Shout because you're free : the African American ring shout tradition in coastal Georgia / text and drawings by Art Rosenbaum ; photographs by Margo Newmark Rosenbaum ; music transcriptions and historical essay by Johann S. Buis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosenbaum, Art.

Contributor:

Rosenbaum, Margo Newmark.

Buis, Johann S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Georgia--McIntosh County--Social life and customs.

African Americans.

African Americans--Georgia--McIntosh County--Religion.

African Americans--Georgia--McIntosh County--Folklore.

Folklore--Georgia--McIntosh County.

Folklore.

McIntosh County (Ga.)--Social life and customs.

McIntosh County (Ga.).

McIntosh County (Ga.)--Religious life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ga. : University of Georgia Press, c1998.

Summary:

The ring shout is the oldest known African American performance tradition surviving on the North American continent. Performed for the purpose of religious worship, this fusion of dance, song, and percussion survives today in the Bolton Community of McIntosh County, Georgia. Incorporating oral history, first-person accounts, musical transcriptions, photographs, and drawings, Shout Because You're Free documents a group of performers known as the McIntosh County Shouters. Derived from African practices, the ring shout combines call-and-response singing, the percussion of a stick or broom on a wood floor, and hand-clapping and foot-tapping. First described in depth by outside observers on the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia during the Civil War, the ring shout was presumed to have died out in active practice until 1980, when the shouters in the Bolton community first came to the public's attention. Shout Because You're Free is the result of sixteen years of research and fieldwork by Art and Margo Rosenbaum, authors of Folk Visions and Voices . The book includes descriptions of present-day community shouts, a chapter on the history of the shout's African origins, the recollections of early outside observers, and later folklorists' comments. In addition, the tunes and texts of twenty-five shout songs performed by the McIntosh County Shouters are transcribed by ethnomusicologist Johann S. Buis. Shout Because You're Free is a fascinating look at a unique living tradition that demonstrates ties to Africa, slavery, and Emancipation while interweaving these influences with worship and oneness with the spirit.

Contents:

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: "We Never Did Let It Go By"

1. "Kneebone in the Wilderness": The History of the Shout in America

2. "One Family of People": The Shouters of Bolden

3. Lawrence McKiver, Boss Songster

4. The Shout Songs

Jubilee

Blow, Gabriel

Move for Your Dyin' Savior

I Want to Die Like Weepin' Mary

Wade the Water to My Knees

Army Cross Over

Happy Angel

Move, Daniel

Drive Ol' Joe

I Come to Tell You

Kneebone Bend

Pharaoh's Host Got Lost

Hold the Baby

Religion, So Sweet

Time Drawin Nigh (I See the Sign)

Read 'em, John

In This Field We Mus' Die

Eve and Adam

Went to the Burial (Sinner Rock So)

John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan

Walk through the Valley in the Field

Ezekiel Saw That Little Stone

Lay Down, Body

Watch That Star

Farewell, Last Day Coin'

Transcribers Note

Historical Essay. The Ring Shout: Revisiting the Islamic and African Issues of a Christian "Holy Dance"

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-280-49159-0

9786613586827

0-8203-4361-7

OCLC:

784959326