When the Europeans started importing African slaves to the new world in North America, they took plenty of measures to ensure they remained passive. They made sure to split up families as much as possible, separate tribal members so slaves wouldn't have a common language and did their best to deny them the use of anything that could be used as a drum. With the latter, they hoped to cut them off from any vestiges of culture, including religion they might have retained from their previous existence in Africa. By taking away all traces of identity, whether it be familial, tribal or cultural, they hoped to weaken any resolve they might have had for rebellion. As a final step, Europeans proceeded to convert them to Christianity in the hopes its promise of good behaviour being rewarded in the afterlife would keep them docile and compliant.
The one thing their new masters couldn't take away from them though was their voices. Over the years, the slaves developed their own culture centred around vocal music. The majority of music that evolved in this period fell into one of two categories: work songs that were sung in the fields and gospel music. These gospel hymns and field songs served the dual purpose of educating and entertaining.
While this pattern was repeated pretty much throughout the slave owning areas of North America and the Caribbean, in some of the more isolated communities unique cultures arose. While all the vocal music retained elements of the slaves' African heritage, in some areas, mainly where there was less contact with European society, more of the original culture was retained. The Georgia Sea Islands are a string of coastal islands off the Atlantic coast of the United States which stretch from South Carolina down to Florida. While the islands are today home to high end resorts, plantations used to dot these islands. The slaves who toiled there were isolated from both whites and Africans and developed their own distinct culture built around the Gullah language, a kind of mixture of Spanish, English and African dialects.
The Georgia Sea Island Singers was formed in the early 1900s by freed slaves and their descendants in an effort to preserve and educate people about their culture. However, they might not have received the attention and renown they have obtained if folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax hadn't taken an interest in them in the 1930s. They have since gone on to perform for presidents of the United States, other world leaders and some of the best known concert stages in the world. Even though Lomax "discovered" the group in the 1930s, he didn't make his first field recording of them until 1959-60. It's these recordings that are the basis for a new release from Global Jukebox and Mississippi Records, Join The Band.
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