Oyster shuckers at work
Role of Spirituals in Waterman Work
Grades K-5
Singing and making music to accompany work is a common practice that has been used by individuals and communities across the world. However, the musical choices and song selections are often unique to the specific cultural backgrounds of the laborers. African American watermen and seafood processors participated in this tradition, using music with which they were familiar to facilitate their work.
Teacher's Guide and Related Standards
Students will explore how oyster shuckers and crab pickers employed African American spirituals in the completion of their daily tasks.
- How do the other arts, other disciplines, contexts, and daily life inform creating, performing, and responding to music?
- How does understanding the structure and context of musical works inform performance?
Water's Edge Clip
- What are African American spirituals?
- Why would these seafood processing workers sing while working?
- What are the musical characteristics that make these songs good for accompanying this work?
- Why might these workers consider spirituals a logical song choice for this labor?
Supplemental Enrichment Activities
Compare and Contrast
Have students examine the similarities and differences between performances of spirituals to performances of different types of work songs. They will describe the relationship between context (in this case, the type of work), and how the type of work impacts the performance and song choice.
» Field Holler: “Cap'n Keep on Hollerin'”
Using Songs for Work
This activity will help students develop an understanding of how workers select repertoire as well as the importance of keeping a steady rhythm when selecting music for specific types of work. Have students select songs that they know (nursery rhymes, spirituals, pop songs, hip hop songs, etc.) to “test” as work songs while performing simple tasks.
Example: Students sit in a circle, each with a small plastic/paper cup. While singing their chosen song, students attempt to pass the cup to the person to their immediate right (on beat with the song). The objective is to keep passing the cups so that no one ends up with more than one cup. This exercise will likely be more impactful if multiple students know the selected songs and can sing along.
Discussion question: How does the tempo impact your performance as you complete simple work tasks?
Vocabulary