Enslaved People from Africa
Avatar: The countless enslaved people who changed history.
Born out of the oral tradition of African music. Field hollers, or work songs, were performed by enslaved Africans working on plantations as a way of communication and for entertainment to combat the tedium of field work. HULTON ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES
About The artist
Born out of the oral tradition of African music. Field hollers, or work songs, were performed by enslaved Africans working on plantations as a way of communication and for entertainment to combat the tedium of field work.
Did you know...
Enslaved Africans referred to the Big Dipper as the Drinking Gourd. It was supposedly used as a coded instruction to slaves to plan their escapes. Peg Leg Joe, who may or may not have been a real person and an operative of the Underground Railroad, has been credited with spreading the song to different plantations.
