Frederick Douglss' Narrative of the Life... is a crucial text to understand not only his life, but slavery, and the painful conditions in which a whole race lived for centuries. His book is not only a narrative, as the title puts it, but also an argument against slavery, written while most African Americans were unable to enjoy the equality and freedom preached by the American Declaration of Independence.
Most slaves were denied an education (together with an identity, clothing, food, fair treatment, and other basic human rights). Yet, they developed a body of oral literature, in which music and songs were a central part. At the end of chapter 2 of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he makes a reference to slaves' singing and its meaning.
The following activities are to be written down (or printed) and handed in on Wednesday, April 4th
Activity 2
Below you can read the lyrics of a worksong, originated in the Southern plantations, following the traditional "call-and-response" pattern typical of African culture, which the captured slaves brought with them ton America. One of them wpuld sing a line, and the rest would answer, collectively.
Write a short paragraph in which you give your own interpretation of this song, considering Frederick Douglass' explanation of what music and songs meant to slaves (this is one of those songs, actually).
I Wonder What’s the Matter
from Negro Work Songs and Calls
Leader: I wonder what the matter
Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd!
All: Well, I wonder what’s the matter with my long time here
Leader: Boys, I woke up early this mornin’.
Chorus: Hey, Lawd!
All: Boys, I woke up early this mornin’.
‘Bout the break of day
(The break of day. Hear it, hear it.
Leader: Well, the big bell sho was tonin’.
Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd!
All: Well, the big bell sho was tonin’.
Sho was. Good Lawd
Just a while fo’ day.
Judge right. Oh, yah! Everybody talk.
Leader: Well, the bully turn over in the bed a-grumblin’.
Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd.
All: Bully turn over in the bed a-grumblin’.
‘Bout that night so short.
Oh, Lawd.
Don’ hurt nobody.
Night so short.
Leader: Well, it look like it been one hour.
Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd.
All: Well, it look like it been one hour.
Oh, Lawd.
Pardner, since I lay down.
Oh, Lawd, since I lay down….
(Source: http://www.library.pitt.edu/voicesacrosstime/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/0405PekarWhittakerWorkSongs.html
Activity 3
In the 20th century, an African American writer called Langston Hughes got his inspiration from the roots of these worksongs and spirituals, and recreated them in beautiful poems. Read the pone below, and in a short paragraph explain how his individual poem, written in the 20th century, recreates the songs of the period of slavery, in content, theme, style, language, etc.
Bound No’th Blues
Goin’ down the road, Lawd,
Goin’ down the road.
Down the road, Lawd,
Way,way down the road.
Got to find somebody
To help me carry this load.
Road’s in front o’ me,
Nothin’ to do but walk.
Road’s in front of me,
Walk…an’ walk…an’ walk.
I’d like to meet a good friend
To come along an’ talk.
Hates to be lonely,
Lawd, I hates to be sad.
Says I hates to be lonely,
Hates to be lonely an’ sad,
But ever friend you finds seems
Like they try to do you bad.
Road, road, road, O!
Road, road…road…road, road!
Road, road, road, O!
On the no’thern road.
These Mississippi towns ain’t
Fit fer a hoppin’ toad.
(Langston Hughes)
Activity # 2:
ResponderEliminarAccording to my point of view, this short worksong is a vivid description of black slaves’ conditions in the plantations and a condemnation of slavery. The first two lines announce the song will focus on Negroes’ working songs and calls, most precisely of Negroes´ hardships and sorrows at the workplace. The lyrics make reference to their having to spend long hours at work while resting very little. This is clearly illustrated in the following lines:
“Leader: I wonder what the matter
Chorus: Oh – o, Lawd!
All: Well, I wonder what’s the matter with my long time here
Leader: Boys, I woke up early this mornin’.
Chorus: Hey, Lawd!
All: Boys, I woke up early this mornin’.
‘Bout the break of day”
All: Well, it look like it been one hour.
