Book

Slave songs of the Georgia Sea Islands

Creative Age Press • New York • Published In 1942 • Pages:

By: Parrish, Lydia, Churchill, Creighton, MacGimsey, Robert, Downes, Olin, Rosenbaum, Art.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Indelibly impressed with the sounds of the African-American songs she had heard as a child in Philadelphia during the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the author's interest was stimulated to learn more about this fascinating form of music. Many years later Mrs. Parrish found herself the owner of a home on St. Simon's Island on the coast of Georgia, a district that turned out to be a veritable sanctuary of Afro-American music. Her investigation of the subject soon branched out into the neighboring territories of the coasts and islands of Georgia and South Carolina, even extending as far as the Bahamas and Haiti. The collection of slave songs presented in this source represent twenty-five years of research by the author (p. v) working with Sea Island informants who had intimate knowledge of the songs. In this study, Parrish provides some general background information on the slave songs and their preservation, then divides them into five major categories for discussion: those that represent African survivals on the coast of Georgia; the type known as 'shout'; ring-play, dance, and fiddle songs; religious songs; and work songs. Each category contains background information on the particular type of song style represented, as well as the accompanying song text and musical score
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Music
Literary texts
History
Slavery
Dance
Acculturation and culture contact
Sociocultural trends
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Gullah Geechee
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
Book
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Folklorist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 1990-1991
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
ca. 1916-1941
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1795-1939
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
St. Simon's Island and environs, Georgia , United States
NotesAdditional notes
[compiled by] Lydia Parrish ; foreword by Art Rosenbaum ; introduction by Olin Downes ; music transcribed by Creighton Churchill and Robert MacGimsey
Parish lived on St. Simon's Island where she collected most of her material. However after the causeway was built to the mainland in 1924, she did venture out to the surrounding islands and counties, including Butler and Sapelo islands, the towns of Brunswick and Darien; and other places in Glynn, McIntosh, and Liberty Counties. The designation 'St. Simon's Island and environs' refers to this larger contiguous region.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-256) and background material
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
91022948
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Sea Islands/Gullahs