Singing the Master: The Emergence of African-American Culture in the Plantation South

by Roger D. Abrahams

“Impressive…A scrupulously researched work enlarging our understanding of an integral aspect of slave culture.”–- The Washington Post Book World

What was it like to be a slave on a plantation of the antebellum South? How did the fiction of the happy slave and myth of the plantation “family” evolve? How did slaves create a performance style that unified them, while simultaneously entertaining and mocking the master?

The answers to these questions may be found in the groundbreaking study of the corn-shucking ceremonies of the prewar South, where white masters played host to local slaves and watched their “guests” perform exuberant displays of singing and dancing. Drawing on the detailed written and oral histories of masters, slaves, and Northern commentators, distinguished folklorist Roger Abrahams peels through layers of racism and nostalgia surrounding this celebration to uncover its true significance in the lives and imagination of both blacks and whites – and in the evolution of an enduring African-American culture.

Genres: History, American History

384 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 1992

Reviews

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times hard to read due to its prose, but at other times a powerful and illuminating book about the creation of African-American culture through music. The interplay on the plantation is portrayed as complicated. The slaves were expected to carry out European traditions and instead fused them with African musical styles and social organizations. The masters in turn enjoyed the practices so much they imitated them, while artists founded the minstrel show, considered the only original piece of American music until the 20th Century. The white imitation of black music carried on until the 1990s, when this book was written and when it was uncertain if rap would go the way of previous art forms. It did not.

Abrahams complicates the narrative by pointing out the ways slaves incorporated Anglo-European forms and particularly instruments while treating the minstrel show with more nuance than one gets today. Also, while certainly impressed by the slave's ability to carve out a separate culture that resisted integration (although how and why is not the scope of the book) Abrahams does not wish to make the effort truly heroic for fear it would cause people to forget its limitations. He mentions, even if he does not explain thoroughly, that African-American music is just as cliche ridden and can be just as dull as anyone else's music. However, he at heart believes the music is a powerful form of protest and social critique. I would point out that it is still out-numbered by songs about love and the "grand-standing" music he derides, which after this book's publication became central to rap music.

All in all a good book, if limited by its at times arcane prose. There is more understanding here than in the more bombastic scholarship of today. Perhaps the turn to the heroic was inevitable? Yet, in the 1930s the obsession among folklorists (nearly always on the left) was white cracker culture and its music. After the 1950s, they switched to African-American culture and music. If black people ever vote Republican (yes it could happen nothing is impossible) I wonder what the white, leftist folklorist will valorize next?