Musical Instruments

In 1833, English visitor John Finch remarked on slaves' love of creating music. "A black boy will make an excellent fiddle of a gourd and some string. In autumn they play tunes on the dried stalks of Indian corn, when it is still standing in the field. By striking it near the ground or at the top, they make it discourse most excellent music." Finch concluded that "an instrument of music seems necessary to their existence" (Epstein 1965, p. 381).

Solomon Northup, who eventually escaped slavery, seemed to agree with Finch's observation about the importance of musical instruments:

My master often received letters, sometimes from a distance often miles, requesting him to send me to play at a ball or festival of the whites. He received his compensation, and usually I also returned with many picayunes jingling in my pockets … Alas! Had it not been for my beloved violin, I scarcely can conceive how I could have endured the long years of bondage. (Northup 1853, pp.216-217)

Talented black musicians were in demand for whites' parties, and—as in Northup's case—were able to gain a measure of mobility, economic remuneration, prestige, and self-satisfaction. They were also in demand for social events in the slave quarters, a service they usually did not charge for. Former slave Gus Smith recounted that "in times of our holidays, we always had our own musicians. Sometimes we sent ten or twelve miles for a fiddler. He'd stay a week or so in one place and den he would go on to de next farm, maybe four or five miles away, and dey had a good time for a week" (Born in Slavery, Missouri Narratives, vol. 10, p. 323). Another slave, Fanny Randolph, recalled how in her childhood bands would play "one wid er fiddle an' one ter beat straws, an' one wid er banjo, an' one ter beat bones" (Born in Slavery, Georgia Narratives, vol. 4, pt. 3, p. 196).

The instruments themselves varied. Some masters provided instruments for talented slaves, in order to benefit both personally and (as Northup's master did) financially from the use of the pianos and brass horns they provided. Most slave musicians, however, made their own instruments, as demonstrated in the following testimonies:

Betty Curtlett: The only musical instrument we had was a banjo. Some made their banjos. Take a bucket or pan a long strip of wood. 5 horse hairs twisted made the base string. 2 horsehairs twisted made the second string. 1 horse hair twisted made the fourth and the fifth string was a fine one, it was not twisted at all but drawn tight. They were all bees waxed (Born in Slavery, Arkansas Narratives, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 81).

Hammett Dell: I made some music instruments. We had music. Folks danced more than they do now. Most darkies blowed quills and Jew's harps. I took cane cut four or six made whistles then tuned em together and knit them together in a row like a mouth harp you see. Another way get a big long cane cut out holes long down to the joint, hold your fingers over different holes and blow. I never had a better time since freedom (p. 141).

Isaac D. Williams: We generally made our own banjos and fiddles, and I had a fiddle that was manufactured out of a gourd, with horse hair strings and a bow made out of the same material. If you put plenty of rosin on the strings, it would compare very favorably with an ordinary violin and made excellent music. When we made a banjo we would first of all catch what we called a ground hog, known in the north as a woodchuck. After tanning his hide, it would be stretched over a piece of timber fashioned like a cheese box, and you couldn't tell the difference between that homely affair and a handsome store bought one (Epstein 1965, p. 384).

Jeff Davis demonstrated the relationship that slave performers had with their instruments: "I'm a musician—played the fife. Played it to a T. Had two kinds of drums. Had different kinds of brass horns, too. I 'member one time they was a fellow thought he could beat the drum till I took it" (Born in Slavery, Arkansas Narratives, vol. 2, pt 2, p. 116). Davis was especially proud that he had two drumsets—drums were usually not permitted at all, as whites feared they might be used to send signals in an uprising. Producing music with their own instruments enabled slaves such as Davis and Curtlett to feel a sense of humanity and pride which still came easily to mind in their old age, and which, as with Northup, sustained them during their bondage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cimbala, Paul A. "Fortunate Bondsmen: Black 'Musicianers' and Their Role as an Antebellum Southern Plantation Slave Elite." Southern Studies 18 (1979):291-303.

Epstein, Dena J. "Slave Music in the United States Before 1860." Music Library Association Notes 20 (1965): 195-212, 377-390.

Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. Auburn: Derby and Miller, 1853.

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936–1938. Online collection of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs Divisions of the Library of Congress. Available from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html.

                                         Troy D. Smith