-Man in the business in his Funny Sayings, Banjo Solos, and popular
Songs of the Day,” and the medicine-wagon driver, “admired for his dexterity in
handling the Ribbons on the Golden Chariot.” Song lyrics in the booklet include such
tunes as “You Can’t Do It, You Know” (music by George Schleiffarth, lyrics by Nat C.
Goodwin), “The Letter That Never Came,” (sung by Billy Cronin in the play One of the
Bravest [4]. . As these shows declined, and listening to recorded music and dancing in
juke joints and honky tonks became more popular, so the older songster style became
less fashionable.

Songsters had a notable influence on blues music, which developed from around the
turn of the 20th century. However, there was also a change in song styles. Songsters
often sang composed songs or traditional ballads, frequently about legendary heroes or
characters such as "Frankie and Johnny" and "Stagger Lee". Blues singers, in contrast,
tended to invent their own lyrics (or recycle those of others) and develop their own
tunes and guitar (or sometimes piano) playing styles, singing of their own lives and
shared emotional experiences.

Many of the earliest recordings of what is now referred to as the blues were made by
songsters who commanded a much wider repertoire, often extending to popular Tin Pan
Alley songs of the day as well as the "authentic" country blues. There is a growing view
among scholars[5] that the distinction made by experts such as Alan Lomax between
"deep" blues singers and "songsters" is an artificial one, and that in fact most of the
leading archetypal blues artists, including Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters,
performed a wide variety of music in public, but recorded only that proportion of their
material which was seen by their producers as original or innovative.

[edit] Examples of songsters