Workers chop the undercut on a tree in Coconino National Forest, Arizona.
Credit: New York Public Library Digital Collections

Work Songs

Essential Question:


What are work songs?

 

 

Exploring Work Songs

Since the earliest days of American slavery, African Americans have created and used many types of music to accompany and facilitate physical work. Workers used musical practices that were drawn from their cultures of origin in Western and Central African communities. White American and European observers wrote about enslaved Africans singing while working and performing several kinds of work like shucking corn, loading cargo onto ships, and rowing boats. These written accounts became more frequent in the 19th century.

While some songs performed while working were borrowed from other contexts (like religious songs), African Americans also created new songs to fit specific tasks. These task-specific songs are called work songs.

  • Can you think of reasons why workers might sing while performing a task?
  • What do you think influences which songs workers sing while working?

 

  Let's Listen

This is an example of a work song. Listen closely and you will hear men performing an “axe-cutting song.” As they sing, you will hear them mimicking the sounds of chopping down a large tree – a task that they often worked together to perform.

“Early in the Mornin'”

Unidentified Performers, Lomax, J. A. and Lomax, R. T. (1939) Early in the Mornin'.
Parchman, Mississippi. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
https://www.loc.gov/item/lomaxbib000368/.


In some instances, workers perform tasks while singing music that they have created or learned in other areas of their lives. In the following film clip from Water’s Edge: Black Watermen from the Chesapeake, you will hear a group of men performing the spiritual “Didn’t it Rain?” which they would sing while processing oysters and crabs.

Think about the following questions as you play the video:

  • Have you ever sung a song or hummed a tune while performing a task such as your chores?
  • What kind of songs do you sing or listen to while you work?