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Exploring The Southern Legacy





  1. The Emergence of Rural Blues in America


The Africans that survived the middle passages experienced culture shock. Most African tribes had strict customs, rituals, ceremonies, and taboos that dominated their lives. Being left alone, unclothed, and friendless was a shock more traumatic than the sting of the whip or physical punishment. The frightened, miserable creatures that the slave ships landed in southern waterfront cities tried to bring their music with them. However, the practice of separating enslaved Africans so that no single tribal group could be allowed on any plantation weakened the musical traditions. The enslaved Africans could not build drums for fear of communication.


After several generations, most of the enslaved African's way of life was bred out of his seed. Their whole life was read within the confines of slavery. The fundamental differences between the African and African American traditions were based on each group's social conditions.


Therefore, with no instruments, the unadulterated pain of everyday life as an enslaved person gave birth to the field holler, which was used to articulate personal and social concerns that arose in daily life.


-EXAMPLE- O'l Hannah: In Texas, there was a nickname for the sun called Old Hannah; when it was 90 degrees in the shade, the enslaved and formerly enslaved would plea in a field holler that the sun would quickly set.


The field holler had no form or structure. No one knows when field hollers began. However, their popularity lasted until the early twentieth century.



-Fruteland Jackson

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