(...)
“All: Oh, Lawd.
Pardner, since I lay down.
Oh, Lawd, since I lay down….”
These lines reflect their daily routine, having to get up at dawn after a very little rest was the matter. As slaves they could not rest, so they expressed and exposed their feelings in this song. Their moans for having to work despite their tiredness, is clearly evident throughout the song. Also, the lyrics make reference to “the bully” who “turn over in their bed a-grumblin’”. We can infer the bullies are the oppressors- the white people so the song may well be an anti-slavery song. According to this, the bullies can complain, can moan and rest in their beds, while the slaves are deprived of their sleep and are forced to work early in the plantations without complaining. All in all, it is clear how this song represents slaves’ conditions in the plantations and their complaint against slavery.
Activity # 2
ResponderEliminarIt is clear that in the song “I Wonder What's the Matter", is a recount of the slaves’ daily life. As discussed in class, they woke up very early in the morning and worked long hours. In addition, they had to walk large extensions of land and after they finished working, they had to prepare food, clean themselves and go out to look for things they needed. All this was time consuming as a result, their sleeping hours were not enough; therefore, they could not rest as they should and were physically and mentally tired to start a new working day. In this song, these black slaves were able to express their suffering. It was the only way available to express their sadness and their poor living conditions.This is an example of a song that kept them moving and advancing through dreadful oppression.
Activity #3
In Langston Hughes’s poem “Bound No’th Blues”, he recreates the slaves’ lives and their trips to the north towards freedom.
Goin’ down the road, Lawd,
Goin’ down the road.
Down the road, Lawd,
Way,way down the road.
Got to find somebody
To help me carry this load.
“To help me carry this load”, to help me carry my blackness, my sadness, the oppression, the unfair situations.
Hates to be lonely,
Lawd, I hates to be sad.
Says I hates to be lonely,
Hates to be lonely an’ sad,
But ever friend you finds seems
Like they try to do you bad.
This stanza is about their loneliness and the opportunist people who might hurt him or take advantage of him because of his desperate situations.
This poem resembles the slaves’ lives in the way it deals with oppression and loneliness, and with the long trips slaves had to travel to be free in the north of the country. During these trips they would find people who would try to help them but also others who would try to capture them and return them to their masters for a monetary reward. Hughes’ style is simple and clear. He shows us that the psychological suffering is more difficult to bear than the physical one. He uses the language of slaves. The abbreviation of words and the different spellings like “Lawd” for “Lord”, are characteristic of African-American people whose roots come from their ancestors, the slaves from Africa.
Activity # 2
Eliminar“I Wonder What’s The Matter” is a sad chant of slaves’ sorrows and hardship. Having no rights at all, slaves had to spend long hours working their hearts out and had little time to rest. Through music more precisely by songs slaves expressed their sadness as a hymn against oppression. It is true that they sang about their long journeys and hardship but I strongly believe that slaves needed to sing to drown their torments, their unhappiness and in a way to reveal against the unfairness of the situation they were bound to live. This song is a clear example of how slaves expressed the sadness of their hearts.
Avtivity # 3
ResponderEliminarJames Langston Hughes was Born in Missouri and was rise by a family of abolitionist. The poem “Bound No’th Blues” clearly shows how the author was influenced by salves’ long and painful history of oppression, discrimination and horror. In a different way but very similar to slaves’ songs this African American writer touches our hearts by showing the sad and long way a lonely and already torn apart traveler, who is going from North to south, had to face as he persuades a better life. He shows how lonely and distrustful this traveler feels. Also, he shows the sad mood of the traveler by using obscure words such as hate, lonely, sad and bad but at the same time the author shows the travel strong need to find somebody, metaphorically, to help him through the long road of life. This poem with the same theme we have been discussion when analyzing slaves’ songs, the use of the language of African American people, and the simple yet so moving style is an amazing example of how slavery still an open wound.