no more drums
- 1740 -
When first brought to North America during the 1600s and 1700s, slaves from the west coast of Africa used drums to communicate with each other in much the same way as they did at home, sending coded rhythmic messages Europeans could not understand over long distances. In this way slaves held in different encampments could stay in contact, and rebellions could be planned. But after some time the masters realized that the drums could talk.
“It is absolutely necessary to the safety of this Province, that all due care be taken to restrain
Negroes from using or keeping of drums, which may call together or give sign or notice
to one another of their wicked designs and purposes.” — Slave Code of South Carolina, Article 36 (1740).
Starting on the plantations of the Carolinas and Georgia, this ban soon spread across the United States. Without drums, slaves used whatever was around to make beats: spoons, washboards, furniture, and their own bodies with hand-clapping, drumming on various surfaces of the body (Patting Juba), and foot-stomping and shuffling (Ring Shout). These earlier practices are also the origin of modern art forms like tap dancing.
The most widely used substitute for drums, partly because of its ready availability, was the human voice. Field hollers, call and response, work songs, prison songs, and all kinds of vocality were developed, with the voice often replicating drum patterns and creating counterpoints, using standard singing, chanting, as well as extended techniques such as guttural effects, interpolated vocality and melisma. Sounds of the work itself, such as chopping wood or marching, as well as foot stomping or hand clapping during off hours, provided a basic time signature over which the polyrhythmic vocal sounds could improvise (the roots of scat singing). Sometimes imitating the beats of many drums in one line, these vocal elements filled the incremental spaces between each clap of the hand or fall of the hammer, and played an important role in the preservation of African rhythmic heritage.
SOURCE: https://thisisafrica.me/lifestyle/drums-allowed-afro-rhythmic-mutations-america/
“It is absolutely necessary to the safety of this Province, that all due care be taken to restrain
Negroes from using or keeping of drums, which may call together or give sign or notice
to one another of their wicked designs and purposes.” — Slave Code of South Carolina, Article 36 (1740).
Starting on the plantations of the Carolinas and Georgia, this ban soon spread across the United States. Without drums, slaves used whatever was around to make beats: spoons, washboards, furniture, and their own bodies with hand-clapping, drumming on various surfaces of the body (Patting Juba), and foot-stomping and shuffling (Ring Shout). These earlier practices are also the origin of modern art forms like tap dancing.
The most widely used substitute for drums, partly because of its ready availability, was the human voice. Field hollers, call and response, work songs, prison songs, and all kinds of vocality were developed, with the voice often replicating drum patterns and creating counterpoints, using standard singing, chanting, as well as extended techniques such as guttural effects, interpolated vocality and melisma. Sounds of the work itself, such as chopping wood or marching, as well as foot stomping or hand clapping during off hours, provided a basic time signature over which the polyrhythmic vocal sounds could improvise (the roots of scat singing). Sometimes imitating the beats of many drums in one line, these vocal elements filled the incremental spaces between each clap of the hand or fall of the hammer, and played an important role in the preservation of African rhythmic heritage.
SOURCE: https://thisisafrica.me/lifestyle/drums-allowed-afro-rhythmic-mutations-america/