Curate, connect, and discover
There’s been a lot of posts making the rounds discussing the ties between industrial union songs, folk songs, and sea shanties (since there’s been a rise in sea shanty popularity because of tik tok.) But I have yet to see one making the direct connection from African American work songs. Which is a little disheartening, as a black person who has always liked and enjoyed the genre.
Work songs have existed lonnnnnggg before shanties. But the distinct lyrical and instrumental form of what we immediately think of as “sea shanty” had antecedents in the working chants of international maritime traditions. Mainly those sung while loading vessels with cotton in ports of the Southern United States, during the 18th and 19th century. And you know what also rose in the 18th and 19th century?
Answer: Chattel Slavery.
“In the first few decades of the 19th century, White European-American culture, especially the Anglophone—the sailors’ “Cheer'ly Man” and some capstan songs notwithstanding—was not known for its work songs. By contrast, African workers, both in Africa and in the New World, were widely noted to sing while working. The fact that European observers found African work-singers so remarkable suggests that work songs were indeed rather foreign to their culture.” Source
Slave music has many distinct qualities. In early captivity, drums were used to provide rhythm, but they were banned in later years because of the fear that Africans would use them to communicate in a rebellion (they were, and also used as escape codes.) Slaves then resorted to generating percussion, using other instruments or their own bodies. Another quality is the call-and-response format, where a leader sing’s a verse or verses and the others respond with a chorus. There’s also field hollers, shouts, moans, etc.
As slaves were forced into christianizing, their work songs evolved into Spirituals. Other measures to prevent slave rebellion included making sure that slaves from the same tribe were intentionally scattered, so that they could not share the same language. The forbiddance of practicing indigenous religions and speaking anything other than English meant that eventually, the large groups of slaves were once again able to communicate with each other.
Spirituals were largely informed by the colonial hymns and folk songs of the time. They had the multitudinous purpose of 1.) keeping everyone working 2.) imparting Christian values 3.) describing the hardships of slavery, and 4.) hiding codes to escape. Famous Spirituals include “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Wade in the Water” and they were a significant part of navigating the Underground Railroad.
The switch to steam powered ships by the end of the 19th century gradually made sea shanties obsolete as work songs, so they are largely preserved as folk music. But because African Americans were still forced into the labour class, their work songs continued to evolve. Here are some chain gang songs for example.
Work songs > Spirituals > Gospel Music > Blues > Every Modern Black American Musical Genre That we Know Today
Not only that, but the root genre of work songs still exist across the globe, distinct to the agricultural and industrial work force of each culture. These videos were all posted within the last 5-10 years, from Tasmania, South Africa, The Philippines, and Tanzania. You can hear the connection between them being the tremendous labour they do.