Songs of Slavery and Emancipation

Dr. Kathy Bullock and Mat Callahan

In 2015 Mat Callahan discovered a song composed and sung by slaves preparing an insurrection in South Carolina in 1813. The lyrics were explicitly revolutionary and unlike any other Negro Spiritual he’d ever heard. He realized immediately that this song posed many questions: what if there were more songs like this? Why hadn’t we heard them or heard of them before? If slaves were planning an insurrection in 1813, what other revolts were there? And why wouldn’t there be songs about these revolts or rebellions? Music was obviously important to Africans enslaved in America and rebel songs would have been more likely part of their repertoire than not. These questions inspired the search that led to the discovery of more such songs and the making of Songs of Slavery and Emancipation.


This event will also be livestreamed at: https://vimeo.com/isslive