Afro-American Folksongs: A Study in Racial and National Music

More than a century has elapsed since the birth of the Afro-American folksong - the only considerable body of song to have emerged in the history of the US culture. Created by the American Negro, not as the conscious effort of individual composers, but from the spontaneous utterances of a whole people, this rich music is the fruit of the unique musical capacity of the Negro race. The songs contain idioms which were transplanted from Africa, but they are the product of the joys, sorrows, and experiences to which the Negroes were subjected in America. the specific beauties of melody and rhythm in the songs of the plantations have appealed to those who create or respond to the vital, the original in music.