Stacey Chan

Professor B. Hogan

MHIS-221

December 10, 2020

Music and Black Liberation from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Present

Playing, writing, listening to and understanding music is a foundational aspect of the

human race. Music has been ubiquitous across human societies throughout the world for

centuries. More than 30,000 years ago, bone flutes, percussive instruments and jaw harps were

already being played by early humans. Scientific research has suggested that our enjoyment of

music is a result of our innate abilities and desires, and studies have shown that even infants

know how to appreciate and respond to musical stimuli (Weinberger, 2004). Music is

universally capable of eliciting intense emotional and psychophysiological reactions in us and

can play a vital role for survival. Music activates individual brain cells that “respond optimally

to a particular pitch or frequency, and cells shift their original tuning when an animal or person

learns that a specific tone is important,” allowing them to compile a set of neurological pathways

that will trigger a certain reaction to external stimuli that reoccurs (Weinberger, 2004). There are

mutual cognitive and perceptual mechanisms as well as shared neural pathways between musical

cognition and non-musical functions that allow access to memory and attention, and through

clinical applications of neurological music therapy, music presents itself as an avenue for

cognitive rehabilitation (Thaut, 2010). Although the earliest known reference to music therapy

and it being a scientific approach for treating emotional distress, mental disorders and

psychophysiological functioning was made in two medical dissertations by Samuel Mathews and
Edwin Atlee in the 1800s. music has proven to have had a emotionally beneficial impact on the

lives of African Americans from the Transatlantic Slave Trade era. in which millions were

forcibly transported across the Atlantic and enslaved. The displacement of cultures and the

conditions they were thrown into contributed to the emergence of African American musical

genres which beyond the surface, tell a greater story of oppression, racism, poverty, but also the

bravery and resilience that has been exhibited by African Americans in history: the Jim Crow

laws that enforced racial segregation, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and even up until today

as they continue to fight for freedom and abolition of police brutality with movements such as

Black Lives Matter. 

The Significance of Sound Interpretation

According to the Oxford Dictionary, sound is described as “vibrations that travel through

air or water and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear.” This is a succinct but

insufficient definition because it fails to address the greater purpose of sound, or more

specifically, of music. For centuries, music has played a primal role in our societies and as

humans, we are predetermined and designed to have the desire to create and enjoy it. An

appreciation for music begins at birth and studies have shown that infants respond to musical

stimuli and “have the ability to identify fundamental properties of music, such as pitch and

rhythm, with the same accuracy as musicians” (Rodrigues, 2008). In early childhood, songs are

often used as a foundational learning device for memorising the alphabet, learning the names of

the fifty states, and learning new words through nursery rhymes. Besides serving an educational

purpose, music also has a major impact on humans at an emotional and psychophysiological

level. Our auditory brains are able to decode sounds in a matter of milliseconds and gather

information that is necessary for survival. A prehistoric example would be a person hearing a
vicious roar from a lion roaming nearby and immediately retreating safety. Through adequate

exposure to the same sound and experience, their brain has learnt to recognise the roar and

interpret it as a sign of impending calamity. Just as how a scent can conjure a specific memory,

so can an auditory experience.

How the Brain Responds to Music

Music and sound activate a multitude of neurons and stimulates the brain more than any

other human function (Mannes, 2013), and is compellingly linked to the frontal lobe, temporal

lobe, occipital lobe, Broca’s Area, Wernicke’s Area, cerebellum, nucleus accumbens, amygdala,

hippocampus, hypothalamus, and corpus callosum. When the brain perceives music, the frontal

lobe, which is in charge of thinking, decision-making and planning, is activated. Similarly, the

bilateral temporal lobe, otherwise known as the “language center,” is stimulated as language and

music are interpreted simultaneously on the left and right respectively (Sugaya & Yonetani,

2017). The Broca’s Area adminsters speech production and playing an instrument or singing

enhances our ability to communicate more effectively and expressively (Sugaya & Yonetani,

2017), while the Wernicke’s Area is for written and spoken language comprehension and is

responsible for analyzing music. One noteworthy response in the brain is that of the nucleus

accumbens, which “seeks pleasure and reward and plays a big role in addiction, as it releases the

neurotransmitter dopamine,” because medical examinations and reports have discovered that

when exposed to music, patients demonstrated high levels of activity in the nucleus accumbens

which is also stimulated when under the influence of drugs like cocaine. As referenced above,

we are wired to respond to sound and music because of its ability to protect us from danger and

increase our survival rate. The hypothalamus maintains and oversees daily bodily functions that

are vital for survival such as the endocrine and nervous systems. To name just a few, the
the hypothalamus “produces and releases important chemicals and hormones in our body to

regulate thirst, appetite, sleep, mood, heart rate, body temperature, metabolism, growth and sex

drive” (Sugaya & Yonetani, 2017), proving that sound and music is a vital component in

everyday life.

