African Music in Seventeenth-Century Jamaica

Cultural Transit and Transition

Bibliographic Data

ID3263281
AuthorsRichard Cullen Rath (corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume50
Issue4
Pages700
Publication date1993-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2947472
OpenAlexW2053908738
LanguageEN
Citations received12

EFORE i688, African slaves on southern Jamaican plantations had never seen anyone from the British Royal Society. That year, Dr. Hans Sloane left his residence at King's Hall, the governor's estate in Spanish Town, to visit sugar plantation in the interior. Sloane was not only fellow of the Royal Society but also physician and friend to the governor of the island, Christopher, duke of Albemarle. His purpose was to make field notes for his catalogue of New World plant and animal life.' For diversion, the plantation owner invited Sloane and another guest, French musician named Baptiste, to witness festival held by the slaves of the estate. To European senses, such music and revelry presented spectacle not to be missed. Although recent revolts among the slaves of nearby plantations made the owner uneasy, he, his overseer, and his guests left the great house one evening and hiked short distance down path into wooded area. They entered clearing picked clean of grass and carefully swept. In the center, two African musicians sat on logs by small fire of corn stubble, playing homemade string instruments. About dozen African men and women with Rattles ty'd to their Legs and Wrists, and in their Hands, were dancing and singing inside ring of people surrounding the fire. The others clapped or scraped sticks, shook bean pods, or beat on an iron hoe blade. Dancers and percussionists made a noise, keeping time with one who makes sound answering it on the mouth of an empty Gourd or Jar with his Hand.2 Baptiste took notes on the music and Sloane made rough

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