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INTRODUCTION |
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"When African and European
music first began to merge to create what eventually
became the blues, the slaves sang songs filled with words
telling of their extreme suffering and privation.... One
of the many responses to their oppressive environment
resulted in the field holler. The field holler gave rise
to the spiritual, and the blues, 'notable among all human
works of art for their profound despair... They gave
voice to the mood of alienation and anomie that prevailed
in the construction camps of the South,' for it was in
the Mississippi Delta that blacks were often forcibly
conscripted to work on the levee and land-clearing crews,
where they were often abused and then tossed aside or
worked to death." quoted from "A Brief History of the Blues" by Robert M. Baker at |
Drawing:
blacks work on the levee by J. O. Davidson for the magazine "Harper's Weekly" March 15, 1884 from The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax [New York: Pantheon, 1993] |
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Chronological knowledge and the tradition of African-American music/experience on internet: |
1. Timeline for African-American experiences--- | |
2. Chronology for African-American music--- | |
3. Online essay: Religious and Secular Themes in the Mississippi Delta Blues--- | |
4. Broad introduction on African-American culture--- |
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