The therapeutic nature and quality of music is superior because of its universality and

accessibility. The range of melodies, songs, instruments, rhythms and patterns are boundless as

every day, new songs are being created and new genres are birthed. Whether it is classical, jazz,

rock, gospel, pop, metal, neo-soul or indie etc., music has immense meaning and value to our

society. Apart from pure listening enjoyment, music is also a form of protest and has been

utilised politically numerous times over history, notably amongst Black Americans who fought

for emancipation from their slave owners, and eradication of laws that encouraged discrimination

and robbed them of their basic human rights. Over the decades, African American music has

established considerable influence on other genres of music and paved the way for new

subgenres as well. As of the twenty-first century, music with African American roots continues

to revolve around themes of liberation, and with the current rise of widespread movements such

as Black Lives Matter, music remains a crucial device for the self-expression and protest

regarding Black politics and the denunciation of racism, violence, and colonialism that continues

to be prevalent in our modern society.

Roots of African-American Music

Scholars have generally acknowledged that many enslaved Africans brought their

musical traditions to the United States (Fosler-Lussier, 2020). Historical records have shown

how some slave traders forced Africans to bring their musical instruments with them on the

ships, bringing along knowledge of West African musical instruments like the drums, zithers,
xylophones, and the banjo (Robinson, 2010). Slaves also brought along tribal dances which

evolved into “step” dances, and tribal melodies became song styles like the ring shout,

characterized by hand clapping, percussion, and movement in a counterclockwise circle (Hogan,

2020). Because of the myriad of dialects and languages spoken by African-Americans, they

adapted by employing new uses of “jargon, metaphors, and double extendre, which alloweod

them to freely express in both speech and song their feelings and worldview” (Hogan, 2020).

Another African musical tradition was to use antiphony, or in other words, the call and response

song form, a song structure in which the singer or instrumentalist performs a musical phrase

which is then replied to by another singer, instrumentalist or group (Hogan, 2020). The call and

response song structure introduced an immersive approach towards singing and encouraged team

participation. These songs facilitated community and mutual understanding, which was

especially valuable to them. Separated, oppressed, and thrown into unfamiliar territory, music

was one of very few outlets that the slaves could escape to, and even then, their access to it was

limited. Music was a form of solace; it provided a time in which the slave community could

come together and voice for hope during enslavement.

Foundational Influence of Spirituals

The myriad of slaves that were trafficked from Africa during the Atlantic slave trade

came from broadly diverse ethic communities that had their own sense of identity. The sudden

displacement and disintegration of these separate communities meant a new, unified sense of

community between these different ethnicities was formed, and this was aided by the creation of

communal music. Developing a unified identity as Africans was not an easy feat because the

slaves “identified exclusively with members of their own ethnic communities and all others were

viewed as outsiders” (Jones, 2004). Through their sudden enslavement and captivity, these
ethnic groups formed significant social bonds through their common mistreatment at the hands

of plantation owners. One of the most prominent forms of bonding between these ethnic

communities was through music and dancing. Music was tied to many aspects of life and

accompanied not just major ceremonial events such as weddings, celebrations and funerals, but

also typical daily tasks like hunting expeditions, daily rituals, and specific events such as the

arrival of a child’s first tooth (Southern, 1983). Field slaves would sing “field hollers” or “field

cries” when they worked to verbally express their anguish. The slaves would often disguise their

complaints with code words and phrases so as not to offend their master. It is believed that

slaves would also use these field hollers to alert fellow slaves of danger, and even opportunities

to escape (Fosler-Lussier, 2020).

Hidden Meanings in Spirituals: Music as a Form of Communication

Considering many slave owners bought and transported slaves according to their own

will, this often meant that many family and community groups were separated, with most

scholars describing the African experience as “one of profound dilocation for families and

communities” (Hall, 2000, p. 79). As such, while critics may challenge the survivals or

retentions of African music, scholar Kofi Agawu (2003) argues how challenging the traditional

musics that Africans brought with them to the United States implied too much passivity, and that

“Africans and people of African descent actively guarded and preserved their musical heritage”

(p. 308). Instead, many have looked to how Africans have continued to develop and adapt their

craft in the Americas, particularly in relation to initiating new musical traditions. 

