Singing for Strength:

Enslaved Africans and Community Building in the Transatlantic Slave Trade

by J. Hunter Moore

Barracoon, Sierra Leone, 1840’s

From Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade…, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002

Jamaican Instruments from Voyage to the Islands Madera by Sir Hans Sloane (1688)

Funeral in Annabon , 1841

Georgia Prayer Meeting, 1872

Cudjo Lewis (d. 1935) with great-granddaughters

Enslaved Africans re-created community through singing, helping them to resist the dehumanizing effects of

slavery

Thesis

• Singing was a constant feature of community life for Africans

• Africans identified themselves through social networks

• Slavery destroyed existing networks, threatening identity

• Enslaved Africans re-created communities and preserved their identity through singing

Main Points

First-Hand African Narratives

• Sibell (?)

• Olaudah Equiano Igbo land, Nigeria

• Ottobah Cugoano Gold Coast, Ghana

• Mahomma Gardo Baquaqua Benin, Upper Volta

(all recorded in 18th century)

European Observers

• Early Portuguese account (1445)

• Richard Jobson (1620) Gambia River

• Willem Bosman (1721) Gold Coast

• Mungo Park (1795) Gambia/Niger Rivers

• Thomas Bowdich (1816) Gold Coast

• Hugh Clapperton (1829) Oyo-Yoruba land

Slave Ship Accounts

• Ottomah Cugoano’s account, published in 1787

• Capt. William Snelgrave, 1713

• Mr. Town, 1768-69

• Mr. Janverin, 1767-72

• William Butterfield (Henry Schroeder), 1786-87

• George Pinckard, 1796

• Capt. Hugh Crow, early 1800’s

• Capt. Theodore Canot, 1830’s and 40’s

Celebrations, funerals, rebellions

Jamaica

• Ligon-1673• Sloane-1688, feast days• Leslie-funeral, 1740• Nugent-1801, Christmas celebration• Funeral rebellion plot-1816

Spanish Colonies-18th & early 19th century

• Dia De Reyes-Havana and Santo Domingo• Florida-Laurel Grove-Christmas and crop festivals

Celebrations, funerals, rebellions

British North America and U.S

• Stono rebellion, 1739• North Carolina drownings, 1800• New Orleans funeral, 1819• New Orleans group celebration, 1831• Wildfire, 1860• Clotilda, 1860• Sea Islands, 1865