The slaves brought musical traditions from Africa with them. Many of their activities, from work to worship, were steeped in song. African Americans accompanied their labor with work songs that often incorporated field hollers – call-and-response chants tinged with falsetto whoops called "arwhoolies." They also fashioned instruments similar to those they had known in Africa. For example, the modern banjo is a descendant of African banjos.
Because colonists considered indigenous forms of African worship involving drumming and dancing to be idolatrous, the slaves performed their music-infused religious rites in seclusion. The slaves' informal gatherings in praise houses and brush arbor meetings in the eighteenth century involved songs and chants like the ring shout, a shuffling circular dance to chanting and handclapping. Sometimes the participants would enter ecstatic trances.
In the mid-to late 1700s free African Americans began forming religious groups apart from white congregations, organized by people educated by Methodists, Baptists, or the Society of Friends (Quakers), especially in the North. In some cases these efforts culminated in the development of fully independent African American churches. The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was organized by Richard Allen, a former slave, in 1793. The church that the congregation occupies today was dedicated in 1794. In 1801 Allen published the first hymnal compiled for African American congregations.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.