Discriminated against and neglected, the slaves and their children were restricted and

limited when it came to literacy. Because they did not have access and the suitable resources for

education, they had to resort to passing down traditions, stories, music and lyrics through oral
means. Many of the slaves’ accompanied their labour with work songs that often incorporated

field hollers, and most notably ‘call and response’ chants that were tinged with falsetto whoops

referred to as ‘arwhoolies.’ They sung work songs to motivate each other and this “coordinated

their movements, lifted their spirits, enabled the slower workers to keep up, and warded off

fatigue” (Hogan, 2020). This call and response form often included a leader that would

improvise a line of text while a chorus of singers would provide a solid refrain in unison which

served to express not only the community’s faith, but also their sorrows and hopes. We can see

examples of work songs in Paul D’s Beloved:

“Lay me head on the railway line,

Train come along, pacify my mind.

If i had my weight in lime,

I’d whip my captain till he went stone blind. Five-cent nickel.

Ten-cent dime,

Busting rocks is busting time.”

Paul D was a slave who worked on a prison farm and did hard manual labour (Webber, 2020).

The work song he wrote follows a sombre and depressing tone (as expected) through the pain

and emotional distress of manual labour. These work songs gave opportunities for slaves to talk

about their masters or their overseers. Interestingly, many work song themes during slavery also

expanded into blues lyrics that developed at the turn of the twentieth-century. For example,

according to Danielle Fosler-Lussier (2020), the blues are a tradition of solo-singing that was

developed by African Americans in the United States during the mid-to-late 1800s. The blues

exhibited the effect of “highly personal expression”, and often described the hardship, sorrow

and often broken relationships experienced by many of the enslaved (Fosler-Lussier, 2020).
In 1937, Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high school teacher passionate about civil rights and acitivism,

wrote an ominous song called “Strange Fruit.” Meeropol was inspired by a photo she saw of two

African-American men who had been executed by way of lynching. The lyrics of the song

refuse to explicitly state the lynching, but effectively uses a metaphor to depict the terror and

haunting that Black communities in the South were subject to. An excerpt from the lyrics are as

follows:

“Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”

The song managed to reach renown blues singer Billie Holiday, and the stark images used in the

song reminded her of father, who had been denied proper and timely medical care because of his

race and died as a result. This is an example, though sorrowful, of how music has the power to

connect and communicate messages.

Without knowing, African-Americans have, for centuries, cleverly and innately utilised

music to combat mental, emotional and physical distress. The above are all examples of how

music has the ability to elicit emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual responses in us,

and is a tool for self-expression. Through music and singing spirituals, work songs, hymns, and

field hollers, the slaves participated in musical therapy before such a notion was even discussed,

researched or carried out. Although at the time there was no place for scientific discovery and

study regarding the psychological benefits of music, there is no doubt that the slaves experienced

healing properties from the music that they created and performed. In a 1997 study by Carol L.

Krumhansl of Cornell University, participants were played different genres of music with

varying emotional intentions, and they recorded fluctuations in heart rate, blood pressure,

respiration and other physiological measures. Each genre of music conjured different but
consistent patterns of physiological change across subjects (Weinberger, 2004), suggesting that

as humans we may be predisposed to have similar reactions to the same stimuli.

Rap and Hip Hop

African-American music has steadily evolved over the decades. From the translatlantic

slave trade came spirituals and gospel music, and by the end of the Civil War, there was a new

era – the Blues. World War I gave birth to jazz, a newer sound that stemmed from the

barbershop quartet, and expanded coast-to-coast and all over the United States, and also reaching

Europe by way of the American soliders. During the Great Migration, African-Americans

moved to northern cities and Detroit became the birthplace of a new sound with “a faster beat,

more bass, and fewer instruments” called “Rhythm and Blues,” or otherwise more well-known as

“R&B.” Eventually, by the 1980s, African-American living in these urban cities reached a

climactic level as “poverty, crime, drugs, and violence threatened to tear apart the fabric of

