Press Enter to search or select a section to narrow results

Watch the full segment from the History Detectives Special celebrating African American contributions to music. The president of the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum in Culver City, California, recently discovered an unusual book in his late mother's extraordinary collection of African-American artifacts. The small, cloth-bound book, titled...

HISTORY DETECTIVES | Slave Songbook | PBS

Jen Fad · Friday, February 11th 2011 at 11:29PM · 733 views
Slave Songs of the United States, has a publication date of 1867 and contains a collection of 136 plantation songs. Could this be the first book of African-American spirituals ever published?

HISTORY DETECTIVES host Wes Cowan visits a music historian in Los Angeles to explore the coded messages and the melodies that laid the foundation of modern blues, gospel and protest songs of future generations. He also meets with Washington, DC's Howard University Choir for a special concert of selections from Slave Songs sung in the traditional style of mid-1800s spirituals.

Exploring historical objects and the stories behind them, HISTORY DETECTIVES crisscrosses the country, delving into legends, folklore and personal histories to discover potentially extraordinary objects in everyday American homes, cities and small towns. Watch for the new season of History Detectives premiering June 2009. For more information, visit http://www.pbs.org/historydetectives.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/

http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/
HISTORY DETECTIVES | Slave Songbook | PBS

About the Author

Jen Fad Central Jersey, NJ

Share This Article

Comments (4)

Zhana Books Saturday, February 12th 2011 at 8:43AM

Our survival is truly a triumph.

Zhana Books Saturday, February 12th 2011 at 8:53AM

This is fascinating, Jen.

I hope you will join us on What U Need to Know tonight.
http://www.blacksuccess1.com/whatuneedtokn...

Best wishes,
Zhana

Jen Fad Saturday, February 12th 2011 at 4:02PM

It is truly fascinating stuff indeed!

ROBINSON IRMA Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM

@Jen. (smile)

Post a Comment

Please log in to post comments.