[PNG][[audio/mpeg]]

I'm gwine to Al-a-ba-my, Oh!———
For to see my mam-my, Oh!———

She went from ole Virginny,
And I'm her pickaninny,
She lives on the Tombigbee,
I wish I had her wid me.
Now I'm a good big nigger,
I reckon I won't git bigger,
But I'd like to see my mammy,
Who lives in Alabamy.

The negro's natural impulse for dancing seems to have found its outlet in the 'shout,' as far as the Atlantic seaboard states are concerned at least, for the Christian sects promptly stamped out the dances which were connected with primitive superstition. In Louisiana, however, the negro came in contact with a very different sort of people, the Spanish and French settlers—southern races of a more sensuous turn than the Anglo-Saxon. The musical result was the superposition of Spanish and French melody over negro rhythms—the two ingredients of the Creole folk-songs, which are to a large extent dance songs.

The warlike and lascivious dances of the African took on a more civilized form under the influence of Spanish and French culture, though they are said in some cases to have remained licentious enough. But the product has been highly influential musically. Thus the fascinating Habañera, the familiar rhythm of many a Spanish melody, is, according to Albert Friedenthal,[75] of negro origin. As its name indicates, Havana was its home and from there it spread to all Spanish and Portuguese America, the West Indies, Central and South America. 'Extended and complicated rhythms are known only where the negroes are to be found,' says our investigator. Mr. Krehbiel quotes a creole song from Martinique, built upon the Habañera rhythm, entitled Tant sirop est doux, and speaks of Afro-American songs in which the characteristic rhythm is so persistently used as to suggest that they were influenced by a subconscious memory of the old dance. Other dances of negro origin, mentioned by writers on the Antilles, are the Bamboula, Bouèné, Counjai, Kalinda, Bélé, Bengume, Babouille, Cata, and Guiouba. The term 'juba' applied to the plucking accompaniments of negro dance-songs in minstrel shows may be a derivative of the last.

In speaking of the Creole we must emphasize that the word is not properly applied to any persons of mixed stock, as has been frequently done. Creole is a word of Spanish etymology and was used to denote the pure-blooded Spanish or French native of the American colonies. But it is the negro slaves of these creoles—whom we may call black creoles (including mulattoes, quadroons, etc.)—that created the charming songs breathing the spirit of the tepid zone along the great gulf and the Father of Waters. They, too, are the creators of the patois to which the songs are set. Concerning the origin of this patois Mr. Krehbiel gives some interesting details: 'The creole patois, though never reduced to writing by its users, is still a living language. It is the medium of communication between black nurses and their charges in the French families of Louisiana to-day, and half a century ago it was exclusively spoken by French creoles up to the age of ten or twelve years. In fact, children had to be weaned from it with bribes or punishment. It was, besides, the language which the slave spoke to his master and the master to him. The need which created it was the same as that which created the corrupt English of the slaves in other parts of the country.... Thus, then, grew the pretty language, soft in the mouth of the creole as bella lingua in bocca toscana, in which the creole sang of his love, gave rhythmical impulse to the dance, or scourged with satire those who fell under his displeasure.'

The Creole songs, according to Lafcadio Hearn, are 'Frenchy in construction but possess a few African characteristics of method.' 'There could neither have been creole patois nor creole melodies but for the French and Spanish blooded slaves of Louisiana and the Antilles. The melancholy, quavering beauty and weirdness of the negro chant are lightened by the French influence, subdued and deepened by the Spanish.' Unlike the negro slave of the Virginias and Carolinas, etc., who poured out all his emotion in gospel hymn and spirituals, the black creole was especially fond of love-songs—crooning love songs in the soft, pretty words of his patois—some sad, some light-hearted. One is 'the tender lament of one who was the evil of his heart's choice the victim of chagrin in beholding a female rival wearing those vestments of extra quality that could only be the favors which both women had courted from the hand of some proud master whence alone such favors could come.'[76] Another, 'Caroline,' reveals the romance and the tragedy of the dramatic life of the young creole slaves. We quote it here, as our one example of creole tunes:

[PNG][[audio/mpeg]]