Excerpt from Creole Slave Songs Yellow girl goes to the ball; Nigger lights her to the hall. Fiddler man! N ow, what is that to you? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This early work by Miles Mark Fisher is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. It details the importance and meaning of slave songs in America. This fascinating work is thoroughly recommended for inclusion on the bookshelf of all with an interest in slave music and the political history of the United States. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

A Guidebook for Young People Studying US Slave Songs primarily aims to teach children how the enslaved people of Africa communicated using music styles from their homeland, as well as how to decode their "Slave songs". This guidebook book also intends to help educate younger generations about the difficulties African slaves had faced in pursuit of freedom.

136 songs of African-American slaves, collected and compiled a few years after the Emancipation Proclamation, are presented here complete with their musical notation in this superb edition. In the introduction, the chief compiler of this music, William Francis Allen, expresses his admiration for the musical talents of black Americans. He mentions that even prior to the end of slavery, public appreciation existed. Yet Allen realized that much of this music, emblematic of the hardships and life of black slaves, was in danger of being forgotten in time. He and his assistants found and interviewed former slaves who would sing their tunes. In this way, a total of 136 songs, their notes, verse and chorus lyrics, were successfully put to paper. The author observes how much of the music is religious, with allusions to the Bible, Jesus and Lord frequent. Yet narratives of slave life, and the emotions of the singers, also feature strongly. Many of the songs were sung repeatedly as the slaves worked the fields, their choruses and melodies being intended to enliven a day of hard labor in the heat of the sun. The music in this collection is divided by region; differences in vocalizing and phrases can be observed, reflecting the various localities in which slaves were raised and labored in.