African-American life” (Jones, 2010). Within this emotional turbulence and disarray came the

creation of another new form of music – hip-hop. Similar to the Blues, rap was a protest and

lament against poverty, but this time it was urban, not rural poverty. Early rap also drew

similiarities with previous styles of singing such as the field holler as both were sung in the

absence of instruments. Rap music was invented in the late 1970s and its significant national

influence on music, media, and the social development of youth took off in the early to mid-

eighties (Elligan, 2000), with classifications such as gangster, materialistic, political protest, and

spiritual rap. Rap music’s influence and appeal to African American people, in particular men, is

very idiosyncratic, especially “for the way its lyrical expression represents the realities of their

lives and struggles,” (Elligan, 2000), and in the way it encompasses not only current events but

also takes into account the historical background and events that have led up to that specific
moment. Rap music is comparable to and originates from ring shouts, field hollers, call-and-

response styles of singing or spoken word. These styles of singing are similar to anthems and

incorporate some sort of repetition of lyrics. Besides rap, hip-hop music has been another

defining soundtrack of the streets and is a genre that focuses on messages of both unity and

division. Much like jazz improvisation, rap and hip-hop music also centres around freestyling

and “going with the flow,” promoting a non-judgmental environment for artists to express

themselves. As aforementioned, music stimulates numerous parts of the brain and is capable of

creating strong emotional ties within a person. The National Institute on Deafness and Other

Communication Disorders conducted a study amongst twelve professional rappers. They were

instructed to recite memorised lyrics and perform freestyle rhymes while being monitored by an

fMRI machine. The brain scans showed that during the freestyle sections, the rappers’ brain

activity displayed “unique patterns in areas relating to motivation, language, emotion, motor

function, and sensory processing, and according to the scientists’ interpretation, this suggests that

the rappers actually enter something akin to an alternate state of mind while freestyling” (Liu et

al., 2012). These findings are significant because they suggest and support the idea that music

“taps into complex creative reserves in truly astounding ways,” and is a passageway for people to

express their internal conflicts regarding pressing issues such as racism, poverty and violence

(Liu et al., 2012).

Though we are decades away from key periods such as the transatlantic slave trade and

the Civil War, the music from these eras continue to influence what we hear now, and the

overarching theme of oppression remains predominant in a lot of black music especially with the

rise of movements such as Black Lives Matter. It is important to note that music was and still is a

vital source of emotional and mental liberation for humans, and that the art that we produce is
crucial for keeping history alive. It is also important for us to acknowledge that the intricate

music and myriad of genres that we listen to today such as pop, R&B, neo-soul and rap are a

product of the many generations of African-Americans that turned to music to find their sense of

belonging and voice through music amongst dire situations.

Bibliography

Douglass, F. (n.d.). “Give Us the Facts,” from My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). The

Speeches of Frederick Douglass, 519-522. doi:10.2307/j.ctv6hp3kt.30

Elligan, D. (2000). Rap therapy: A Culturally Sensitive Approach to Psychotherapy with Young

African American Men. Journal of African American Men, 5(3), 27-36.

doi:10.1007/s12111-000-1002-y

Liu, S., Chow, H. M., Xu, Y., Erkkinen, M. G., Swett, K. E., Eagle, M. W., . . . Braun, A. R.

(2012). Neural Correlates of Lyrical Improvisation: An fMRI Study of Freestyle Rap.

Scientific Reports, 2(1). doi:10.1038/srep00834

Fosler-Lussier, D. (2020). The African Diaspora in the United States: Appropriation and 

Assimilation. Music on the Move (pp. 68-92). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

doi:10.3998/mpub.9853855.10

Galindo, G. Importance of Music. Retrieved from www.gilbertgalindo.com/importanceofmusic

Hogan, B. (2020). The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Power of Black Music.

Jones, A. C. (2004). The Foundational Influence of Spirituals in African-American Culture: A

Psychological Perspective. Black Music Research Journal, 24(2), 251.

doi:10.2307/4145493

Mannes, E. (2013). The power of music pioneering discoveries in the new science of song. New

York, NY: Walker.

Morgan, T. (2020). 11 Anthems of Black Pride and Protest Through American History. History. 

Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/black-music-slavery-protest 

Music and Health. (2011). Harvard Health Publishing. Retrieved from

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health

Robinson, J. (2010). The Evolution of African American Music. University of North Florida.

Retrieved from https://www.unf.edu/uploadedFiles/committee/AAFSA/The

%20Evolution%20of%20African-American%20Music.pdf

Rodrigues, S. (2008). Wired for Music. Retrieved from

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/wired_for_music

Southern, E. (1983). Readings in black american music. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Thaut, M. H. (2010). Neurologic Music Therapy in Cognitive Rehabilitation. Music Perception,

27(4), 281-285. doi:10.1525/mp.2010.27.4.281

Weinberger, N. M. (2004). Music and the Brain. Scientific American, 291(5), 88-95.

doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1104-88

Yonetani, A & Sugaya, K. (2017). Your Brain on Music. University of Central Florida.